Lack of exposure
February 27th
I severely limit my exposure to current news and media stories. It is by choice and on purpose. For years, I was a news junkie and was addicted to constant feeds of news and opinions and happenings everywhere — from my neighborhood to the most remote places in the world. I needed to be informed and to know and to let everybody know what I know. I was an insufferable know-it-all. But I suffered as well. It was all too much. Especially when I realized that I am getting my news from sources that I already agree with, and I am in the so-called “echo chamber” and decided to check also the news and opinions from the other side. I was constantly on my phone — from walking up to delaying going to sleep because I needed to read one more story, one more opinion piece, one more thread on a particular subject.
About a year ago, I realized I cannot go on like that. I was getting winded up more and more. I was getting constantly angry or catastrophically despondent. And I stopped. I was surprised by how easy it was. There were no withdrawal pains, no nagging thoughts, and no anxiety that I was missing something. Of course, I still get my news, but in a condensed form — where I scan the headlines to see what is of interest to me and then make a decision about which source I will use. I stick to just the news providers — Reuters, AP, and Financial Times. I have given up already on sources like BBC or NYT — there is too much of an idiotic wokeness and bias there. I don’t read any opinion pieces or follow comments for any news story. My social media presence is minuscule. I feel much more at peace, a lot more relaxed, and I have A LOT more time.
More time for expanding my exposure to ideas and thoughts and in-depth studies of things that already were. Things that happened, that might have influenced our current predicaments and can be analyzed from different angles and points of view with calm detachment. I think I am getting smarter from this kind of exposure. Definitely, I am getting more ideas and knowledge that I use as a starting point for more research. And unquestionably, I am getting more pleasure from that switch of outside news and media exposure.
But I also feel that I am getting sadder and resigned to a role of an impotent observer. Whatever I see around me and around the world is not really new. It has already happened in the past. The actors and names change, the roles and actions don’t. We are sentenced to repeat the same circles from generation to generation. And that will not change as long as insatiable greed for power and money will determine human worth. I hope that we can be better than that, but it seems, with every new day and every new news cycle, that we are bound to repeat the same mistakes and condemn future generations to do the same. That vicious circle keeps going around and around, and it only gains more speed. I guess the blood and tears of innocent people are good lubricants, and there never will be a lack of those.
