There’s so much so-called “news”, but most of it is just noise. In this situation, it seems easiest to either A) get consumed by it, trying to follow everything and reading every “he said what?”-piece posted or B) become more or less apathetic and avoid news altogether.
To be able to make proper choices and help move things in the right direction, B) is not an option, as you need to understand current events to at least a minimal level, but A) leaves you just as clueless, overflowing with useless information, with a heavily worn-down ability to be source critical, not remembering where you read any given “fact”.
So how do you keep up to date with current events? Have you found a good way? Am I mistaken in my above assessment?
Why not a middle-ground? Stay informed, but don’t read everything?
I lean heavily towards A, but I don’t read every newsflash there is. I tend to keep track of major events, reading up on past news if there’s need for background information.
I don’t need to hear everything Musk or Trump says, but if there’s a major news that require some context I read up on that.
I think the problem is that the media reports everything Musk and Trump says, so having an effective way to filter through everything to get at what keeps me informed is not straightforward. This wouldn’t be an issue if news outlets acted more as a filter and reported only on the more essential developments with proper analysis to go with it. In my country, the main page of our main news outlet will report Justin Bieber having a baby as breaking news on the front page, alongside notices of American “celebrities”’ demise (I put it in quotes, because they need to refer to the character they played in a 90s sitcom because nobody knows their names), and five articles about the same unfolding event.
Just eye the headlines and skip the ones not interesting?
“Justin Bieber is having a baby” is a headline read, and article skipped. Thus to amount of energy is given and you can focus on other news of more interest.