Anyone Successfully Avoid National News Entirely?

[ReadySetMillionaire]

I recently read Maria Kondo's "The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up."  Beyond organizational recommendations, the overarching message of the book is that you should get rid of possessions that do not "spark joy" or provide you with a sense of happiness.  I put this into action with what my wife called a "purge," and we threw away a ton of stuff.  Our house feels totally different and it honestly does feel like a better environment.

I've given this some thought, and I want to take the thrust of this book--to only have things in your life that spark joy--and apply it to other areas of life.  And this has led me to a goal of mine for Lent (which I usually use to kickstart a positive habit): giving up paying any attention whatsoever to the national news.

The news is just so hyperbolic, negative, toxic, and provides absolutely no value to my life. I'm tired of hearing about one scandal after another and collusion and fires and child rape and murders and abductions and school shootings and on and on and on.  Bottom line, the benefit of being an "informed citizen" is just not worth all the mental energy it takes to navigate through this typhoon of partisan bullshit.


So, I'm really looking for tips to completely cut out the news entirely.  I've logged out of all my social media accounts (which I've slowly given up anyway) and respectfully asked my wife to stop watching the news at all. 

I'm currently trying Google News, but it seems like you can't get rid of a "headlines" feature that summarizes all the vomit and feces coming from Washington.

Any ideas?

[RWD]

I stopped reading Google News years ago. It only made me depressed. I didn't even know there was another school shooting until my wife told me...

[brion]

I'm active on social media and still manage to ignore news garbage.  Its just a healthy discipline to ignore it even when its right in your face.  I live in Massachusetts and only realized the Patriots were in the Superbowl the week of the game.  I've got pro level ignorance here!

[doneby35]

Yes I actually haven't seen or read anything "national news" for 2 years now. I found it to be quite easy.
First you eliminate cable and just rely on netflix/amazon prime if you want to watch a movie every now and then. Then, you eliminate social media entirely (facebook/instagram/snapchat...), it's not as hard as people think it is, break the addiction. And finally use your smartphone (if you have one) as a dumb phone, meaning use it to make calls/receive calls/send and receive texts.
Parents used to call us asking us if we've seen the news regarding the latest tragedy or political decisions made, but now they don't ask us anymore since they know what the answer is going to be.

[MrThatsDifferent]

After the DT election, I stopped reading the news for 3 months. That’s when I discovered and dove into MMM. Best decision ever. Wish I would have kept it up. The news is intentionally depressing, and needless.

[terran]

Pretty much.

I figure if it's important enough someone will mention it on the MMM forums, or FIRE blogs/podcasts :-).

My wife is a little more informed (listens to a story or two from NPR app that she thinks she'll find interesting based on the title each morning), so she'll sometimes mention something.

It's been blissful, and I feel less out of touch than I expected I would. It's actually kind of surprising how much makes it through the FIRE "media" filter -- I'm still sometimes mentioning something my wife hasn't run across with her NPR listening.

[NoraLenderbee]

For a long time, I did not watch any news on TV or on the 'net or read papers. I did listen to NPR and look at Google News. After the 2016 election, I cut out both of those. What a relief!
I still get information by reading (the New Yorker, the New York Review of Books, some other mags/journals, several political/news blogs), so I'm not totally uninformed. But I no longer have news--not to mention "news"--pouring into my ears and making me upset or angry. It's been great.

On Facebook, you can choose "Hide All" for sites that appear in your feed--so, you could hide all from CNN or whatever.

[jpeizie]

I quit the news in December. I've always been a bit of a news junkie but the 2016 election kicked that into high gear. I felt very similar to the OP. I was pissed off all the time and realized it wasn't adding any value to my life. So I quit. It was relatively easy for me since that mostly meant controlling what websites I visit. I already don't do social media. I installed the StayFocusd extension in Chrome, which lets you blackball any sites you want.

Happy to report I've become quite a bit more relaxed these days!

[MgoSam]

I promises myself that I would get rid of Facebook and read the Economist but so far each week's edition of The Economist sits in our lobby table at the office and I still have Facebook. I guess at least The Economist is read by my guests....

[NoraLenderbee]

If there are certain names or phrases that make your blood pressure spike if you just see them, get a browser add-in that automatically replaces them with other words you choose. I use FoxReplace for Firefox. For example, you can have it replace every occurrence of "New England Patriots" with "Fumblebums," or "Kardashian" with "Fake Tan." This made reading Facebook much more pleasant by removing certain triggers.

[Dave1442397]

Yes. I haven't watched "news" since coming to the US in 1990. Just being in hearing range sends my IQ spiraling downwards. I avoid all TV news, and actually, anything with advertising, whether TV or radio. I'm watching the Olympics one day behind just to cut out the commercials on the DVR.