
Ask HN: How do you read the news without getting depressed? - aerovistae
I don’t want to stop following the news for fear of not knowing what’s going on, but I’m finding that reading the daily news leads my thoughts into a dark place of dwelling on all the miseries I’m powerless to fix.<p>How do you do it?
======
iso1337
I try to not read that much news and instead try to read books.

The quality of the news is decreasing to Facebook/reddit levels and designed
to increase engagement by preying on your emotions. It’s much like marketing.

The book Factfulness by Hans Rosling has some good thoughts on this - mostly
the world is getting better, but the news has to sell ads, which means telling
dramatic stories.

If something is truly important, I’ll find out about it somehow (word of mouth
etc).

That’s not to say I don’t skim the headlines once in a while, but let’s face
it, it’s not really my job to know what is going on 24/7, so why worry about
it?

~~~
rktkrnfbjrkdkd
> The quality of the news is decreasing to Facebook/reddit levels

News doesn’t try to be objective anymore. Nowadays almost all tv hosts show
their bias outright, even though they might invite people from the other side.

It’s sometimes like watching a daytime talk show. I just started ignoring
anything news related lately on YouTube and reddit, and I can feel my
negativity decreasing.

~~~
iso1337
Many of the article titles on Bloomberg etc seem to have turned into clickbait
in the last few years. I suppose that’s what works for driving clicks or maybe
I have just wised up to it as I grew older.

I remember a 10th or 11th grade English class (US public school) where they
brought in a guest journalist. She basically told the class that readers would
rather read about the story of a family who went through a tornado rather than
stats about how fewer people are dying from tornados... so I suppose things
haven’t really changed.

------
askafriend
You don’t have to know everything that’s going on. It won’t change your life
and you often won’t have the means to affect the situation.

For example, I don’t know what’s going on in New Zealand. I’ve heard vague
things about the shooting from people talking about it but I’m not even going
to bother looking it up.

People die every day for depressing reasons. This is just another event that
is only differentiated by the fact that it captured the attention of a Western
audience.

Instead, I’m focusing on other things that I’ve already decided need my time.
Don’t let the news set your agenda. You can be informed on a slower cadence
despite what people and the 24/7 news factory would want you to believe.

~~~
throwaway8879
You make a very good point. Also, time gives us a saner perspective to view an
event with, without attachment to emotions and impulsive thoughts. I am very
much in agreement with what you said. I don't mind reading about something 6
months later.

Short of an armed overthrowing od the government where I live, or aliens
attacking, or an asteroid hitting the planet, I don't see how instantly
knowing the "news" helps me keep my peace if mine.

~~~
kossae
It also gives time for the media themselves to work out “the news”. Oftentimes
if you follow a story, it goes through many cycles before it gets to the
actual truth. Delaying consumption here is actually beneficial from a
time/cost perspective, too.

------
chad_strategic
Some random thoughts...

I still listen to NPR. It seems to be slightly tame / a little bit liberal. (I
need to listen to something during the day, as I'm a programmer in an open
office.)

I read Bloomberg Business week,(actual paper edition) cause it's a little more
business orientated and I don't see a big political agenda.

I have a kindle that is probably 6 years old, with limited features. I think
it is awesome because I can just read a book and not accidentally click on a
website...

I have stopped checking news sites, or have reduce it significantly.
Zerohedge, splinternews...

What has helped the most, removing Facebook in 2010 and then twitter in 2017.
That has been a relief and I feel as a burden has been lifted from me. Just
cause I can, doesn't mean that I need to know what everybody thinks about a
particular issue.

I also go to the gym for the sole purpose of getting away from the computer
and phone. I rarely, use my phone while in bed. From dinner time to when my
son goes to bed (about 3 hours) I put my phone away completely. I personally
believe that the phone addiction is part of the problem with the 24 hour news
cycle.

I don't have cable tv

------
okaleniuk
In 2014 I've found myself trapped in Eastern Ukraine under Russian occupation.
We had both Ukrainian and Russian news available, and I've learned three
things from this experience.

1\. The defending side never knows what's going on. If they know, they prevent
it with available countermeasures, and there is nothing to make news from.

2\. The offending side always uses the knowledge they have for propaganda. If
they don't, it's because their news-making activities have been successfully
prevented by the defending side.

3\. Never spill the third thing if you don't want to start a needless flame
war.

I don't watch the news since then.

------
agentofoblivion
It’s important to consider what “the news” is. Pre-cable TV, it was 30 minutes
a night to summarize everything in the world. As I understand it, it was
closer to a public service than profit-seeking content.

Cable news changed everything, because then there was all day news, and
competition between news sources. To succeed, it’s about engagement, not
education. This has become amplified with the internet. All of the incentives
are in place to manipulate you with emotional triggers and take advantage of
your sympathies to get your clicks.

Not only does this not keep you “informed,” it actually helps give you an
incorrect worldview that’s overly pessimistic.

To get a much better understanding of the world, and how to navigate this sort
of media coverage, read the book Factfulness. It’s a much better use of your
time and it turns out that the world is a much different place than the
narratives you find in clickbait.

------
mntmoss
I try to add more structure to how I do things these days. It was not that
long ago that I could just sit around for hours on social media, but it helped
to have life goals that pulled me away from that.

I am only really aware of news in a few enthusiast areas, where it's
effectively a source of entertainment, and a bit of local news(and then mostly
headlines). When I need to be informed about something(e.g. elections), then
it is a research project like in school. My experience with news is that the
more you try to "understand" events by consuming news product, the more you
get drawn in to a manufactured story of some kind(whether it's "scene drama",
conspiracies, apocalyptic fears or ineffectual radical causes). But boring
news - demographic statistics, business summaries, legislation, and so forth -
contains all the whispers of the truth, all the facts that we very loudly
obscure under public dialogue.

To create the world I want to live in, I must actively live in a way that
creates that world, which means managing who I am and how I behave, and
discarding parts of the rat race, while not going to full hermit/off-grid
mode. Letting my grip on things loosen to play is OK, but I have to put myself
in a situation where I'm not just looking for random stimulation and grabbing
whatever works.

------
emit_time
Stoicism:

Focus on the things you can control.

Also, try to limit your exposure to the news, be deliberate about how much
information/spam/whatever you are bombarded with on a daily basis.

~~~
lukeHeuer
This podcast episode is a good introduction to the ideas directly relating to
stoicism and news:
[https://soundcloud.com/goodfortunecast/episode-6](https://soundcloud.com/goodfortunecast/episode-6)
\- it's on iTunes as well.

------
pasabagi
Don't read the news. It has nothing to do with what's going on. Actual
history, big trends and really significant changes, usually show up in journal
articles. The news is just a cycle of stories about people that people think
are important. If you read the news from 1914, it tells you almost nothing
about 1914, aside from what seemed interesting at the time, with a side-dish
of nonsense.

If you hear about something contemporary that interests you (terrorism,
brexit, war in yemen, etc) take the time to research it properly. Even
wikipedia is much more information-dense than any but the best newspaper
articles.

------
miesman
I stopped reading/watching the news in the late 90s. I started by not reading
the news for a day to see if there was anything important I was missing. Then
a week and then a month. I pretty much realized anything important would
filter though. For example I found out about 9/11 the morning it happened
because it was in a huge font on yahoo's homepage (this was before they had
news on the front page). For me I've decided I'm much better off. I'm not
wasting a bunch of time on things I can't do anything about.

------
HissingMachine
Maybe you should screw your head right. What is so depressing about the news?
Journalism has always been about sensationalism and clickbait, but for every
depressing news, there are dozen little victories that the press ignores. We
live in an age of unprecedented prosperity and the future trajectory is
looking promising on multiple avenues. Millions of people will be lifted from
poverty, hundreds of diseases will be eradicated, more and more people are
getting connected globally and many things are affordable and will be
increasingly so during your lifetime. We are sending rockets to space so
casually that it's becoming mundane even to a layperson. Don't get me wrong,
sure we are facing serious stuff on many many avenues, but you have to
understand the scale and nature of everything that is going on. News only
covers the wafer-thin cross-section of the global experience, and even then
they just cover the fumbles and foibles.

Maybe what I'm saying is that you have to balance your diet with the awesome
heroics that people constantly do and broaden your view of what is actually
happening around the world. I don't have a simple answer to this, but what I
can suggest is that maybe you look for science and engineering news, there
might be positive sources for the developing human condition other than trashy
journalism.

~~~
towaway1138
From my perspective, news has become far more angry and vicious in the last
couple of years. Writers who in the past were more or less kindly and factual
(if sometimes a bit goofy) have started putting out really hateful stuff. It's
shocking and, yes, depressing.

~~~
HissingMachine
I moved from general news to specific news a couple of decades ago, mainly
because I was in an opportune position to see how the general news just tend
to attack something they have really thin knowledge but hold as absolute
truth. This was back in the late 90s and even if the more specific news
outlets that had the expertise and knowledge to explain and educate, would
later come to "fix the holes" it was pretty much pointless since the majority
of people would just ignore facts because the story was already told.

News has been angry and vicious for a long time, maybe it's just now starting
to hurt everybody due to public exposure by social media, the vicious crews
can now attack anybody who has a public surface, and everybody has public
surface thanks to social media.

------
tim333
Follow Stephen Pinker's stuff, and remind yourself that the world is getting
better and more peaceful but the media is just getting better at streaming
what bad stuff is still happening direct to you. eg
[https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/19/science/steven-pinker-
fut...](https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/19/science/steven-pinker-future-
science.html)

------
PaulHoule
Don't read the news.

------
jryan49
Why do you need to know "what's going on"? I've gone off grid for a month, and
come back and realized that all the news I wasn't reading didn't affect me at
all!

If you really need to "know", I suggest putting a reminder on your calendar to
check Wikipedia current events [0] page once a week. And make a rule to not
check it at any other time.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portal:Current_events](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portal:Current_events)

------
hpcjoe
Understand that "news" is a filtered set of "information" packaged for maximum
impact in minimum time. For those in the "news business" they are there to get
eyeballs, clicks, etc. for profit or world view support motives.

Basically I am noting that all "news" is filtered, edited, and often
creatively rewritten. This is to maximize the likelihood of a particular
desirable audience segment to interact with it.

So, yeah, I try to ignore pretty much all of it at this point. I skim some
breaking news blogs/aggregators to see if anyone has started a war, or if
there are disasters anywhere.

But I've learned to take everything "news" I read with a kg or two of salt.
Its worse in science, where creative writing distorts actual discussions. The
whole "IBM quantum computer went backward in time" bit from a few days ago is
a perfect example of how wrong something can go by ignoring the language given
to the reporter/PR firm, and replaced with a more creative exciting
(in)equivalent paragraph. This is just one of a plethora of examples, but the
point is, you generally cannot rely upon information content being accurate in
the vast majority of writings.

I am sorry I am so cynical on this, but honestly, you'll feel much better if
you stop reading the "news".

Note: scare quotes "" intentional.

------
bfuller
The principle of Despair-meme is simple, it is transmitted in the form of
signals that simultaneously carry a danger and the impossibility of resisting
it. For example: an endless stream of bad and terrifying news in public media,
aggression from people in a higher position in the social hierarchy, nagging
people who cause discomfort at the level of empathy, but not taking advice to
solve problems, etc. Since the resulting stress is unsolvable, a closed cycle
of self-reflection is created, producing stress and a feeling of helplessness,
prompting a person to search for an accessible target for their sublimation
and send the same signal to someone else. When the external signal ceases to
function, the consciousness continues to paranoidly seek out any signs of a
similar danger and inventing threats where there are none. So the meme of
helplessness auto-stimulates itself. Thus, any new and unusual information
will be perceived with suspicion.

Increased exposure to Despair-meme can also lead to apathy and paranoia. And
this is just one of the well-known memetic hazards that the explorer of
reality-tunnels should fear. Filter-bubbles and their habits to notice only
useful things in your everyday life will also significantly reduce your
chances of getting out of the pattern.

------
rchaud
I would suggest, first and foremost:

\- Don't read the comments. If you are on FB/HN/Reddit, you are not coming
across news organically, but rather from a feed that is based on a black box
of votes and engagement metrics. You open the comments thinking you'll be
talking to people with a broad range of views, and that will rarely happen.

\- Comments on political topics are doubly exhausting to consume, as you are
processing not just the article's thesis, but also the volume of comments,
many of which are often phrased in a "Debate me!" way, that's not conducive to
learning something new or changing your viewpoint on something.

\- Slow, long form news >> live feed news. Internet browsing has changed as
the medium adapted to consumption of news on mobile. Everything is excessively
short so its easily consumable and (ugh) shareable, and the trickle of
articles with limited net-new information makes you think you need to be
online all the time to keep up. You don't. Subscribe to a newspaper and read
the daily edition at your leisure. With the daily edition you'll get a
discrete amount of content that's time-bounded, whereas the web edition has no
beginning and no end, and can feel impossible to keep up with.

------
kull
Listen to things like the marketplace or NPR podcasts. They focus on business
and deliver things in a fun educational way. Don’t read mass media terror
news.

------
growlist
You don't say where you are, but here in the UK at least there are weekly
publications that give a summary of the week's news. Good thing there is that
the terseness mandated by compressing a week's news into a page or two forces
them to focus more on the facts, rather than pushing the publication's
political doctrine (which depressingly seems to be the case in the MSM).

------
alan_n
I'm assuming you mean like current events news? I don't. If something
important happens, I'll probably find out through osmosis. I'm stressed enough
by things I can't control, why would I willingly subject myself to something
that I know makes me stressed/depressed? Same reason I mute all notifications
and only check them once/twice a day. If there's real emergency I'm going to
get a call.

Not that I don't read any news, I just don't follow it, and try to avoid that
type of news. I follow sites/blogs about things that interest me (arts, tech,
science) and regarding political/philosophical stuff I read books. Sometimes I
might be curious about some event (current or historical), in which case I'll
go to look for the information I want to know from several different sources
or if it's far back enough to have some books about it, get a book or two. For
current news this is usually more than a few days after the event so info is
also more accurate.

------
morningmoon
Do you really have to read it?

If you must:

\- Choose an rss reader and curate your own sources.

\- Read long-form news periodicals instead of the daily news, which tend to be
less toxic.

------
slap_shot
One thing I think a lot people are pretty bad at is filtering content. We're
overloaded with content now, and I hear a lot of people saying "X is bad
because there's bad content" where X can be Hacker News, Reddit, Twitter the
news, etc.

I've never really understand that, because it discounts the fact that there is
enormous value in every medium, you just have to skip the bad stuff.

I don't even notice that I do it, but hearing that made me realize how quickly
I scan any of those media and just cherry pick the content I find valuable.

Maybe I'm just not as curious as other people, but I feel no obligation to
read or look at something if it fails a 2 second gut check of "does this add
value to my life?" No doubt, I probably skip a lot of good stuff, but I'm fine
with the false negatives if I feel like I'm getting the valuable stuff I want
frequently enough.

------
xemdetia
Things aren't happening as fast as 24/7 cable news needs to fill hours. It is
a lot easier to pick an half hour to pick articles and a half hour in the
evening than be consumed by it. For better or worse Google news is still
valuable to me for putting multiple headlines side by side and the difference
in intent can be enlightening in its own way.

Another thing is especially in the last five years or so the number of
pointless articles that do not inform or do real anything that end up as news
just is too high. The article that is third or fourth to the post can be 100x
more valuable in actually showing references or deeper analysis. It's ok to
put the news on hold to stop eating your time/money. Also ditch 95% of opinion
articles as hopeless.

------
Havoc
I don’t. For exactly the reasons you describe. It’s just downright ridiculous
how much “bad news sells” has taken over. Worse click bait designed to trigger
people is everywhere.

So headlines aside I just don’t bother anymore

------
XaoDaoCaoCao
Realize that you're a little fish in the larger scheme of things AND realize
that your sense of moral calculation might be obselete if it tries to evaluate
things beyond your local ken.

To paraphrase Nietzsche, work on your garden away from the storm of life. The
world is merciless to phenomenal entities and it won't bend to your self-
indignation.

------
ahub
The book "Amusing Ourselves to Death" by Neil Postman presents an helpful idea
to deal with it : information-action ratio. Basically, news about things you
can do nothing about are not news, they are noise. After reading the book, I
started selected my news source based on that ratio. Now I only read tech news
and local news.

------
contravariant
Don't try to shoulder every single problem in the world.

Atlas isn't merely a mythological figure he's a cautionary tale.

------
w4tson
I can recommend the Farnam Street blog. It has an excellent article on this
subject.

It may be what you need

[https://fs.blog/2013/12/stop-reading-news/](https://fs.blog/2013/12/stop-
reading-news/)

------
Adamantcheese
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mean_world_syndrome](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mean_world_syndrome)

Don't think that because all you read is bad that the world is bad.

------
slugg0h
I've put myself on a strict diet of no news, and I feel way better. It's way
too easy to get weighed down by things you really can't do anything about. It
was killing me.

Hope you're doing better!

------
notjustanymike
Study history, and realize that the world used to be so. much. worse.

------
stuaxo
I read a lot less of it than I used to.

Most items are covered many times a day.

------
nisuni
[http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/hatethenews](http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/hatethenews)

------
ludicast
Anarchism.

Seriously.

Once you embrace the chaos, all of the toxicity is practically pornographic.

Tragedies are sad though. Just take comfort that they are less frequent all
the time.

------
unknownkadath
I'm pretty wound up about the responses in this thread, so I'm going to come
across a little hot, but it is not directed at you. You are asking a very
important question, and you deserve a decent attempt at an answer.

First things first: everyone telling you to run away and do nothing is wrong.
It's fine to limit your exposure to the World Wide Skinner Box and all,
especially if it is eating all your free time, but disconnecting entirely is
not the answer.

The word "idiot" comes to us from ancient Greece. “Idiotes” (ΙΔΙΩΤΕΣ) was a
word used to describe people who abdicated their civic duties and stayed
entirely absorbed in their own lives. Yes, it was meant as an insult. It still
is, but it used to, too.

Your problem is that you aren't an idiot.

The best thing you can do is go out and act on these feelings. Getting stuck
in a loop of "Read, refresh, despair" absolutely sucks. It makes a person feel
so helpless. It's the worst.

The trick is to realize that you aren't actually helpless. Sure, you can't
personally convince everyone in your country that maybe they shouldn't (for
example) throw away democracy, nor can you expect to solve world hunger all
alone. The biggest problems can't be solved all in one go by an individual.
This can be hard to admit, especially for we folks who grew up reading sci-fi
competency porn, but the first step to feeling better about your place in the
world is to be honest about what you can do from a standing start. You're only
human, and that's OK.

But still, you can act, and in a big way. How? What you CAN do is apply the
same skills you use in programming to the big problems, i.e. break down the
problem of your choice into smaller pieces that you CAN realistically attack.
Then, pick a promising problem fragment and budget time, say 3-5 hours a week
to start with. Don't try to do too much, especially at first, lest it become a
huge burden that you resent. You still need to have time for fun stuff like
visiting friends and wrecking noobs on your favorite war-themed hat simulator.

The easiest way to do this (in my personal experience) is to find a local
cause to attach yourself to. You can absolutely make a huge difference in your
local space. Bonus points if you can use your particular skill set to help,
that's a substantial multiplier!

Does a local charity you like run their entire operation off of a 12 year old
Dell Opteron running Windows Vista? BOOM, you can help!

Local political campaigns are just getting started, and getting in now will
give your opinions more weight inside the campaign organizations since you'll
be getting in on the ground floor. Does a local candidate need help managing
their data operations via VANS/whatever the Republicans use? Could you run for
something? BOOM, there you go!

Hell, it may be enough to find a meetup of people who drink (beer or coffee)
and worry about the same things you do. History has loads of examples of great
stuff that has come from sharp people hanging out in bars and cafes and
shooting the shit (Bar napkins can be used for way more than physics
problems!). Plus, you might get some new friends, which is also great for
pulling yourself out of the aforementioned dark places all on its own.

If your experience matches mine, you'll feel loads better having put your
shoulder to the burden and pushed. You won't be a bystander anymore. Agency is
a currency that feels like solid gold, my friend. It won't make things not
suck, not immediately, but you'll be doing your part, and that'll go a long
way.

------
vucevodum
Read [https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/](https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/)

------
blablabla123
When I was undergraduate student I was spending 2-3 hours a day consuming
politics in a wider sense. Of course this included daily news but also longer
magazine articles and documentaries. Maybe that's just me but oftentimes when
I see how people have much more bad lives than I do, I don't feel so bad
anymore.

Oh and daily news is often presented in a very boring way, you don't have that
so much with in-depth articles or even books about politics, those are
sometimes even written in an ironic way. (Stating the obvious but probably it
also makes sense not to read too many right wing sources with an aggressive
sentiment - although as a proper democrat one should cross read. Still,
reading a little tabloid stuff can be really funny btw.)

------
jrnichols
i changed my primary news feed to Microsoft News. As silly as it might sound,
they've done a way better job than others of putting positive news articles in
the feed. When I was using Google News, which I can only assume tailored news
to my previous viewing habits, I kept coming up with the same types of angry,
depressing, divisive topics. Microsoft has more mainstream sources, the
occasional outlier, and more "good news" stories.

If I want deeper topics, I know where to look. I started looking at more tech
news, but i stray away from sites that insisted on getting more and more
political. I get really burnt out on the constant anti-Trump mentality.

Oh, and quit using Facebook. Curtailing facebook usage alone helped me out a
lot.

------
jplayer01
I don't.

------
basementcat
I get my news from HN.

