
Ask HN: How do you deal with constant requests to be outraged? - gtirloni
It seems like every other day there&#x27;s some major news and people want to gather support for their cause by getting more people outraged, etc. Often for very valid reasons.<p>However, one can feel numb with the constant flow of outrage-invoking news. How do you handle this? Do you engage? Ignore?
======
auslegung
I try to mostly ignore everything that I don’t physically interact with in a
given month. That tends to focus me on my family, church, work, friends, and
hobbies. I simply cannot care about everything, no matter how much I want to,
no matter how noble they are.

------
gitgud
If it doesn't personally affect you or anyone you know, it's not worth getting
outraged.

Although if you feel like you care about the issue, then try and look at all
sides to the story and you'll notice the outrage diminish as you reflect on
all perspectives/motivations and circumstances of the people in the issue...
you'll become objective and calm towards the issue, much like a supreme court
judge.

------
shoo
Various people argue that one should go on an "information diet". Focus on
consuming information that is actionable or likely to be valuable in 1 year,
10 years.

Eg stop reading the news, read non fiction books from the library instead
about useful topics, read a history book every 10 years to catch up on current
events...

------
alexmingoia
If it’s not adding value to your life, get rid of it. For me that includes the
mainstream news. Subscribe to content that interests you via newsletter or
RSS. Disengage from content that isn’t enriching your life.

------
matt_s
Think of most major news networks as advertisement companies, inclusive of
their "news" broadcast. The outrage is there to get people to watch the ads.
Social media is just a step more, they want the outrage because it causes
reactions and commentary which drives page views. They don't care what the
outrage is about.

BBC news tends to have more actual reporting and less outrage but even they
have stupid stuff on their home page like "Have Gender Reveal parties gone too
far?"

~~~
jolmg
I think OP probably means the stuff going on at StackExchange and Gitlab. It's
not companies that want you to be outraged to increase profits, but rather
community members that want to gather support for change in the platforms they
frequent.

------
avb333
Sometimes you just acknowledge that this is not something worth your time,
take a couple of deep breaths and regain focus. You can try out this exercise
as well [https://howitzer.co/category/fix-
stuff/](https://howitzer.co/category/fix-stuff/)

------
tmaly
Tune out the news as much as you can. I think Tim Ferris had a part in his 4
Hour Work week to address this.

Focus on what you can change in the world, focus on providing value and
creating things.

