Why more and more people are tuning the news out: 'Now I don't have that anxiety' [View all]

I'll confess to being a "news junkie." I've been here on DU almost every day since February, 2002, which is about the time I finally quit all television news and opinion in disgust. Television coverage of the September 11th attacks and the run-up to the war in Iraq was utterly disgusting.

Until twitter came along I used to call television the worst medium for news and opinion.

My wife has never watched television news and opinion. She used to come home from work and get extremely annoyed if I had the news on. "What is that noise? Turn it off!" She's always read her news.

I eventually came around to my wife's point of view. We subscribe to several newspapers, including The Guardian, which is where this post came from. My dad subscribed to the Guardian when I was a kid.

Reading newspapers I can quickly scan the headlines and dismiss any news that isn't actionable by me, personally. I don't have to listen to Trump's voice, which makes my skin crawl. I don't have to suffer propaganda that's being promoted to make me fearful and easily manipulated. I clearly remember the television news of my childhood and its "Scary Black or Brown person of the Day!" feature. That's still a feature of television news in many places and the chosen social media of many white people.

I've had some some occasionally severe mental health issues since my mind went a little sideways with adolescence. As a direct consequence of that I picked up some PTSD along the way too. People who have mental health issues are more likely to be victims of violence than people who are not. Skipping past something that upsets me in print is much easier than skipping past it on television.

Maybe that's one of the reasons I have a primitive cell phone too. It's a flip phone devoid of "apps." I mostly use it as a phone. Composing text messages is awkward. "Doom scrolling" is not possible.

DU is my only "social media" and even that would be too much if I couldn't shut off the advertising with my donations, couldn't put posters I find especially annoying or disturbing on my ignore list, and couldn't put words like "Trump" on my trash-by-keyword list.

My wife and I don't have cable, satellite, or broadcast television. The only television we watch are a couple of advertising free streaming channels and DVDs, most of which I've found in thrift stores.

Some people would claim I live in a "bubble," but mostly I live in the real world outside the bubbles of social media and television.