8 Reasons To Stop Watching The News

I made a conscious choice quite some time ago that, in the famous words of Mark Twain (often attributed to Denzel Washington) If you read the newspaper you’re uninformed. If you do read the newspaper you’re misinformed. With that in mind here’s 8 reasons to stop watching the news that made me switch off.

“Poor sleep pattern may be early sign of Alzheimer’s”

Does that headline look familiar to you? I saw one just like it in a paper recently and I really had to stop myself from laughing out loud in the middle of a packed train.

The statement itself is so vague and if you read the papers on a regular basis you’ll see dozens of those kinds of headlines. I ignore a large portion of them. Why?

The trouble is with a headline like that is 3 fold:

1. The validity of the claim is negated when a word like ‘may’ is you used.
2. The headline itself is designed to scare people into reading the article.
3. Although based on research. If you often read to the end of articles it will often end with the words “although not conclusive”.

I always take articles like that with a huge pinch of salt as on a weekly basis you’ll see contradictory headlines. One week you’ll see a headline that says ‘chocolate is great for you’ and the next week you’ll see one that says ‘chocolate is the primary cause of diabetes’ etc.

Whether it’s articles about the gloomy economy, impending disasters, or which celebrity is seeing who. Most of the time I turn myself off from the news.

This is the point where I make a confession. When creating a title for an article, naturally, I try and come up with something eye-catching; a title that will grab attention and will make people want to read the article.

I like to think I’m providing you with some solid information. Something concrete that’s going to provide you with some actual benefit rather than it being just something of a time pass. Most of the work I post is based on things I’ve tried and had results with.

I’ve ignored the majority of the news for the past couple of years and I fully intend to continue doing so. I do skim the headlines to find the ones that are relevant and worth reading. An example of that would be a story about an inventor recently that came up with a brilliant invention that made him lots of money.

I find stories like that fascinating because 1) it’s true and 2) you often get to see the results, perhaps in a supermarket or on the web in the form of a product.

Need more convincing?

Here are my 8 reasons to stop watching the news on T.V. or reading news stories online.

1. Most news is sensationalist. The first few lines are there to grab you and then you get the full story and realise it wasn’t really all that bad.
2. No news is good news and so you’re constantly being bombarded with negativity.
3. A large portion of the news is one sided and so you don’t get really get an objective PoV. It can also skew your bias and create animosity.
4. Reports like the example above are based on research which is usually incomplete.
5. The news is designed to scare you into believing it’s true.
6. Articles about health are very contradictory and so you if you watch them carefully for a month you’ll see at least 2 or 3 conflicting reports.
7. Most of the real stories are hidden away in the middle pages.
8. Watching and reading the news will take you away from what’s really important. I.e. being grateful and being mindful.

I found someone who agrees with me on why we should stop watching the news. Check out this Ted Talk from Rolf Dobelli and then make up your own mind!