2009-2017 no tv no cable
2017 bought a TV first time in my life since kids want to watxh tv. We then got Netflix -still no cable.
average tv watching 2 hours a week.
aside from Netflix , YouTube car stuff, CNBC stock news - don't watch anything else.
Nothing else is really relevant in my life.
$ and cars
I stopped last year. National news. Local news I stopped about 3 months ago. I turn it on at 5:45 to catch the weather and turn it off.
In reply to 759NRNG (Forum Partidario) :
I mean, if it was my project, I'd be hiding it in seemingly random places then when found moving it to new seemingly random places for years. Then, by placing the coordinates on a globe, it would start to look like a 12 year old's bathroom graffiti. If it were mine, that is.
Remember there's a difference between news and news talk shows...it's one thing to watch the 30 minute evening news programs to find out what's happening, and a whole other thing to watch a bunch of talking heads editorialize about things.
stuart in mn said:Remember there's a difference between news and news talk shows...it's one thing to watch the 30 minute evening news programs to find out what's happening, and a whole other thing to watch a bunch of talking heads editorialize about things.
the last 18 months I disagree. the "news" has been more opinion than news.
In reply to bobzilla :
Always was, always will be. The "news" job is not to inform, but to push opinions for ratings.
My friends joke that I get all my news from a car forum (GRM) but it's pretty true. If something is important enough for me to care about it usually winds up on here. Just learned that the Puerto Rico telescope fell and have kept up on F1 without having to go elsewhere. I did enjoy reading the paper for entertainment when it was around, but don't go out of my way to find one.
RevRico said:In reply to bobzilla :
Always was, always will be. The "news" job is not to inform, but to push opinions for ratings.
I agree, but I feel like the last 18 months has gotten really bad.And they're not even truying to hide it.
Wife watches the news constantly and I have no clue why she is so obsessed with it. I don't get it.
Mr_Asa said:Wife watches the news constantly and I have no clue why she is so obsessed with it. I don't get it.
My f-I-law watches Fox News all day long and analyzes and frets about our country.
We took him to Peoria to see our son (2.25 hours) one day and we're 3 houses away from my house when he starts in on his unfavorite political party. Nope - we're not discussing this the whole ride.
I wonder if we could have a section of the forum for Car News of The Day or something. For myself I was really sad then the world only heard about Jessie Combs when she died.
On another note: I have motortrend on demand. I mostly signed up for roadkill and now watch mostly the offshoots of that show. I am amazed at the amount of content on that. Who has time for all of that?? I guess one mans motor oil is anothers gasoline.
1985
That's when I canceled the newspaper and told the future Mrs. P that I will no longer watch the news on TV.
People thought I was tinfoil hat crazy. How do you find out what's going on, they asked? If something important happens it will find me, otherwise it's mostly BS and I don't need to know.
I've had personal knowledge of a few newsworthy events over the years. The coverage of said events has only served to reinforce what I always suspected. I was right all along 
I can now predict the cycle of "what to be scared of next"
Virus, terrorists, earthquake, solar flares, global warming, "X" is now bad for you, another virus, terrorists..... Ad nauseum.
Peabody said:How do you find out what's going on, they asked? If something important happens it will find me,
Agree 100%..
Peabody said:I've had personal knowledge of a few newsworthy events over the years. The coverage of said events has only served to reinforce what I always suspected. I was right all along
As coined by Michael Crichton, that's the Gell-Mann Amnesia Effect in play when people read/watch the news and hang on every word:
Media carries with it a credibility that is totally undeserved. You have all experienced this, in what I call the Murray Gell-Mann Amnesia effect. (I refer to it by this name because I once discussed it with Murray Gell-Mann, and by dropping a famous name I imply greater importance to myself, and to the effect, than it would otherwise have.) Briefly stated, the Gell-Mann Amnesia effect is as follows. You open the newspaper to an article on some subject you know well. In Murray's case, physics. In mine, show business. You read the article and see the journalist has absolutely no understanding of either the facts or the issues. Often, the article is so wrong it actually presents the story backward -- reversing cause and effect. I call these the "wet streets cause rain" stories. Paper's full of them. In any case, you read with exasperation or amusement the multiple errors in a story, and then turn the page to national or international affairs, and read as if the rest of the newspaper was somehow more accurate about Palestine than the baloney you just read. You turn the page, and forget what you know. That is the Gell-Mann Amnesia effect. I'd point out it does not operate in other arenas of life. In ordinary life, if somebody consistently exaggerates or lies to you, you soon discount everything they say. In court, there is the legal doctrine of falsus in uno, falsus in omnibus, which means untruthful in one part, untruthful in all. But when it comes to the media, we believe against evidence that it is probably worth our time to read other parts of the paper. When, in fact, it almost certainly isn't. The only possible explanation for our behavior is amnesia.
I'd guess most people haven't experienced the real world vs. reports of it, and actually analyzed enough to realize how much energy they should invest in their "infotainment."
I too have pulled back ont he news. THe last vestige was listening to NPR on my drive in. This has ended with my commute back in March... So I'm not really missing it. I've found I'm happier when I don't fill my head with that stuff..
The only thing we still watch CBS sunday morning. My wife really enjoys that program. Sometimes I listen to BBC world service, but usually this is all background noise for work.
Staying off of social media and away from opinion shows is understandable and probably wise, but staying away from the news altogether? That's sticking your head in the sand. Maybe you won't see a danger that passes you by, or maybe you won't see one coming that could've been easy to act on. And the Gell-Mann Amnesia Effect reeks too much of selection bias, observer bias, and epistemological nihilism for my taste.
I quit about 2 years ago and life is definitely better. No matter what flavor of 24 hour news you pick, they all whip up their respective bases and create worrying, angry people in the process. I do scan a few news sites a couple of times a week just to keep up, but mostly foreign sources.
GameboyRMH said:Staying off of social media and away from opinion shows is understandable and probably wise, but staying away from the news altogether? That's sticking your head in the sand. Maybe you won't see a danger that passes you by, or maybe you won't see one coming that could've been easy to act on. And the Gell-Mann Amnesia Effect reeks too much of selection bias, observer bias, and epistemological nihilism for my taste.
Sorry if it came off the wrong way, I don't use the Gell-Mann Amnesia Effect as a reason to avoid news.. I still consume plenty of it myself (I prefer NPR and BBC primarily for non-automotive news).
When I said "I'd guess most people haven't experienced the real world vs. reports of it, and actually analyzed enough to realize how much energy they should invest in their "infotainment." I meant that it's a great reason to not get worked up over whatever you're reading/hearing. If you're really getting invested in a story, it's probably worth investigating that from different sources (preferably THE source if you can find it). You should always assume that someone reporting/rereading something to you is missing a basic point.
To expand on that a bit more, my more, er... excitable? friends that consume too much "news" are always going on about how one side of an issue is always stupid and why don't they "just do X." It's like, dude, if you think that none of the guys who do this stuff for a living haven't evaluated the first thing that popped into your non-specialist head in 2 seconds, you've got a pretty messed up view of people. Those guys should cut back on consumption :)
We listen to NPR on the radio in the morning, have not watched TV new in a LONG time and don't miss it at all.
Ian F (Forum Supporter) said:Facebook is like any other tool - what you get out of it depends on how you use it. There are ways to block political posts if you don't want to see them. Personally, I just block or "un-follow" friends who spend an inordinate amount of their posting harping on political B.S. Most of my feed is filled with various car, cycling and music groups where much like this forum, any political posts are grounds for a patio burial.
Facebook has built a tool that's really good at figure out what people want (*) to see, and showing them more of it. Want is defined in the economic sense here -- not what people SAY they want, but what they demonstrate a preference for by actually consuming. If you actually don't want politics to show up there you have to demonstrate that by not commenting on it, not clicking on it, and blocking/unfollowing/unfriending people who try to shove it in your face anyway.
My facebook feed is basically overrun by car groups these days. Not as good as GRM forum, but more regionally focused.
GameboyRMH said:That's sticking your head in the sand. Maybe you won't see a danger that passes you by, or maybe you won't see one coming that could've been easy to act on.
It's not sticking your head in the sand, it's avoiding all the misinformation, negativity, propaganda and just general incompetence that makes up the vast majority of todays (and yesterdays) news product.
In the 35 years since I stopped, not once have I said, I sure wish I'd listened to or watched the news today, nor have I ever felt like I've missed anything.
Like I said, If something important happens it will find me.
Peabody said:In the 35 years since I stopped, not once have I said, I sure wish I'd listened to or watched the news today, nor have I ever felt like I've missed anything.
Like I said, If something important happens it will find me.
This.
I listen to my 20 minutes of local news on my way to work in the morning. That's all I need or want.
99.9% of the stuff they want you to worry about has never affected me.
I'd much rather spend time with the people I care about than waste it watching the specially selected and carefully edited news.
ShawnG said:This.
I listen to my 20 minutes of local news on my way to work in the morning. That's all I need or want.
99.9% of the stuff they want you to worry about has never affected me.
I'd much rather spend time with the people I care about than waste it watching the specially selected and carefully edited news.
I stopped watching news about 25 years ago, essentially as soon as it was possible to get newswire stories on the internet. I can scan a list of articles, select the ones I want, and read them in far less than the 30 minutes that TV news will take to spoon-feed me a fraction of that information.
Peabody said:GameboyRMH said:That's sticking your head in the sand. Maybe you won't see a danger that passes you by, or maybe you won't see one coming that could've been easy to act on.
It's not sticking your head in the sand, it's avoiding all the misinformation, negativity, propaganda and just general incompetence that makes up the vast majority of todays (and yesterdays) news product.
In the 35 years since I stopped, not once have I said, I sure wish I'd listened to or watched the news today, nor have I ever felt like I've missed anything.
Like I said, If something important happens it will find me.
You sir, have summed it up!!! Thanks for saying it well.
You'll need to log in to post.
