Break a News Addiction in 30 Days
I’ve been a news junkie most of my adult life. Until this year, I never understood how watching the news was an obstacle to personal growth.
The quality of what you produce is directly related to the quality of the thoughts you allow into your mind.
Now I’m sorry to do this, but I’m only doing it to make a point.
I took a screen shot of a local news website tonight - many nights it’s much worse:
Why do I need to know this stuff? So I can stand in the cul-de-sac discussing murder with my neighbors? What is the reason to allow this negativity into my mind? None of these things are actionable, so they serve no purpose other than to anger, shock, or depress me. News gives people a distorted negative world view.
No wonder the traditional media is losing its market share. Why does news need to be violent and negative? Why not a PNN, a positive news network? Please, one of you ambitious entrepreneurs in this audience… start one!
For every one of these violent tragedies, there are a hundred stories about a people creating value and joy in other people’s lives.
Those are the stories I want to read. I want to read about people that overcame seemingly insurmountable odds to do tremendous things. I want to read about the guy who decided he wanted to golf every day, and made a business out of it. I want to hear about the woman who faced down the government regulators and opened a holistic wellness center. I want to hear about bloggers like you that are changing the world.
I don’t believe in avoiding everything that is negative, but if you can’t change something, it is better not to think about it.
For example, if you look in the mirror and see yourself as overweight, you could think about being thinner, imagine what it would feel like to be thinner, and then actively make a plan to exercise and eat healthy. You have the power to change you. If someone across the street is sick and needs you to watch their children, you can help. But watching negative news stories on television filling your mind with negative events which you have no power to change is dangerous and can lead to a sense of powerlessness and depression. Also the sensational feelings of fear these stories produce becomes addictive.
I was addicted to cable news for over ten years. I gave up news in September of 2006, when I began blogging. Occasionally I slip back (mostly reading Reditt or Stumble Upon), but mostly I learn about big news events through conversations with other people.
Scaling back consumption of news resulted in these positive things:
- More time listening to my kids
- More time listening to my wife
- Positive conversations
- Optimistic outlook
- More time to communicate with you
- Building a blog
- Building a deck
- Reading
- Writing
- Forming relationships
- Cleaning up my immediate environment - clearing the buckthorn from my property, which is an invasive non-indigenous plant
These are just a few of the results of giving up news. I don’t miss the news. It added nothing to my life or the lives of those around me.
I challenge you to give up the news for 30 days and then link back here telling us about the results. If it doesn’t create positive results, you can always go back to it if you wish, but I doubt you will.
By Guest Blogger Steve Olson - For People Pursuing Freedom
![[Post to Twitter]](http://www.alexshalman.com/wp-content/plugins/tweet-this/tweet-this-small.png)
Tweet This PostPosted by Steve Olson in Communication, Goal Setting, Personal Development | June 29, 2007 | Digg | Del.icio.us | Stumble | Print | 11 comments
LinkedIn
YouTube
Twitter
Digg
I am glad to read that someone else shares my dislike of the news. I stopped watching it a long time ago.. sometimes I’ll tune into CNN to see if anything important is going on internationally, but for the most part, I try to avoid the news for many reasons that you stated above.. i can see the impact that the news has on certain family members of mine who after watching the news everyday become fearful and somewhat paranoid to a small degree; taking precautions and not engaging in stupid activity is one thing (like not walking out at nite by yourself).. but you don’t need to hear about murders on the news to know that.. you can just use your common sense…listening to all that negativity just makes you have uneccessary fears and doubts that prevent you from having faith in the good things that can come about in life.. plus who knows if what we’re listening to is actually true- much of news is exagerrated, false, propaganda etc.. i’ll watch a half hour of Seinfeld or Friends over the news anyday..
I wanted to react to your call for a Positive News Network. It reminded me of an experiment that our local newspaper (Eindhovens Dagblad; about 150k readers) had a while back.
They took up the challenge to make a positive newspaper, bringing the news of the day in a positive way. They printed it on pink paper (as if looking to the world through pink glasses) and added it to the regular newspaper.
It sure was a lot more positive and pleasant to read, however some news just isn’t positive. They found out that when you feel compelled to find the positive twist that it actually hurt the objectivity of the news.
But reading all the positive news alongside it, was a pleasant change. So a positive news-biased network would be a great addition
I agree that negative news will only bring us a negative view about the situation. However, there are facts which can be learned in different situation. We can’t always assume that they are all the same.
It’s true that negative news give a negative effect. But how are we going to learn from them if we don’t know what went wrong? Some of it may also happen to us, but with the knowledge we acquired from watching news, we have a high chance of avoiding the same scenario.
I quit watching TV couple of years ago, and only watch occasional games by local team. I’m yet to quit dropping by news site few times a day, and I’m making progress in it. What I did is I installed RSS reader in my smartphone so I have the news in it and read whenever I’m stuck somewhere like traffic jam. This prevents me from reading the news at my desk and saves time which I’d rather spend on more productive things.
ahh come on… news ain’t that bad.. come on just try a little.. its free.. it’ll make you feel good…
…
just kidding.. good luck with kicking the habit!.. I’m not a news junkie my self, but I’m an internet junkie for sure!
i definitely agree with you, especially this year, during which i suffered a case of mild depression, i found out how news would siege whatever was left of my optimism and devour it in a millisecond.
i’d already stopped watching tv years ago, but i frequently log on to social news and social bookmarking sites, where it’s very frequent that some very gruesome and depressing stories are upvoted.
i’ve found that what i can do is simply not click on the link, although even the headlines terrorize me sometimes..
I’m sorry to hear about the depression you’re going through surfmadpig - I can see how news would add to the negativity and generally not up lift your spirit.
If you are going to be watching TV - you can filter what you’re watching and choose an uplifting DVD. You can choose to go to websites where optimism and positivity are a given on any day of the week.
I hope everything works out for you and you’re feeling better. If there’s anything you want to further discuss or you have any questions you can always feel free to e-mail me. I would be more than happy to chat with you.
I’m not quite as addicted to news itself as I am to speculation about what is coming up so I can be prepared for it. But it’s running my life. Any thoughts on how to overcome that?
So true. I am a big current affairs addict. I need to kick the bucket of this habit. Newspapers/Magazines/Websites/CNN./etc.
Looks like I need to pick up a book and give its own time.
Starting my 30 days from today so will share how it went!
Please visit my blog (also starting from today) - http://escaping-paradise.blogspot.com/
Thanks
Nathan