028 No News Is Good News
An experiment to ignore the news
On 4 April 2025 I had a conversation about the state of the global economy with a friend who is an economist. (An actual, works-for-a-central-bank kind of economist.) They said, and I quote, “we’ve all collectively given up”.
We agreed that looking at the news was not helping. It’s rarely reporting, it’s mostly reacting, and that doesn’t actually help anything. I don’t watch the news, or go to news websites, unless I absolutely have to, and yet I still somehow know about what is going on the world. How?
Knowledge of world events seep in, but where? What am I looking at that makes me so aware of stuff that is happening?
So I wondered: could I cut off the world for a week? Could I not find out what is happening in the world without going somewhere completely remote with no signal or wifi?
And, most importantly, would I feel better for it?
Here are my notes on what I became aware of, what I watched, what I saw, and how I felt about it.
5 April 2025
I am aware that Alexander Ovechkin has tied the number of career goals with Wayne Gretzky. It was in the NHL app and I watched a YouTube Video about that.
Via YouTube I have seen thumbnails for videos about Musk and Trump breaking up, but I haven’t watched any. I am aware that Musk might be getting booted out of the White House because his money wasn’t enough to swing an election in Wisconsin. I think that happened last week, but the fall out is this week.
TikTok, Reddit, Discord, all Games, Kindle, and News are already blocked using the Freedom app so that even if I was tempted I couldn’t physically look at them.
Realised that I had to add BlueSky to the blocklist.
Realised that I can’t listen to a few of my favourite podcasts.
Watched Rangers at Devils, and most of Panthers at Senators.
I am aware the Major League Baseball season has started. I don’t really care for baseball. I only enjoy it when it’s in highlight form, or in a Jomboy Media breakdown. I don’t think I could ever sit through an entire game. It’s fascinating to see how they move their bodies to pitch. It’s quite fucked up.
Watched some Toni & Ryan. It is hot, fun garbage. I like hearing people laugh, I like hearing kind Australian accents.
Realised I probably can’t watch Josh Johnson’s posts this week. For the sake of my sanity I’m going to say that sports news doesn’t count. Not because sport isn’t political, it absolutely is, but because there is too much going on in hockey (Ovi, IIHF, playoff wild cards). Besides, I don’t yet hate myself enough to deny myself the agony and ecstasy of the stupid games we make up, and pour millions into, for the sake of soothing ourselves.
Back in 2016 I learned that if I digested the news through comedians then it was easier to process. At least we could have a laugh at how ridiculous the world had become. But none of it was actually funny then, and it’s not funny now. Having to choose between traditional news outlets that keep trying to insist that this is all normal and fine, and comedians who ask us to laugh to stop us from crying..
6 April 2025
Via YouTube thumbnails I became aware of a National Day of Action coming up in the US. I have not investigated this any further.
Getting itchy to look at something that is news related. If only to take my mind off the perfectionist piece.
There is a definite pull or urge when it comes to looking at apps. I shouldn’t be surprised because they are literally designed to trigger that part of our brain that lights up with the good stuff. But this only lights up the sad stuff.
There is a deeply unpleasant fact that I don’t really want to admit to. I can’t say I’m happier for not checking on the news for two days.
I’ve often thought about how spending excessive amounts of time reading the news is a form of self-harm.
Now, I could spend the next two weeks researching and writing about how religion provides all the right conditions and messaging to propagate self-harm. The same could be said of the hyper-individualism that is necessary to support a capitalist society. People who self-harm do so either to punish themselves (religion) or to relieve unbearable states of being (capitalism), or a combination of both.
I often think about whether doom-scrolling, or simply endless scrolling is a coping mechanism; an expression of a yearning for control. I wonder whether it is like other addictions: a misguided attempt to a soothe pain I can’t or don’t want to identify.
Ouch.
There is an interview with Judith Butler on my YouTube dashboard that I really want to watch, but I don’t think I should. At least not yet. I’ll add it to watch later and go back to it.
I am somehow aware that people are being snatched off the streets in the US by plain-clothed ICE officers, and are being sent to Guatemalan prisons. Just straight up Nazi shit.On this day I drove out to the Kelpies to take my mind off things. I was already thinking too much.
I know people use the phrase “touch grass” to mean something derogatory, but honestly, going outside, getting some sunlight, feeling the air, literally touching grass, or water, or snow, or just anything about being in nature is better than ruminating.
7 April 2025
The Freedom app on my phone didn’t synch for a bit last night. I reflexively opened BlueSky and I caught some news. It was just before sleep, and I think it was about tariffs, which I knew about before because of my conversation with my economist friend. Part of the reason I started this in the first place.
One thing that I have noticed is that not looking at the news has forced me to confront things in my own life a lot more. Everything from the state of my underemployment, to the state of the flat-packed wardrobe I still haven't assembled even though I've had it for 4 months.
Perhaps I use looking at the news as a kind of escapism (how perverted). I definitely use it as inspiration for some (a lot?) of my writing. Whereas without it right now I have to deal with what I have already got on my plate. That's probably a good thing.
But perhaps I'm just annoyed that there is no place I can go online without seeing something. The algorithms I've created are still letting things seep in. I wonder how long it would take for news to completely disappear from my feeds.
As we established earlier, sports news doesn’t count. Alexander Ovechkin became the highest scorer in the PMHL. Sorry, the NHL. My attention is slowly, but surely, turning to things that aren’t the state of the world. I can’t say I hate it. I haven’t yet switched out the wardrobes, but it feels as though it has moved up the priority list. There are writing projects getting worked on, happily. Jobs being applied to, nervously. Passive income streams being developed, cautiously. And I’m doing these things with an underlying assumption that the world is just going to go on, whether I know about it or not. Mmm, existential dread, it reminds me of my childhood.
8 April 2025
I watched Chibs Okereke on Perfectionism. It seemed timely as I finished this week’s post on perfectionism. In the video he talks about understanding when things are not your responsibility and when they are God’s responsibility.
I'm looking around thinking that God is shirking on his responsibilities right now.
(God doesn't exist.)
Just read an article about Mickey Rourke being a creeper in Celebrity Big Brother. Does that count as news? It's not a surprise.
I feel like I should re-watch Dr Strangelove or: How I Learned To Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb.On this day I was pissed off because I hate when people say something is God’s responsibility. I’ve said before, it’s a rather convenient excuse as it exempts people from doing anything in this lifetime in the real world.
From 011 Work
And besides, if a god really did exist, who the fuck are we to decide what is and isn’t a god’s responsibility?
9 April 2025
I didn’t see anything today. I did have therapy though, where I talked about this.
I noted to my therapist that the anger I usually feel towards the events that go on in the world, have been turned inwards. I said I wasn’t sure if it was because of my experiment or because I’m premenstrual. Yeah, the self-hatred has been high today.
I'm angry that I care about shit that I know can change if just 3.5% of people do something about it. I wonder how much of this is designed to make us turn our anger inwards. How much of what is happening in the world relies on us being tired or feeling useless? A lot, I would guess. “Flood the zone” and all that.
I think that’s my biggest problem: I wish I didn’t care.
10 April 2025
I did see some news today. Two things via YouTube.
Klandace Owens "getting cancelled" for something. Again. No one ever actually gets cancelled.
And that the US House is going to vote on the SAVE Act, which would ultimately mean that 69 million women, whose names are different to that on their birth certificate, wouldn't be allowed to vote.They do this just to see how far they can go before someone or something stops them. Perhaps this next thought is naive of me, but why doesn’t “the left” (I use that term very, fucking loosely) have a 900+ page playbook for the next 50 years? Why don’t they ever get their shit together enough to beat fascists at their own game? Are they too busy trying to “go high” or appease centrists? McCarthyism is alive and well.
11 April 2025
Another Freedom app synch delay - it happens when I mess with it too much. I did open BlueSky, because I wanted to ask if there are metalheads that listen to bluegrass. Banjo and mandolin go hard. Ended up just scheduling it in Fedica.
I can’t remember where I saw it, but I became aware that that billionaire writer needed to remind everyone they’re a terrible person. Perhaps we should give them their own day so that we can condense all of the attention they crave into a single day in the calendar, instead of making every day a reminder that they are an awful person.I’m old enough to remember the Section 28 playbook in the UK. It’s exactly the same one that is being played out against trans people right now. Don’t fall for it.
Conclusion
It would seem that current events certainly give me something to write about, but that’s not really news to me.
YouTube is pretty much the only site / app that I haven’t blocked, and I can’t because I listen to binaural beats all day to help me concentrate.
Perhaps this wasn’t the most ideal week to do this experiment as not only was I premenstrual, but my anxiety concerning my income situation has been escalating. My only relief here was that time off from concerning myself with the world far outside me, allowed me to focus on the world closer to within, and tackle a few difficult things no matter how unpleasant they were.
By design it is impossible to keep up with everything, and my lovely friend Sophie Chalk reminded me “Pick 2 or 3 issues to keep up to date with and choose wisely.” I won’t allow myself to get swallowed up by it all.
As an immigrant, a queer person, and a woman, I don’t really get to ignore politics. I can’t really switch it off. Politicians make decisions and say things every day about immigrants, LGBTQ+ people, and women that have real life consequences, if not for me here in the UK, then for my friends in the USA, Canada, and Australia.
I don’t know what would be better and what would be worse:
Burying my head in the sand and ignoring the news, only to be completely blindsided by something, such as suddenly not being able to vote or being deported, or
Burying my head in the shit and knowing too much, fearing that the UK will be inspired by the US (as is so often the case) to send people to Guatemala (or Rwanda).
One thing this week has affirmed for me is that it’s not just the news that gets me out of shape, it’s people’s reaction to the news. And that is as much about rage bait as anything else, perhaps more-so. I could definitely do with less of that. Before this I thought I might be able to keep up with news by digesting it through people who make it somewhat bearable (like comedians), but it still just seeps into me being angry and anxious and feeling futile.
Forcing my attention away from this is physical. It’s like I have to force myself to put the blinkers on. I don’t know if I could get used to it, but I know I have to keep doing it; if not for my own sanity, then for my bank account.
THIS WEEK:
Most listened to song: ‘Counting Worms’ by Knocked Loose
Favourite thing I’ve watched: Dr Strangelove or: How I Learned To Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb.
Favourite thing I’ve read: Loveless by Alice Oseman
I’m most excited by: Side ventures.