Following on from an idea I first read about in “The Black Swan”, I’ve just been reading an interesting article outlining fifteen reasons why news is bad for you, and should be avoided. Rolf Dobelli’s argument is that by following 24 hour rolling news about everything in the world, we are distracting ourselves from more interesting and relevant information.
We may even be changing the way our brains are wired; training ourselves to want more news, more often. Reducing our attention span. Limiting our ability to read and digest long form thoughtful content about interesting and important topics.
I will leave you to read the article for yourself as I’m not sure I could summarise it appropriately. The twitter link I followed précised the content as a list of the 15 reasons, which, to my mind, misses the point slightly. Especially as the article starts off…
This article is the antidote to news. It is long, and you probably won’t be able to skim it.
Via Tim Harford