Ever Go on a News Blackout?

[Seraphina]

I'm a news addict. I subscribe to The New York Times, I read The Guardian, my city's newspaper and 2 newspapers back in my home state of NY. I also watch Anderson Cooper on CNN and my local newscasts in the morning before work and the 10pm local newscast.

(Jesus H. Christ, I do take in a lot of news lol)

But when I travel and usually the (busy) week around Christmas, I make a concerted and 99.9% successful effort to not read or watch any news at all. Nothing. Nada. I don't have any knowledge of anything in the outside world outside of a nuclear holocaust.
And I sorta like it! It clears my brain and I do other things like go outside and talk to people.
But I always go back to the news after my self-imposed blackouts.

Have you ever gone on a news blackout?

-Teresa

[Joods]

Yep. All the times when I couldn't afford cable TV. CNN stays on my 70 inch vizio nearly all the time now.

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I also watch Live PD Friday and Saturday as well. Any sort of crime related TV shows are my favorites. Both reality and fiction.

[Whateverist]

Sometimes I feel like I waste too much time listening to multiple talking heads opining about the same situations over and over again. I do spend plenty of time doing other things though. It can definitely be an 'attractive' nuisance.

[Rev. Rye]

Honestly, my job with Anglotopia requires me to keep somewhat on top of the news from the British music world. Then again, the news in the world today is really fucked up, and sometimes, I'd just be okay with just limiting my news feed to the NME's music section and maybe the thread titles in the "New Posts" here.

[ignoramus]

T, as I watch no telly, I catch the first 5 or 10 minutes of the 5 o'clock news while I'm eating then off again till the next day.
Here is Aus, there's never really any ground breaking stuff happening... A couple of breakins, the odd murder hunt and then political shite.

No-one here cares what the footsy is doing and the weather is predictable anyway...
As I've been off this week and doing different things, I just realised I haven't turned the telly on at all and I didn't even miss it.

[Seraphina]

T, as I watch no telly, I catch the first 5 or 10 minutes of the 5 o'clock news while I'm eating then off again till the next day.
Here is Aus, there's never really any ground breaking stuff happening... A couple of breakins, the odd murder hunt and then political shite.

No-one here cares what the footsy is doing and the weather is predictable anyway...
As I've been off this week and doing different things, I just realised I haven't turned the telly on at all and I didn't even miss it.

Yeah, there's really not much "new" information on the news. Occasionally there's some useful hyper-local information like events that happen in my neighborhood or in my city that I need to know about. Other than that? It's mostly a distraction from everyday life. Maybe that's why I enjoy it.

-Teresa

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I forgot to mention I also watch PBS Newshour and Frontline and also listen to NPR in the car and at work. Holy cow. I need to get a life.

-Teresa

[Minimalist]

Nope.  Never.  It's the fucking shows I avoid.

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

I used to, when I was a younger man. News back then tended to enrage me to the point where it was a real, physical effort NOT to go out and throw rocks at people.

I've mellowed as I've gotten older.  The most that happens when I watch/read news now is that I find myself thinking, 'Keep talking, boyo - I've got room in the crawlspace for you.'

Boru

[Angrboda]

Yeah, there's really not much "new" information on the news.

When I was a Taoist, I came to the conclusion that, like you say, there's really not much "new" to the news, and that if anything deserved paying attention to, it certainly wasn't the visceral thrill of news broadcasts. So, I hardly ever payed attention to the news, even for major events. Nowadays though, I find it a good way to pass the time. There may not be anything "new" to the news, but there's frequently interesting stuff going on that I enjoy hearing about. But I'm hardly a news junkie. I watch the regular newscast on the TV, and maybe a podcast or two if I'm bored. I find that does a good job of exhausting the relevant supply of truly new and interesting info. If something major happens, like the Colorado cake baker case, I may read up more about it on the web. That's pretty much the extent of my news habit, so I don't really see any need to go on a news blackout.

[paulpablo]

My life is a news blackout.  I might catch somethings on youtube or the podcasts I listen to but I never watch mainstream news on television or in a newspaper because I don't watch TV or read the newspaper.