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Comment by empath75 | Hacker News Reader

>Such news don't actually inform us but spread sensationalism, negative emotions, and outright lies to capture attention. What do you gain from following the latest political crisis or some scandal? You can't do anything meaningful about these events. They only depress you and occupy space in your mind. It's better to direct your focus toward things that we can actually impact and improve.

This is a depressing point of view to have and dangerous to the future of democratic system.

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That statement doesn't preclude some political activity if you consider it to be something that you can actually "impact and improve", in the author's words. Of course I can only speculate about the author's original intent, but I think I agree insofar that most daily news out there is irrelevant for most individuals. Even if you have a political cause you are interested in, you have limited time and energy, so it might be better to just stay informed in those areas that concern you and ignore the rest of the daily news.

You can't fix the world as an individual, so it's pointless to concern yourself with things you can't impact. Of course that still means that everyone should probably find a little thing where they can try to make a change.

Yes, I still read the local news once a week and the biggest events pass my filters anyway.

Intentionally following the popular news also steals your attention from the small tragedies that are never picked up by the big media.

Perfectly reasonable stance to take. Of course that assumes you do not ever vote, because you are not an informed citizen and voting would be both ethically and morally wrong.

It's easy enough in our lesser-of-two-evils system in the US to spend an hour (or less) before an election and nail down pretty well which is the lesser for each race on the ballot. Day-to-day following the news 100% not required unless you just like doing that, or have the means and/or will to contribute substantially outside of voting.

This assumes a general awareness and understanding of political, economic, and social topics that one might not have without having spent at least a few years "plugged in", though, so maybe only viable for oldsters.

Sure, american federal elections are simple enough for this to not apply in that case.

While I specifically disagree with the OP that "You can't do anything meaningful about these events," the rest of the advice is pretty dead-on. I've read it from a spectrum of authors as wide as Dale Carnegie ("How To Stop Worrying and Start Living") to Dr. Andrew Weil ("8 Weeks to Optimum Health") to Cal Newport ("Deep Work").

Think of it this way: it's good to be well-informed about the state of political affairs today and to understand the issues. What's not healthy is obsessively reading Twitter every hour, constantly being outraged and getting into flame wars (does anyone even use that term anymore?)

I agree. There's a wonderful statement that says that even if you don't take an interest in politics, politics will take an interest in you. It definitely is the responsibility of every citizen in a democratic nation to stay informed of what the government is doing.

I think, however, the point here is to avoid obsessing over politics. If you learn of something that deeply disturbs or affect you, arguing about it on Reddit will not help, you need to take action. Contact your representatives, get involved in a PAC or political party, etc. You need to take as much action as you can.

It is depressing but it is accurate, ignore the media and you are uninformed, consume the media and you are misinformed.

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