I dated a self-avowed news junkie in high school and ended up marrying
him (and he became a political science professor). This association made me a little more aware of what was going on in the world, but it
didn't make me like The News any more. It's still very dry and boring. At
least, though, it did make it a little easier for me to understand because I
can always just ask him about anything I hear or care about. Even though I don't like watching the news, I
do realize that it's important for people to be educated and to know what's
going on, especially when it comes to voting.
I think this is one reason that people vote by party. Keeping up with
what's going on in the world involves a lot of time and effort. It's easier to
just pick a side and always vote for their candidates. That may sound lazy, or even horrifying to some
people, but I think it's better than just picking someone based on, say, their
looks, or a few things they've said, without really investigating who they are or
what they stand for (which seems to be what many people do). At least, one should be able to know, from experience, what each of the two main parties stand for.
Whenever I read the newspaper (which is not often), my favorite parts are usually
the comics (what we used to call "The Funnies"), the entertainment
section, and perhaps the lifestyle or food section. I
can't be bothered to read the hard news, sports, weather, real estate,
classified, etc. I have better things to do.
This is probably why I never really thought about going into journalism
much when I was younger. I did take Journalism in 9th grade, and I enjoyed it, but I
guess I thought that if I went into that field, I would be required to learn
more about the news. It never occurred to me when I was younger that I could
have done entertainment news, like I do now on my site.
If I do read or watch The News, it always seems like it's made so you can just skim it. The important facts are up front,
and then the rest is just details or filler. I usually lose interest after the
first few paragraphs (or minutes if it's TV news). I know I'm not the only one
who feels this way.
It's much easier now to find news because of the
internet and cable TV. In fact, I feel like there is
too much news, coming at you from all sides, all the time. I don't know how
anyone keeps up with it all. I suspect that most people have some certain sites that they read, or a favorite cable news channel that they watch, and they rarely read or watch any others. Even if one is not trying to learn about current
events, it's all over social media. I hear about news on
Facebook and Twitter more than anywhere else. That's probably because I have over 1000 friends/followers, many of whom are either political scientists or news junkies. If
anything important happens, they post about it, or they post a link to an article.
Then I can always look for more information, if it interests me. The same is true for comedy news shows, which is the other place I find news. I watch a
lot of these shows because they're funny and more interesting than the regular news. I used to watch some of
them with my husband and his mom (when she lived with us), so I got hooked on
watching The Daily Show and other shows like it.
Unfortunately, most people don't have a political science
professor to live with, and only about 34% of Americans are college graduates, so I think the rest tend to
believe anything they hear or read in the news, whether it's biased, or whether it's spreading fear and hatred.
For some reason, many people want to read and hear only tabloid news. I don't
read or watch any of that type of news, whether it's coming from the right or
left. I'm able to discern what's factual and what isn't, if I put my mind to it. Having been on the internet for the past
24 years, I have developed a great fake-news-radar. If someone sends me news via email, or
posts something online, I can usually tell if it's not true. If it sounds too
bad (or too good) to be true, then it usually isn't true. I know where to look up the truth.
I don't trust any news that's from certain sites or news organizations. I'm right
about 99% of the time. I wish everyone could be less gullible that way. I'm not
trying to sound superior or anything. I didn't set out to fine-tune my fake
news radar. It just comes from being online so long, and from having many
internet friends from all walks of life.
Over the years, I've come
to learn more about The News and Politics than I ever wanted to. I still find
it boring and depressing, but I try to keep up, a little bit more than I used to. After the last election, I think most people decided to
pay a little bit more attention to what's going on in the world (particularly
here in the U.S.). Subscriptions to newspapers and magazines rose. I used to
only subscribe to entertainment magazines, cooking magazines, and the occasional computer magazine, but
I added Vanity Fair to the list. I also subscribe to the New York Times, a
paper I previously had little use for (since they have no comics section). They send out a "Morning Briefing"
via email, which suits me just fine. I can skim through that, and if anything
catches my interest, I just click on their link to read more. Their paper is very informative and strives to be honest and unbiased.
I still don't like reading or watching The News,
particularly anything sad or depressing. I already know that animals, children and adults get sick,
die or suffer miserably. I don't need to know the details. I don't like to
dwell on the bad things that go on in the world, and I can't do anything about most of it. I know that these terrible things happen, and
why. Usually it's from human greed and
selfishness. Even when there's a devastating natural disaster, the causes are sometimes
traced back to humanity. I don't hate people, but we do a lot of awful things
to ourselves and to each other. Thinking about it makes me angry and sad. I don't
need more stress in my life.
Now, pass the funnies! 😉
