Should I Watch the News?

I was just looking around doing some Google searches and I keyed "should I watch the news." I read a few of the articles and noted some of the objections for not watching the news. Now, at this point I should mention that I do not watch any news. This has been a practice of mine for a long time. So I was interested in what people had to say. I did not spend a lot of time researching responses but the little time I did spend indicated that one popular reason people give for watching the news is, "I must be informed."

I remember, years ago, when I was first encouraged to try not watching the news. One of the first things I said was just that, "I must be informed." I felt I needed to know what is going on in the world so that at the very least I could converse with my friends at work or at parties, etc., without looking like I was stupid. Besides, I needed to know what was going on because it affected my life. How was I going to adjust my daily affairs if I didn't know what was going on in the world, in my city, in my neighborhood?

I was given a challenge of not watching the news for one month; just thirty days. No news; not TV, not newspapers and not radio. NO NEWS. The idea was daunting. But I took the challenge.

Well, I'm here to tell you I survived. I have lived to tell the tale. And since then I have lived very well without the news.

Does that mean that I don't know what is going on around me. Of course it doesn't. You would be amazed at the ways news gets to you even if you try to avoid it. Mostly it comes from the people around you. Just like yourself they like to tell you what they know. The beautiful thing is that it comes to you filtered. You get it without being sold something, without hype and you get the news that most affects you; not what someone wants you to think affects you. You get it from people like yourself. If you think the news you receive is important to your daily life than you can pursue it further.

An interesting axiom has emerged for me by not watching the news. Any news that I need to know will get to me.

Without watching the news my daily life doesn't change on bit from when I watched the news other than I feel more relaxed.

Do I look or feel stupid when I'm conversing with friends at social gatherings? No more than I did when I watched the news. As a matter of fact whenever it happens to come up in conversation and a person finds out I don't watch any news they are usually surprised. So I guess I can hold my own in conversation without the news. Besides, I feel that if I can't converse without the benefit of some news program I must be pretty shallow. That would scare me.

I would like to make to you the challenge that was made to me: NO NEWS for thirty days. Go ahead try it. Really, what have you to loose? And maybe you will find that you have a lot to gain.