As of March 14th I am on a 23 day No TV News steak. I've only had a few missteps...moments when I felt that I had to get back “on the TV news grid” and that was due to seeing if school was cancelled because of bad weather and...most recently...the impact the Coronavirus is having on my job. I'm using the Steaks app to keep track of this. It’s actually pretty cool, you can set it up so that it automatically counts that you did NOT do something each day...meaning that you have to go in manually change it if you “fall off the bus.” Why you might be asking am I trying to stay away from TV news? Shouldn't a responsible citizen be watching the news nightly...especially in the middle of a world pandemic?
I've heard arguments that posit if the news doesn't have a direct impact on your daily life why bother watching? I agree with this mindset and have gone through phases in the past where I have adhered to this mentality for great lengths of time. There are several reasons I'm trying again...
1. The current political state.
2. The manner in which TV news evokes feelings of fear, panic, stress, anxiety, and hate... just to name a few.
3. Watching TV in general is sedintary.
One could argue that listening to a podcast (one of my favorite pastimes) is...like watching TV news...just as sedintary. Unless, like me...you do your podcast listening on a treadmill. And yes I know...you can watch TV on a treadmill. When I get right down to it...the reason I’m trying this again is that I just don't like how watching TV news makes me feel inside.
So...what have I been doing with all of that TV news time?
1. Listening to more podcasts.
2. Watching fun stuff on TV with my wife.
3. Going for walks with my wife.
4. Writing blog posts.
All of these things bring me joy and contribute to me cultivating a sense of mental silence...so I'm going to keep this up.
There are some that say not keeping up with the news is the equivalent of burying your head in the sand. I'm not sure I agree with that. I do keep up with the news. I read things on the Internet...mainly Tech Blogs. I’ve found that if you pick the “right ones” you will get your share of current events “bleeding in.” Case in point, due to the massive impact the Coronavirus is having on all things Tech, I am learning a lot about “it” through the blogs I read. I also listen to news (NPR News Briefs) on my Amazon Alexa. I find these 3-5 minute updates (once in the morning and once in the afternoon when I get home from work) to be very informative and if I want to know more about any of the stories covered...I have the Internet and trusted sources to delve deeper.
So, as you can see, I'm not totally off the “news grid.” I'm just making the choice not to plop myself in front of the TV each night for 90 minutes to watch local and national news and that decision, as I stated earlier, is providing me the opportunity to cultivate a little bit more mental silence...something I think we could all use a little more of right now!
