I was reminded of it again when I saw Icon’s post about the death of Chaves. “It’s been awhile since I checked the news,” I thought to myself.
I realized the older I get, the less I pay attention to the news. There was a time when I thought these things mattered. In college, I minored in Communication. I used to occasionally watch TV news and daily check the BBC, New York Times, Al Jazeera, China Post, and Taipei Times. I thought I was educating myself, staying abreast of current events, broadening my horizons, all that good stuff.
These days, I care less and less. I think back to all the big stories of the last five years - global recession, war in Afghanistan, Obama’s election, Wikileaks, founding of Facebook, rise of Jeremy Lin - you name it - and all I can think of is how fleeting their supposed importance was; how ultimately irrelevant they were to my life.
Am I just becoming jaded and apathetic as I grow older? Do other people feel like this too, or is it just me?
I have to keep an interest because of my job, but I am becoming more and more jaded, more and more skeptical and unmoved, if you know what I mean. Same old, same old…
I can pretty much pinpoint the moment I lost interest in the news: it was just after 9/11. I think it made me realise that we have very little control over what happens in the world - at least on a macro scale - because across the planet, a large fraction of humanity are engaged in some astoundingly stupid shit. They’ve been doing that since they stopped picking bugs out of each other’s fur, and they’ll still be doing it when we’re all hooked into The Matrix. Watching it happening on TV just makes you stressed and irritated. So I don’t. Far better to concentrate on one’s own life and immediate circumstances, where one does have control.
Seems a bit unlikely. Won’t they be looking for brains?
I strongly reccommend the local news -on a small dose, of course. How else are you going to see things such as an intersection with all 4 sides on green light and the fatal Three Stooges like mess hereby ensued?
[quote=“finley”]I can pretty much pinpoint the moment I lost interest in the news: it was just after 9/11. I think it made me realise that we have very little control over what happens in the world - at least on a macro scale - because across the planet, a large fraction of humanity are engaged in some astoundingly stupid shit. They’ve been doing that since they stopped picking bugs out of each other’s fur, and they’ll still be doing it when we’re all hooked into The Matrix. Watching it happening on TV just makes you stressed and irritated. So I don’t. Far better to concentrate on one’s own life and immediate circumstances, where one does have control.
Seems a bit unlikely. Won’t they be looking for brains?[/quote]
And then we wonder why all instruments looking for intelligent life in the universe are pointing away from earth.
On a related note, I spent 10 minutes thinking who Chaves was, until I realized John made a spelling mistake. That’s how connected I am!
I think it is time and our newish ability to narrow our focus of information to things we are really interested.
When I first lived here there was no downloading and only a few English TV channels, therefore CNN was relatively interesting and I watched a lot of it. There were also no smartphones, ipods etc. so the China Post etc. had some value in commute.
Now I have replaced the paper with podcasts (sports and comedy for the most part), and I have replaced CNN, BBC with downloaded shows.
Also, I think when we are younger, the news seems more important, once you are in your mid thirties you see it is just cycle after cycle of the same bullshit and you inevitably lose interest. plus the quality of news has dipped due to the 24 hour news cycle, there is much more Kardashianish BS and less documentary type pieces.
not sure if this has had its own thread, but lately I’ve noticed the local TV news stations are playing youtube videos and reporting them as Western news stories. I’m sure it’s a way to both save money (free news!) and appeal to the mouth breathers. Some of the videos they play are obscure and bizarre, and really paint Westerners in an unusual light-well, perhaps many Taiwanese already think we’re weird, so it’s what they expect! Very few real news items about the west, presented in a balanced and informative manner, float across the average Taiwanese person’s plate every day/week.
It’s not even just youtube videos about Westerners. It’ll often be stuff as inane or mundane as like a dog juggling while hoola-hooping or something like that.
The first thing I do every morning, even before I get out of bed, is check out my BBC news app. I love to keep a handle on what’s happening in my home country. I think I can distinguish between bullshit and reality. I cannot bear to watch Taiwan news channels. They seem to parade suspected criminals (what ever happened to 'innocent until proven guilty) and heartbroken grieving parents, with 10 microphones stuck in their faces, with tears flooding down their face’s after losing a dear one. It’s obscene. If it was me and a jouno shoved a mic in my face, he’d go home wearing it and walking, legs wide!