my online news compromise, etc
I was going to give up online news entirely during the shutdown, but then the shutdown was super short compared to the one in 2013.
Today, I decided on a compromise. I subscribe to two online news services: the New York Times, and the Washington Post. Both of these companies sell traditional daily newspapers, the kind you can get delivered to your door. Both of these companies replicate, in a fashion, their daily newspapers online. But they also do a whole lot more than that, to compete with the always-on 24*7 internet/cable news environment.
Well ... I can limit myself to reading the online replicants of their daily newspapers. This provides me with a limited dose of news that arrives only once per day. No need to obsessively check the latest headlines.
For example: http://www.nytimes.com/pages/todayspaper/index.html & https://www.washingtonpost.com/todays_paper/updates/
Other online news sites that I don't subscribe to? I'm not visiting them.
I subscribe to a few monthly print magazines, and I'm considering doing the same with those sites, but they aren't really news sites. But even the monthly and weekly print magazines engage in the always-on 24*7 hyperbole, by adding content during the month or week, and by adding online-only content. They want you to visit their websites more often than they deliver their print media.
The idea for me is to spend less time reading all this fluffy chaff, and more time reading books. Perhaps daily newspapers and monthly magazines are a way station between fluffy chaff and books? But only if I don't go overboard on them. Right now I'm at two newspapers and three monthlies, I think. I barely read the monthlies as it is, which irks me, I'm just too distracted to sit down with a monthly magazine anymore.
I'm also deleting some apps from phone & tablet, deleting some bookmarks from browsers. Unsubscribing from email lists. Reducing distractions and slowing down.
Today, I decided on a compromise. I subscribe to two online news services: the New York Times, and the Washington Post. Both of these companies sell traditional daily newspapers, the kind you can get delivered to your door. Both of these companies replicate, in a fashion, their daily newspapers online. But they also do a whole lot more than that, to compete with the always-on 24*7 internet/cable news environment.
Well ... I can limit myself to reading the online replicants of their daily newspapers. This provides me with a limited dose of news that arrives only once per day. No need to obsessively check the latest headlines.
For example: http://www.nytimes.com/pages/todayspaper/index.html & https://www.washingtonpost.com/todays_paper/updates/
Other online news sites that I don't subscribe to? I'm not visiting them.
I subscribe to a few monthly print magazines, and I'm considering doing the same with those sites, but they aren't really news sites. But even the monthly and weekly print magazines engage in the always-on 24*7 hyperbole, by adding content during the month or week, and by adding online-only content. They want you to visit their websites more often than they deliver their print media.
The idea for me is to spend less time reading all this fluffy chaff, and more time reading books. Perhaps daily newspapers and monthly magazines are a way station between fluffy chaff and books? But only if I don't go overboard on them. Right now I'm at two newspapers and three monthlies, I think. I barely read the monthlies as it is, which irks me, I'm just too distracted to sit down with a monthly magazine anymore.
I'm also deleting some apps from phone & tablet, deleting some bookmarks from browsers. Unsubscribing from email lists. Reducing distractions and slowing down.