News is not ephemeral, it will be there when you come back

So what do I mean by lifting your head out of the river? Ignore the news entirely?

I don’t think ignoring the news is the right thing to do. We need to be informed, of course, but we don’t need to pay attention to every single detail of what’s happening all the time. Instead of being obsessed with learning things as they happen and then of course taking to social media to give your hot take that you definitely will never regret, maybe only consume the news once per day. Hell, maybe go a couple days without taking in any real time news!

News is not ephemeral, it will be there when you come back. And real news will stand the test of time, while conspiracy theories, faked videos, and inaccurate tweets will not. If you give the news literally a day to shake itself out, you’ll be consuming better news.

Matt Birchler, Lift Your Head Out of the River

Since I stopped watching the lunchtime and evening news on TV, breakfast TV in the morning, and any rolling news, I’ve felt a lot better. Similarly, I don’t regret cutting out social media from my life. That doesn’t mean I don’t get any news at all, but it’s delayed and I have the choice whether to engage with it. And I leave links in my ‘blogging’ list in Todoist for a day or two, to see if I still want to write something about it.