Earthquake in Japan. Missile crash in North Korea. Slump on Wall Street. Sex scandal in the White House. New world record in marathon.
Please answer the question below as honestly as possible:
Do you really need to know all these news?
Too much news comes flooding in our brains every day. We devour all sorts of news that is pushed in front of us. It seems that we are incredibly well informed. In reality, we know incredibly little. We are living in a world where we are bombarded with a toxic form of knowledge called 'news'.
News is to our mind what sugar is to our body. It's easy to digest, but destructive in the long run.
Some time ago, I tried an experiment. I uninstalled all of the news apps from my iPhone and iPad. I stopped reading and listening to the news. I rarely watch TV, either. It has been sitting gathering dust for months now.
The first days were hard. Pretty hard. I was constantly afraid of missing something. But some time later, I had a new view. The result was: clearer thoughts, more valuable insights, better decisions and much more time. And the best news? I haven't missed anything important. The fact of the matter is that what was previously considered important is not as important as I though.
I was duped by myself. We live in a world of make-believe.
Numberless reasons exist to give news a cold shoulder, of which three are listed:
First, news is destructive.
Our brains respond disproportionately to different kinds of news. Scandalous, shocking, loud and fast-changing details all stimulate us, which get in the way of us thinking through the abstract, complex and unprocessed information. Instead, these seemingly unpleasant thinking has a far more calming influence on us. As a result of news consumption, we walk around with an unclear mind.
Second, news is irrelevant.
How much news is relevant to our real lives? Honestly, it is extremely rare to find a gem in it. Like I mentioned in my experiment, I haven't missed anything important since I turned my back on the news apps.
Third, news is a waste of time.
It's estimated that an average human being squanders an hour each day on reading the news, not including the time robbed by social network. One hour a day, thirty hours a month, and three hundred and sixty-five hours a year. Wow, how astonishing!
Think about it. We always complain that we don’t have time to learn English, we don’t have time to go to the gym, and blah, blah, blah. On the other hand, we are always ingenious when it comes to finding excuses.
My friend, it’s time to say goodbye to the news. Believe me, it’s not as helpful as you can imagine and you don't have to worry about losing anything. The truth is, nothing beats books for understanding the world.
