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A comment on Giving up reading news will make us happier.

Re:Giving up reading news will make us happier by monster_group on Thursday April 05, 2018 @09:47AM (#16764829)
The problem is that some news is relevant. One of my friends has given up reading or watching any kind of news altogether. At first this seems impressive but when I asked him about how far his house was from the wildfire, he was like "Umm - what wildfire?". He was oblivious to the fact that country's biggest wildfire was just three miles away from his house. He is a very smart and successful guy and it really jolted me how a guy like him could be oblivious to such an important event that could impact his life. The reason - he doesn't watch news.
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Re:Giving up reading news will make us happier by slaydemons on Thursday April 05, 2018 @10:36AM (#16765267)
But he did find out since you told him. That's the whole reason you don't need to read news because if something in the news is actually important you will find out from people talking about it.
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Re:Giving up reading news will make us happier by simmons on Thursday April 05, 2018 @10:22AM (#16765134)
That sounds like something that he should have been alerted to via Reverse 911, but I suppose he wasn't properly registered yet if he just moved. I know my county uses Reverse 911 to notify of wildfires, because I errantly received such a warning a few years ago when it was actually for a wildfire in a different part of the county.
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Re:Giving up reading news will make us happier by roryisok on Thursday April 05, 2018 @09:50AM (#16764860)
Three miles? Did he also give up looking out the window?
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Re:Giving up reading news will make us happier by jensvdh on Thursday April 05, 2018 @09:51AM (#16764866)
Or talking to people in general? That seems incredibly odd.
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Re:Giving up reading news will make us happier by monster_group on Thursday April 05, 2018 @09:59AM (#16764933)
I asked him about if he could not see the smoke. He said the wind direction took the smoke away from his house and some hills obstructed his view. He had just moved into the neighborhood so he wasn't friends with the neighbors quite yet.
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Re:Giving up reading news will make us happier by jackhack on Thursday April 05, 2018 @11:29AM (#16765781)
Wow! I would think the logjam of people stuffing their cars with possessions and getting the hell out of there would have been a clue that something, possibly, was happening that might warrant some further investigation.

There's apparently a fine line between "not ardently following the news" and "not paying attention at all."

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Re:Giving up reading news will make us happier by softawre on Thursday April 05, 2018 @10:16AM (#16765070)
He did find out, he was talking to people (the OP)
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Re:Giving up reading news will make us happier by nthompson on Thursday April 05, 2018 @10:55AM (#16765448)
Are you sure it was three miles? Serious wildfires make your eyes burn 50 miles away.
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Re:Giving up reading news will make us happier by cpt1138 on Thursday April 05, 2018 @11:30AM (#16765795)
The vast amount of non-relevant news makes it hard to wade through it. I agree that any relevant news will make to you via other means (visual, word of mouth, etc.).

There is a reason that news is like this. Adam Curtis and Oh Dearism is a good watch.

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