Newspaper Junkies
Every Sunday morning, I'd wake up, walk to the stationery shop outside the hostel, and buy one copy of EVERY newspaper on display.
I kept up with the newspaper obsession for up to 4+ years after leaving college. I'd pore through the pages of articles, comics, editorials, features, everything that the newspaper had to offer.
Last year, I stopped my newspaper subscription.
There were two reasons for this. First, a slightly frivolous reason is that the newspaper guy brought me the bill for newspapers after six months. It was a big chunk of money, something you don't expect to pay for newspaper. I had some words with that fellow and decided that I'd not buy newspaper from him. I realized later that he is the only fellow delivering newspapers in my area. So that is that.
Plus, the junk value of newspapers
The other reason is the dismal quality of news reporting in the newspapers in India. From Times of India to The Hindu and everything in between, there is just too much focus on the negative and it just didn't please me to read the news come what time of the day. I had to ask myself, do I really need to start my day with reading about all this negativity? I got the answer, NO. A big, all caps, NO. So, I gave up all and any attempts of reading newspaper till about now. And in general, I've felt more peaceful, relaxed and productive in mornings.
Now, I get my fix of news from Google. Specifically www.news.google.com which I've customized according to the news I want to read. More about Science, Technology and Health. Less about Bollywood, Hollywood, Politics or Celebrities.
In addition, I also think that the GIGO (Garbage In, Garbage Out) principle applies here very well. The kind of information we feed into our system (if we think of human brain as a computer), will determine the kind of output we give to the world.
What do you think about this? If you left reading newspapers would it have any effect on your life? Drop me a line in comments or talk about it with me on twitter >> @69ubar
Next post, we tackle the absence of TV in my life!
I left reading the news papers since last year. My grand pa once told me that every story has two sides, news papers or news channels conveniently chose to show only one.
ReplyDeleteSame reason. The second one. Too much negativity. Sometimes you avoid but still you get to see the disturbing images of dead bodies on first page in case of any train accident, attacks etc etc Nevet fail to spoil your mornings.
ReplyDeleteI totally agree Dipti. Most of the times these images are meant for selling newspapers without them having any journalistic value. Plus, it's disrespectful towards those who have died in accidents. I don't know why journalists fail to understand that.
DeleteTrust me the quality of journalism issue is not limited to India... here in the UK I now dispair. Even the bastion of quality the BBC is losing it... the people that have now on some stories they talk to you like the audience is so stupid they have to explain it all in kindergarten terms - esp science reporting and also there is now a new "voice" they have to use, they speak in an odd tone where every fact is presented as though it is some amazing revelation - drives me nuts.
ReplyDeleteSo given I refuse to pay inflated prices for papers owned by a small cadre of wealthy people who think they have a right to force an opinon on me - just report the facts please and a sensationalizing of TV news... I too use the web. BBC is still good in that medium, The Guardian and Independent newspapers sites in the UK and then other specialist ones where I need to - New Scientist to start for modern science / technology, Autosport for motorsport etc.
These are good choices man. I think selectivity is the key here. A printed newspaper is selected for you by someone else, here you choose your own news! :)
DeleteThanks for the comments, people :)
ReplyDeleteI wouldn’t blame you on the bulk billing. Even I had a row with the paper guy who billed me for four months together.
ReplyDeleteAbout the negativity aspect, I’d like to say something. It’s nothing new. All those spiritual hobos from Ravi Shankar to Nirmal Baba say the same. Clear yourself of all the negative thoughts. Who cares if the lady living across the street is raped, if the Government is doing stuff behind your backs to curtail your freedoms, if tribals are torched, if villages are razed, if corporates are selling you toxic waste branded as edible food, if fanatic religious sensitivity is clamouring for more and more censorship, if the forests are cut down… Let’s just wake up in the morning fresh without all those creepy concerns as its either our neighbour, or the tribal, or someone we don’t know who’s in the news and not us. Not a bad deal.
And about selective news feed. That’s pretty interesting. Something which would have stumped even Orwell. Had he known that the future beings would themselves opt for selective news to keep themselves ignorant of the trap that’s fastening around them, he would have never wrote 1984.
This is a very intriguing comment. I am not sure whether you're on my side or you're on their side. My sarcasm meter, as usual, is not working :D so I'll take this in good spirit.
DeleteBut seriously, this is one of my favoritest comments in past year or so!
Cheers man!
Without meaning to, I've stopped reading the news as well but my reason is lack of time. I have to say I miss it. And that reading the news online for me isn't the same thing as reading it in a hard newspaper. Yes, there's lot of negativity (also reality), and puerile journalism coming out in those papers. But I think I'm a creature of habit, and giving up altogether on the romance of folding my newspaper to the story I want to read, and sipping my tea alongside, is too precious (and rare) for me to give up completely!
ReplyDeleteGood on you though - I'd give it up for $ as well if it didn't matter as much to me.
Papers just want to give us advertisements. It's a gone business model. Yeah, I agree about the romance of reading paper and drinking tea and later using that paper for putting under the lunch plates or something :D haha
DeleteFuture is online, whether we like it or not :D
for me , twitter is better than any news paper and channels.. I'm following tech handles, they bring the news directly to my phone via text..and as you said google news have local news too.. And i'm missing TV too,waiting for that post too
ReplyDeleteditto here. no tv, no newspapers. difference is my family uses both. i usually read the corners of the paper that stick out from around my breakfast plate (and watch tv out of the corner of my eye while on the PC). not because of the need to filter stuff and all, but because i've realized i already know everything i care about from twitter. i don't even read news online, cos i just don't care.
ReplyDeletealso, i don't care for biases. even twitter is biased. i use my own sanity filter :)