# Should we feel guilty for not consuming news 24/7?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-we-feel-guilty-for-not-consuming-news-24-7/840871>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [September 26, 2019, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-we-feel-guilty-for-not-consuming-news-24-7/840871 "2019-09-26T19:55:59Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![guizot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guizot/32/3636_2.png) [@guizot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/guizot)\
**Post date:** [September 30, 2019, 1:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-we-feel-guilty-for-not-consuming-news-24-7/840871/21 "2019-09-30T13:35:19Z")

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> [@Icarus](#):
>
> The 24 news providers discovered that it is not the content of the news that keeps people watching, it is the emotional context of the delivery (urgency or outrage, usually). . . . With news, many people don’t understand that they are being manipulated emotionally.

Yes, and while most do this, Fox does it far more than any other.

Most “news” out there is, in fact, mindless entertainment, effectively, for people with few, if any, critical thinking skills. Indiscriminately consuming more of it doesn’t make one any better informed.

There is enough good information available to know what one needs to know, without constant consumption, but it requires active critical engagement and judicious selection of sources. Television and click-baits are mostly useless for this, and just really inefficient ways to do it anyway, but most people are lazy, and that’s all they get. Facebook–as mentioned above–is even worse than Fox, because it’s disinformation that can masquerade as person-to-person communication, and takes people down conspiracy rabbit holes even more quickly.

In any case, neither quantity nor “guilt” is the issue here.

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**Author:** ![Chad\_Sudan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chad_sudan/32/4509_2.png) [@Chad\_Sudan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chad_Sudan)\
**Post date:** [September 30, 2019, 1:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-we-feel-guilty-for-not-consuming-news-24-7/840871/22 "2019-09-30T13:59:41Z")

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I regret having spent so much of my life as a news/politics junkie.

Simply taking in the news didn’t help me, and it didn’t help the country in the slightest.

We’re all so focused on the highest echelons of the government, which is understandable. But if the ordinary person really wanted to make a difference, I think it would make far more sense to focus on one’s own community.

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