Ugh, why can't rational people see how this is an instance of "black and white thinking" cognitive distortions?
Life isn't a binary black and white, as much as software engineers would like it to be. One side says "don't ever read the news, it causes negative moods" and the another side says "you should always read the news to keep up to date with the world".
The proper way to approach the issue is to strike a balance between consumption of news or not. The aim is moderation of information and distraction, while still keeping touch with the world.
Agreed. The whole point of news providers should be that they're filtering the "new" information down to what's actually important. But because of the engagement economy we've built, the goal is instead to make EVERYTHING sounds like critical breaking news, even when it's not.
I really hope there is some kind of replacement for the 24 hour news cycle, because otherwise society will continue to polarize.
I'm not sure that a balance is generally possible without paying significant sums.
On the rare occasions that I do read news articles I find them shallow, meandering and less informative than they should be.
I used to read The Economist and found their reports useful. But that comes at a considerable cost. So the easier option is to just forgo news altogether.
Life isn't a binary black and white, as much as software engineers would like it to be. One side says "don't ever read the news, it causes negative moods" and the another side says "you should always read the news to keep up to date with the world".
The proper way to approach the issue is to strike a balance between consumption of news or not. The aim is moderation of information and distraction, while still keeping touch with the world.