I Stopped Reading News and You Should Too

When I was a student, we were often encouraged to read newspapers to keep up with the latest developments of our nation and society. This is the case because it will broaden our horizons and exposure just so that we will have enough topics to sit for our language essay exams. As a Malaysian Chinese, we will be assessed for our language competencies in English, Bahasa Melayu, and Chinese. Hence, it is imperative for us to have a decent grasp of the social issues and news to be prepare for these arduous composition papers.

Nevertheless, I never cared about landing my hands on a newspaper or sitting in front of the TV for an evening news broadcast with my family. In fact, I am also not paying serious attention to my academics because playing and having fun is all I wanted as a young, ebullient child. Hence, reading and learning outside the syllabus is never on my radar at all.

However, growing up, I came to fell in love with reading news articles as I became mature enough to appreciate the value of keeping up with the latest hits within the nation and overseas. It gives me so much insight into the technology realm and awareness about the sophisticated scamming techniques that we need to beware of. I am also particularly fascinated by those articles that possess incredible grammar and unusual vocabularies.

I have downloaded news aggregator applications such as Newswav, Luminews, Flipboard, Pressreader on my phone, and also be on the lookup to big media such as Malaysiakini, FMT News, and Berita Harian. I even appreciate that Microsoft Start, which is also a news aggregator that is built-in to the Windows operating system and Microsoft Edge browser. Every time when I am craving for news to read, I would just hover over the "News" icon and Microsoft Start will appear as a compact widget in the corner of the screen.

As time passed, I realized that my passion for news-hunting had slowly faded out. In turn, it was superseded with anxiety and stress. Almost every title that I've come across is click-baity and misleading. A minor issue can be twisted and turned into a societal racial conflicts. Some of them are also politically instigating that will turn your peaceful mind into a rambling mess of chaos. Arrogant and senseless politicians are featured again and again in headline about their frivolous and unsubstantiated remarks that does not bring any values to the readers. It's just a waste of time. Not to mention the comments section are toxic as they are always inundated with egoistic and xenophobic trolls that leave countless nasty comments that will make you question your sanity.

Moreover, there are a lot of heart-wrenching events that are being uncovered in the news. Mass killings, horrific traffic accidents and animal abuse exposures just left me down in the dumps. It is infuriating that people would commit such heinous crimes for absolutely no reason. When you think about it, there is nothing we can do for these mishaps. We are powerless, at least the majority of us are. We are just a commoner, living by monthly wages and striving to live a decent life. What's the point of spending time to read such news that would just leave us in emotional despair?

It has been 4 months since I stopped pursuing news and there is no looking back. I deleted every single news-related apps on my phone and taught the YouTube algorithm to not recommend those contents on my home feed. I felt revitalized and am grateful that I made the right choice. I felt my anxiety has been alleviated and my mental wellbeing restored. I am able to make full use of my time on creative tasks such as programming and writing rather than contemplating what's happening in the world.

To sum it up, keeping up with the news brings more negative than positive impact to our lives. If there is anything happening that would impact our lives in any way shape of form, we'll most probably heard it from our family or friends already. We don't need no news to dictate our lives.