News Hiatus

I have been toying with the idea for some time, as I started noticing the time I spend reading the news could perhaps be better spent on other things. The last straw was the disappointing results of the last parliamentary election in September, after which I resolved not to actively follow the news, not only from Slovakia but all kinds of news.

However, I did follow tech and AI-related news. I also did not actively try to prevent the news from reaching me, for example, in discussions with friends or overhearing the news from public radio.

Observations

One of the tangible results was gaining some time, which I used to spend reading the news or listening to news-related content. I did manage to redirect some of it usefully -- e.g. reading more blogs -- but definitely not all of it.

My mind is in some sense more free, as the images or voices from recent events do not unproductively occupy it. But the place got filled with other stuff of little to no use, so this is not that much of an improvement.

I found myself several times unable to express an opinion of some current situation. Of course, it is not necessary to hold an opinion on everything, but I find it useful and fun to have some quick and weak opinions that are up for discussion. I felt like I should warn my friends when engaging in a discussion:

Relatedly, it felt like this could in the long run take a hit on the sense of belonging to the group or social cohesion. I was seeing how the grip on the shared reality -- formed by the unfolding local and global events -- could begin to weaken. I was starting to be less aware of the world everyone was living in.

Outlook

I am confident that keeping up with the news on a daily or even weekly basis is not beneficial or useful for me. However, cutting the consumption altogether is probably going too far. I believe that somewhere around a month is a good compromise.

For the moment, however, I will probably extend the experiment for a little longer.