A few days ago I ran an experiment and read the news for 6 hours straight.
It was an interesting experiment that definitely didn't go as I expected.
But first a bit of background, why did I do it?
I think the biggest reason is because I have missed some trends/ trains in technology and also because I heard that reading the news is how you stay up to date with what's going on in the world.
And then, just because I like to be efficient, I said: how about I read the news every day and share a blog post on the latest technologies?
This way is not just that I'm going to stay on top of things, but also build something valuable. Convenient, right?
But first, because I had a hunch that things are not how they seem, I gave myself a day to read the all the news I can, and see how it goes.
Great! Enough with the introduction, now let's what I've found. Ready?
News is noise.
The words sound similar and that's no accident.
After 10 hours of reading the "news" I know a lot of things about things that I really don't care about.
I learned facts about companies that will disappear never to be heard from ever again.
I read a lot of opinions, not a lot of news.
After doing this I realized I would hate my life if I have to put one hour every day into this.
It was clear to me that I would benefit orders of magnitude more if I would put the same hour into reading a good book.
Don't get me wrong not everything was noise, I din read some interesting things, but they were far in between.
I would say maybe three out of one hundred.
That's 3% signal and 97% noise.
News are not just a reflection of reality, but an active creator as well.
Reading the news affects what you think and how you feel about the wrld. I think people's attention is overused and abused for financial gain, and I'm absolutely not shocked with the results in terms of world conflict and people perception.
After 6 hours, I felt a bit depressed. I felt like the world is burning to a crisp and I could not see myself doing this for another day. All of a sudden my perception was skewed. I was not feeling so great about my life anymore and who I was as a person.
What I was seeing was so clear that I decided to abandon the project altogether.
The problem however, is that most people never analyze how they feel, they don't stay guard at the gates of their minds.
Ideas and feelings of hatred can freely enter and set the camp at any time. And feeling triggered is always just one news title away.
All in all, I think that if you write news you have a responsibility for what you write.
Not just to be factually correct, but also to serve humanity at the highest level possible.
Right now reading the news is not for me, but maybe one day I'm going to start my own magazine.