No News is Good News

My friend John Farr has been on a self-imposed exile from news and blogs of late. I think he's arguing that the news is terrifying and doesn't change. He's got a real point.

I recently read a great book called The 4-Hour Workweek, which, in small part, makes a similar argument regarding news. The author, Timothy Ferris, lists a whole bunch of time wasting activities he's given up. One is reading news. Mr. Ferris hasn't read a newspaper in years. He glances at the headlines at the newsstand as he walks past. Anything really important he figures he can get from that.

Of late, I've tried to spend less time on the news. I've always been somewhat of a news junkie. I used to read two newspapers at breakfast, surf the web for other news, listen to Air America Radio all day, and watch the cable news shows around dinner time. I've cut my newspaper reading to a skim of the local paper at breakfast. I've set up iGoogle to give me a homepage with the latest headlines. That way I can further edit what news I care to read. It really has freed up some time.

If you think you can't live without the news, go camping. Try spending a few days in the woods, away from television, radio, Internet, and newspapers. When you come back you'll find something miraculous. Nothing has changed! The democrats and republicans still hate each other and the latter are still evil and the former are still incompetent. The country is still run by a moron and we're still on the brink of irrevocably disastrous moves. The world has not changed a bit because you dropped out of the information stream for a bit, and your blood pressure is probably lower.