Stop Watching The News, Read Books Instead
Avoid the fear-bait trap
Did you know… You’ve been tricked?
You believe it is important to watch the news to stay updated on the world’s current events.
There was truth in this, a few decades ago, but times have changed.
Now, the news is designed to make you miserable, not informed.
I want to make a bold suggestion. Instead of watching the news, read books.
I’ll explain simply why this will help you keep your peace of mind, without you missing out on anything (worth your time).
Why the news sucks
A few years ago, those who run the media came to a major realization.
Fear sells.
It is far more likely that you pay attention to things that scare you compared to things that make you happy.
Due to losing revenue and viewership to the internet, they started pushing heavier on fear-driven stories.
On top of that, in an effort to stay relevant on the growing internet, they realized that scary headlines get more clicks, and for them, the more clicks = more ad revenue. So, not only do their headlines tend to exaggerate stories, they’re often misleading.
Now, you often end up stuck paying attention to some random story about a flood in a part of the world that does not affect you, instead of the troubles (or happy moments) that do.
Before you say something about how the stories across the world matter, let me make my point clear.
There are far too many terrible events. I wish none of them would happen at all.
I’m not saying you shouldn’t care about tragedies. I’m saying you only have the bandwidth to take in so much.
Filling your mind with tragic stories regularly is a bad idea, but that’s exactly what the news is trying to do.
They’re stealing your peace of mind.
What happens when you cut the news
I know, I know, some stories matter to you, and you want to stay updated.
Here is my challenge…
Go without the news for a couple of weeks and see how much it affects you. I’m willing to bet that you will barely notice (aside from the gained sanity).
This is what will happen:
When something major happens, someone in a group chat or at work will ask you if you heard what happened.
You will say no.
And then, you will be informed of what happened.
90% of the other stories you would have heard about in your 1 hour of watching the news will go untalked about because they simply don’t matter.
Let’s get real.
Do you really need CNN to tell you about some random thing Trump said for 40 minutes.
After his presidency, you will realize that 99% of those things didn’t affect you at all.
Why you should read books instead
If you zoomed out over 1 year and checked the top news stories to see which ones affected your life, it would be minimal.
You’d get grossed out by how much time you spent worrying about the most random stuff.
Books, on the other hand, are written after the fact.
This means that not only are they written about what mattered, but they’re written about what actually happened.
What do I mean by that?
Let’s take the moment Elon Musk bought Twitter, for example.
Every single news outlet was talking about how it would never be able to operate under him. Most predicted it would shut down within 3 months.
Today, it’s operating with a fraction of the staff and is better in numerous ways.
Yet, the news was convinced Twitter wouldn’t exist.
If a book were released today (a couple of years later), you’d know the truth… He added amazing new features, made it operate better with 80% less staff, and added AI to the product.
The same applies to every news story, even when it comes to war.
One alternative
I have one solution to help you stay updated on specific topics.
Download X and make a specific “list”. A list is a feature that allows you to make a custom feed.
You can pick the specific accounts you want to follow based on a topic and add them to your list to stay updated.
You can also just follow someone else’s lists instead. I’ve done this with lists on war and on AI.
If there is breaking news, I can check my lists, and not only does it trim the garbage, but it’s also more updated than the media.
Regaining peace of mind
Peace of mind is the key to happiness. If you are getting bombarded by all the tragedy around the world, that is taken from you.
Freeing yourself from the news allows you to regain control of your attention and ultimately reestablish peace of mind.
You’ll be much happier.
Thanks for reading