40 to 40: The News

I turn 40 in less than a week. I've been using the last 40 weeks as an opportunity to share 40 lessons about life.

This post I'm thinking about the news.

Let's start with the fact that I don't read the news every day, or on my phone. I stopped during the 2016 presidential primaries, where the shrillness on both (all?) sides reached a fever pitch. Unfortunately the tone hasn't changed, and so my boycott continues.

I'm not a hermit, though. I haven't checked out from society. Nor have I disengaged from the causes that I think are worthy of my contribution (whether donating my time or my money). I simply decided that I wasn't accomplishing anything by consuming news on a daily basis.

The first few months being "off news" were a little strange. Remember this was the middle of 2016. People talked to me occasionally about things that didn't make any sense because I was missing important context. Usually these topics were presented in the form of outrageous statements or questions ("Can you believe that X did Y?" or "Z should burn in hell!").

No one ever brought up a topic to learn more. Other people weren't interested in my opinion. They rarely even had the patience to take the time to answer basic questions about the event itself. They were impatient to fast forward to the part where I would be just as outraged as them. Then we could be outraged together. That, apparently, was the goal.

This back-and-forth was exhausting for everyone. I knew I had to revise my strategy or I would end up completely alienated. So I looked for "the news" but in a different format and frequency. I wanted higher quality content and I wanted it less often. After a few days of searching and asking around, I subscribed to The Week.

Thus began my news cycle for the last 6 years. I eagerly wait for The Week to arrive on Friday or Saturday, and I sit down for a very satisfying 60-75 minutes. I read it cover to cover, stopping to research something or to reach out to friends about a topic. Once I'm done, I place The Week lovingly on a growing stack of issues in my living room, and then go back to whatever I was doing.

That's it. That is what "the news" is to me. About an hour, once a week. Done.

It would be easy for someone to read this and criticize my approach. Someone could argue that it is my privilege that allows me to sporadically read the news, rather than staying continuously up to date on events at home and around the world. "Look at everything that's happening," they might say. "The Supreme Court rulings, mass shootings, the war in Ukraine, inflation. The world is going to hell and you even don't care!"

Here's my response: I do care. I care deeply, in fact. I discuss important issues with my family and friends. And I take action when that makes sense to me.

The news is actually a barrier, in many ways. Consuming news seems to be the goal for many people, rather than taking deliberate action based on what's happening. The news as presented to me through my phone (esp. social media) doesn't help me achieve any goals.

The news doesn't help me make the world a better place.

I don't need to feel outraged multiple times a day. I don't need to push the people around me to agree about every issue. I don't need to have my stereotypes reinforced by shoddy reporting and an imperative to write clickbait headlines.

Maybe doom scrolling through the news on our phones will turn out to be a useful habit. I can't imagine how or why. I'd rather embrace a more measured approach and focus on the actions I can take as a result of what I know. That comes through critical thinking and conversation with others who care about me and will lovingly disagree with me when I'm wrong.