Stop Following The News. No News Are Good News.

In Short:

Save tons of time: Stop following the news for one week. Correct: No news at all. #NoNews

What’s In It For You:

Generally, news are an incredible waste of time. Cut them out completely for an entire week to see how much time you can save.

Why To Stop Following The News

Did you ever realize how time-consuming, yet usually useless following the news is? Without trying to sound too depressing, please try to remember the time when following the news actually helped you live a better life.

In case you can’t come up with a feasible example within a few seconds, maybe try to go without news for a while, to see what changes. Never try, never know, they say.

‘News’, these days, unfortunately are designed to grab attention, and hence only focus on the ‘interesting’ stuff. Sadly, they have to be, since all news stations are capitalistic companies trying to make money. Money is made with advertising, and advertising pays more the bigger your audience is. Hence, news stations have to grab attention in order to survive.

98% of the time, news are negative, since nobody wants to hear a ‘Hey, look, Mr Jones is all fine and happy and healthy, he’s not a terrorist, actually loves his wife and does okay in his day job’. Instead, news emphasize (and often exaggerate) the bad things happening out there, spreading hate and creating prejudice.

Stories that mankind should actually really care about, such as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, the ever increasing deforestation of tropical rainforests (along with all those animal species forever disappearing from this planet) or the ongoing survival struggles in many African countries are rarely mentioned, since they are not exciting enough anymore.

Instead, people learn about the Kardashian family and Donald Trump’s latest tweets. I mean – really?

I stopped reading the news in early 2015, after reading Rolf Dobelli’s ‘The Art of Thinking Clearly’ (great book! Read it!), and guess what happened?

Correct, nothing.

Well – except for you saving tons of time, that is.

I have also not yet solved Africa’s hunger problem quite yet, but I have had more time to actively engage in topics such as The Ocean CleanUp and have helped to develop a tree planting project in Southern Thailand to offset CO2 emissions. Besides, I still had loads of extra time left to create meaningful memories with good people.

Looking at how much time people on average spend following the news, this one can be a massive time saver! Give it a go! What do you have to lose?

How To Stop Following The News

Delete all news apps you have on your phone. Stop buying newspapers. Change your default start page in your browser. Buy a good book you can read every time you’d usually switch on the news on TV. In the best case, don’t switch your TV on for this week. Tell other people about your project so you can meet for meaningful discussions while others get brainwashed by the media.

In case you’re not convinced yet: Read Rolf Dobelli’s reasoning on why you should stop following the news. (Kudos to the Guardian for publishing it!) And remember to buy (or borrow) “The Art of Thinking Clearly”. Terrific book.

The Jallenge

Challenge two friends or colleagues to stop following the news with you. That way you can give each other feedback about how you’re coping, other projects you’ve started, meet to spend the saved time together etc.

#NoNews

Remarks / Comments / Annotations

What to do with all that extra spare time? Well – challenge yourself. Or thing big, and go change the world. The choice is yours…