[dragontamer]

Oh sure. The war isn't happening as long as you don't look at it. In fact, it's not technically a war so we shouldn't care about it.

You are correct in that we must be better about selecting our news sources. But the answer is not about drowning yourself in pleasant fiction on Amazon Prime or ignoring current events.

The answer is to pick non-clickbait / non-doomscrolling news sources that provide more actionable news and stronger analysis. I've picked The Atlantic for this, once a week magazine is fast enough and gives enough time for the writers to provide deep and through analysis on current events.

The fast moving clickbait media of Twitter and Facebook is trash. It's often incorrect, it's full of propaganda, and the people drawn into it seem like idiots (and arguing with them pulls your intelligence down). Find better media, find better people and leave the trash behind.

---------

Pick your news sources. Otherwise, the news sources will pick you. That's always been true since the early days of Yellow Journalism. The media landscape is harder to figure out today, but there continues to be well written independent media today, if only you went out to support them and reach out.

[qsera]

>ignoring current events

Sure it is important to be aware, but If being perpetually aware of the current events makes one feel anxious, helpless and fearful of the future then I think it is better to drown in pleasant fiction than read news.

Just being anxious and concerned in your home has not helped any cause except of that of the media that want your perpetual attention, eye balls and clicks.

[dragonwriter]

> Sure it is important to be aware, but If being perpetually aware of the current events makes one feel anxious, helpless and fearful of the future then I think it is better to drown in pleasant fiction than read news.

There is a difference between the upthread claim that there is no significant real problem and the impression that there is is an illusion created by the internet which one should disconnect from to avoid being misled and your claim that it can be better for your mental health to cutoff from stressful news sources independently of whether those news sources accurately depict the real state of the world.

What you are saying may be broadly true, but it is orthogonal to the argument you were responding to.

[suzzer99]

100s or 1000s of families' lives are permanently shattered in Iran because the US started a questionable war and didn't do enough due diligence before dropping bombs. The only reason we have the luxury of ignoring current events is because they rarely come home to roost, no matter how much destruction our government causes elsewhere.

[tsumnia]

I started doing my GET OFF THE INTERNET shtick last year on Digg 4.0 (before Kevin pulled the plug), so it's not really about Iran. Not ignoring current events, just saying "change the channel" every once and a while, and a little "think local" on how you can be the change you want to see "out there"

[bad_haircut72]

Aye comrade, those smarties at the Kremlin will take care of everything for us! Better to choose the path of blissful ignorance. Have another vodka it makes it easier to forget.

[hsuduebc2]

I second that. Consume every other click bait title and another useless analysis from someone is just nerve wrecking. Media thrive from your attention, but you do not.

I don't say to ignore everything bur being constantly in the loop gives you nothing. Your anxiety is someone else business model. I do not use media like X, watch tv or similiar. It's absolutely ok to not know what uterrly stupid some politician did with intent to get you mad.

I watch few independent analysts on youtube from time to time and I do not miss anything important. Really. It's the best and easiest thing you can do for your mental health now.

[dragontamer]

Good writing will not make you feel anxious.

That's just Twitter/Facebook doom scrolling and shitty writing style. They are selling clicks to advertisers and nothing sells clicks better than doom.

Yes. Stop going to internet algorithmic feeds. However, do not ignore the news. Simply choose better, less angst and less clickbaity news. Do you think the Civil Rights protests of the 1960s were informed by angsty clickbait articles? Or were they filled with ignorant dufuses who ignored the news?

Ditto with the Vietnam war. You know, the one with an actual draft and far worse situation than we have right now in Iran. You have to stay informed of events, but that doesn't mean you have to accept the shitty, angst inducing writing style of these clickbait magnets.

No. Back then, they chose better sources of news that inspired action and provided plans. Same is required for today. Stay informed, but ignore the crap, clickbait and idiots.

[tsumnia]

Absolutely, [1] is my response to some of that sentiment

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47668439

[qsera]

> The Atlantic

I open this site and the first thing I see is,

>This Is Not How Presidents Typically Communicate. (About trump)

And it screams to me that this is a biased site.

So I think it is not possible for a layman to know the ground truth. Not even close. Have you seen the movie "Wag the dog?" It is a 1997 movie. Things have only gotten real worse since..

So given that, what is the point? Either put your life on line and go to these places and understand the truth and do something about it, or just zone out and enjoy the what ever little fragile peace that you have right now.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120885

[dragontamer]

Strange, are you familiar with the story or did you miss the news this weekend?

I think it's pretty factual to point out that US Presidents don't normally send the message "Praise Allah" on Easter Sunday. A blasphemy like that is certainly news and warrants the Atlantic's headline.

Or do you consider the message of "Praise Allah" to be a normal thing for sitting US Presidents to say? It's a straightforward situation, there's no reason to beat around the bush on this news item.

[qsera]

I don't give a damn as long as he does his job. So should the people, and so should the media, if they are legit.

Is he doing a good job? I think only time can tell and it is impossible to answer that question by micromanaging every little thing he does or says.

A media that does that is not really doing a good job of informing the people.

So I think that headline fits the title of this post "When Virality Is the Message".

[dragontamer]

What job is he doing by tweeting "Praise Allah"?

Is it really contrary to facts to point out that this is not normal? You started this by saying The Atlantic's headline was incorrect.

The question is what is or isn't normal, as per the headline you disagreed with.

I do believe that a sitting US President tweeting such a thing is extraordinary. And does indeed deserve some analysis for how we got here. Not like in a clickbait we are doomed way, but just a reminder of how far we have gone as a country here.

[qsera]

The point is not that it is false. The point is it does not matter.

I don't want to spend any more time on this. Have a good day.

[dragontamer]

> The point is it does not matter.

Its an active negotiation going on about a currently on going conflict. People are literally dying over these words.

Say what you will about it, but the President's words _DO_ matter. Especially in times of war, negotiation, and global posturing.

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The hundreds of idiots hyperventilating about this don't matter. But what I can say is that in the USA vs Iran conflict, these words absolutely matter. We can ignore the pundits who don't matter. But the words being discussed here are the President's words.

And I happen to like The Atlantic's overall analysis on this particular situation. But you can't convince me that... this is "pointless". Its literally life or death here man.

-----------

> I don't want to spend any more time on this.

NONE OF US want to spend any time on this. But staying informed about how this war and conflict plays out is hugely important. Digging your head into the sand because you don't care is... well... take your pick at any way to finish that sentence.

We've been forced to spend time on it because it affects business, it affects military readiness. It affects our global positioning, the lives of our soldiers, the lives of Iranians, etc. etc. Even the unrelated Europeans (who did nothing) are forced to pay attention because of the oil crisis that flows out from these events.

[tsumnia]

[Responding to all the comments, so you may need to read through the thread again if I miss context here]

> The war isn't happening as long as you don't look at it.

I'm not ignorant of the war, and yes I follow it; however my mentality stems from the sheer number of months of bad news happening somewhere. I can only give so much of my attention to The World when there's things at the local level to worry about. So I don't engage in "all of it" on the Internet. I have those conversations in person.

> But the answer is not about drowning yourself in pleasant fiction on Amazon Prime or ignoring current events.

I disagree, but also not drowning. Rather engaging online in the manner pre-COVID. You know, like Walking Dead "How would I survive a zombie apocalypse" or Game of Thrones "who's next to die". The 24/7 Internet chatroom known as "the comments section" just wants to deviate the conversation back to politics. I also disagree with the sentiment that we're in "Idiocracy", but I still enjoy the film.

> The fast moving clickbait media of Twitter and Facebook is trash. It's often incorrect, it's full of propaganda

So is every aggregator site. Agenda-Setting Theory [1] dictates what information you're receiving on any given day, and smaller scale Discords with self-promotion know how to gamify Trending algorithms (since most rely on some degree of 'velocity' based on time since post). Couple that with how we've over engineered attention by A/B testing thumbnails [2] and how the mind reads TEXT LIKE THIS [3] (which was also A/B tested for email campaign clickthroughs), I'm left with a curiosity of "what headline text is emotionally anchoring a sentiment"?

Heck, GET OFF THE INTERNET isn't even yelling [4], it's just me abusing that all caps does thing in brain.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agenda-setting_theory

[2] https://netflixtechblog.com/selecting-the-best-artwork-for-v...

[3] https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychology/articles/10....

[4] Reddit Version: https://v.redd.it/hlo2z6a6rctg1, Twitter Version: https://x.com/amgaweda/status/2040744192020717592; Gotta work on encoding cause something made my audio out of sync with the video