Ask Lemmy

I'm from Germany. I subscribe to a decent weekly newspaper ("die Zeit") and follow German news sites. I try to stay away from news on social media, but that's hardly possible.

On Lemmy, I've mainly blocked keywords and names relating to US politics because the ridiculous bullshit from the White House is unbearable. Despite this, my feed is still full of the stupid drivel from Trump & Co. This is not news, but at best political soap opera entertainment far removed from reality.

Because this stupid stuff potentially affects me too, of course, I have subscribed to a decent monthly newspaper with an international focus ("Le Monde diplomatique"). I can't stand US politics in particular any other way.

So far, I've stayed in the know on every god damned thing, even going deep enough in some cases to explore the damage caused. It's stressful, but somebody has to do it and I'm someone less impacted than the targets of this insanity (although I've dated a transfem for years and am trained in education policy, so obviously the news gets to me on a personal level).

One lesson about stress: you've got three ways to cope: (1) you address the source of the stress (or at least feel like you're doing something, like protesting). (2) You ignore it with distractions, which is perfectly fine if it's out of your control, (3) you reframe it, such as "this will pass" or "there's still good in the world", etc.. All three will reduce stress.

We all do all three, and whichever one you find yourself doing is fine. For example, I feel good by trying to share my knowledge and convince my students to give a shit; I still play video games to relax; and I have told myself plenty of times that, while it's bad (very, very bad), that as long as we survive we can build back our institutions (and believe me, the DoE is both important and deeply flawed-- as someone who survived a failed k-12 education and got a PhD in spite of it, education reform has always been my dream).

I vaccilate between "Eh, world and my life were always a mess, we could do with a do-over" and "holy shit holy shit holy shit is that a nuke in the distance?". Multiple times daily. Shit's exhausting.

I read weekly newspapers. I used to read Morgenbladet, now I read NZZ am Sonntag, and there are many others to choose from, but getting away from trying to find something engaging each day solves a lot of problems.

I follow a single news source which doesn't just focus on US politics. They only write about it when there's actually something to write about. Other than that, I take active steps to block it everywhere else. On Lemmy I stay out of political communities and I have set content filters to cover everything from Trump to measles and I keep adding new ones every day. In today's world the only way to consume anything even remotely resembling an "optimal" amount of news is by avoiding them. People who have never tried this get the feeling of FOMO and think that they're going to then be ignorant then but the truth is that you simply cannot insulate yourself from world news unless you go live alone in a forest. When something major happens you will hear about it. Anyone consuming an unfiltered Lemmy feed because they feel the responsibility to "stay informed" are just masochists doing self-harm.

Tried to filter out as much stuff that I find annoying as possible and block things as well. It doesn't get everything unfortunately but it gets close. I think the only thing that could make it better would be some kind of image scanning filter that would remove things from the feed if it detected them in a posted image or a website preview.

i simply stay uninformed. all the important news will come through memes and bypass all keyword filters i set anyway

we weren't made to receive bad news from around the globe 24/7 beamed directly into our pockets. i prefer to be happy

I've tried and failed. No matter what, it keeps seeping in. Filters, only following certain communities and people, avoiding some platforms, it doesn't matter. I'm considering getting a dumb phone and running off to the woods.

I have all major news sources and US politics tags blocked on Mastodon. I also continually block subs focused on US news here on Lemmy.

Frankly, I don’t trust news media or any kind. The purpose of those publications is to make sure they’re distributed as widely as possible to sell ads. So I don’t look at them unless I have to.

I do, however, follow some local chatter for my city, as the relevant news is there.

Personally I feel I manage to still stay informed, since anything of real importance will break through my block list anyway.

Before November, I did it by mainly looking at AP News. During November I was kind of a mess. After November, no news at all. My lemmy feed is comic strips, Linux, photography, and asklemmy, a few other things that are not political. If major shit happens I hear from my partner or friends, but they all know I'm not that interested. My YouTube feed is Buddhist stuff, standup comedy, and hobby rabbit holes. I even filtered out the lefty late night shows (daily show etc). I know the basics of what's going on, but don't feel any need to get daily updates on it and I'm feeling pretty sane compared to a few months ago! We donate to Palestinian charities, HRC, etc., are active in other ways, but this daily media crap is not healthy.

you really have to be a pessimist

I stay uninformed but in the rare times I want to be up to date, financial news sources are pretty good, they cover world news briefly and their kind of clickbait is easy to ignore - they don't do rage bait but try to make you invest in something.

I ignore news that don't concern me, my family, city or country. The rest is labeled under "societal spectacle", drama that I cant change unless i have to stop working and dedicate a whole life to fix that problem. Its ok to admit "bugger this" and just turning off the news, if only a while.

Its good to stay informed but I can hardly point at a piece of "news" that absolutly changed my life, career, relationships etc...

It feels like you have to build a skill that sorts news into "I cant do shit about this, (because of valid reasons)" and "wait what are they gutting from my social services that I paid for most of my life through taxes?".

I draw the line at whiskey/beer. I need both in order to watch the evening news. I won't engage with socials until properly lubricated by both.

"This is fine." (meme)

Of important things you will get informed want it or not.

It's better to just pursue news on things you like and enjoy to avoid depression.

If news stress you out I would recommend to actually avoid them. It's what I do and I am still oversaturated with news, so there's no risk on being missinformed.

I've finally made the choice and filtered trump posts, it took a while to figure out how Eternity does it.

I still watch Late Show and Jimmy Kimmel.

It's not always the same over time. Currently, I read Lemmy and occasionally tagesschau.de (recently less, want to more again).

Web and text means I can scroll and read what I want, without dwelling to much on it (like video news, intro then video then expert interview or worse). I can skim, or read comment interpretation or summarization. I can comment and discuss.

I have this account for general, and a different on programming.dev. When I open that one I see no or few politics (that kind at least). Etc.

Staying away from opinionated news outlets. News from outlets like Reuters or AP usually just deliver the news straight up.

I would recommend taking only a certain amount of time per day on news AND social media, like maybe half an hour after work.

Alcohol

I prioritize staying informed over well-being. But I also don't trust everything I see. Which is the real reason (or one of them) why I mainly watch local news. I wouldn't be like "I don't want to see who among us is in danger of being nuked, nuclear bombs are so unsightly to watch". It is best to prepare for longer-term benefit.