Adults should actually know what’s going on in the world?

[Dailywalk]

Is it important to keep up to date on ‘current affairs’. What would you think if someone said they’d rather be unaware of what is going on in the news. If it’s something that’s really important and will affect them then they will find out eventually. It doesn’t change to know al the ‘details’

Interested to know what people think. Is it important to be aware of what’s going on in the news?

*little bearing

News is addictive and like someone else posted 'selective.' We're living in a world of massive 'information-overload.' I don't watch any news at all. Absolutely no interest to 'take on global' problems. What do you DO with the news anyway. Does it in anyway enhance your life? Or does it fill your head with yet more useless information that you don't need. 9 times out of 10 it's bad news/devastating problems that you can do nothing about. I feel much the same though about social-media and todays younger generation who cannot live their lives 'away from their screens'... ( i do love NetMums though some discussions like this one are very intriguing)

I'm 50/50 at the moment because recently every time I watched the news it was making me feel terribly anxious and depressed and I had to have a break for mental health reasons and being oblivious for a while really helped me focus on my priorities in the little world that I have instead of trying to worry about the whole world, which seems basically fucked at the moment. I wouldn't judge someone for it. I've started following a bit of news again now, but I know people who are obsessed with it and others who don't follow.

I keep abreast of the news but if someone doesn’t want to I don’t think less of them.
My dsis has mh issues and the news can affect her badly for days.

Being rude about someone not watching the news just proves that being informed hasn’t stopped some people from still being smug and unpleasant.

I am interested in politics and generally read my news. We used to watch the 6 0'clock news every night but stopped that just at the first lockdown due the constant negative stories. I get that was needed to some extent but the constant 24 hour availability of news on tv does have a negative impact.

And the thing is the people in the current government will be responsible for turning people away from politics. People have real issues and yet see these clowns having parties abs generally being idiots. No wonder people lose Interest.And watching them in parliament is just a joke. They all act like children.

Thanks for the responses. Personally I do think it’s important to be aware but I’m struggling to understand why I think that. Why should it matter if I know about the volcano in Tonga or Australia deporting Novak Djokovic? It doesn’t really but I’m interested and glad I do. Is ignorance really bliss?

I mainly get the news from radio or radio talk shows. I like phone in shows as that usually helps to hear other peoples opinions on a current topic. I agree with those that have said if someone has lived through something the least we can do is hear about it.

Completely understand stepping back from it for MH issues (the non stop Covid updates in the early days helped nobody).

@Dailywalk

Thanks for the responses. Personally I do think it’s important to be aware but I’m struggling to understand why I think that. Why should it matter if I know about the volcano in Tonga or Australia deporting Novak Djokovic? It doesn’t really but I’m interested and glad I do. Is ignorance really bliss?

I mainly get the news from radio or radio talk shows. I like phone in shows as that usually helps to hear other peoples opinions on a current topic. I agree with those that have said if someone has lived through something the least we can do is hear about it.

Completely understand stepping back from it for MH issues (the non stop Covid updates in the early days helped nobody).

There are plenty of bad things happening world over, every second, that you won't be aware of. Things like become 'common knowledge', like Novak are just what happened to make it to the top stories via all the algorithms. Doesn't mean they're newsworthy.

For example there were bad floods in my home country - was it on the front/home page or on any newsfeeds? Nope. There were articles here and there, under 'country' pages. However sometimes news about Australian bushfires, and the like are on homepages. Why is this considered more 'newsworthy' than the floods?

I strongly disagree with the fact that if 'someone' has lived through something the least you can do is hear about it. It's not your job to solve the world's problems.

It IS your job to know about general, world impacting news (like COP26, Russia vs Ukraine cuz NATO), specific news related to a causes you support, and more importantly your local news.

People in other countries(including mine) need to solve their own problems. The whole world knowing about it doesn't actually help, unless they donate to relevant charities - that is, if said charities aren't a vehicle for corruption and terrorist financing.

Anyway I digress.

A lot of people I know btw 'know' a lot of things. As someone else said being well-read is not the same as being well-informed.

@Continentalmama

I agree it can be overwhelming at times but one thing my mum said when I was younger and upset about a news article has always stuck with me 'if these people have had to live through this then the least we can do is know about it'. I think it is incredibly important to have a basic understanding of the political landscape of the world as well as hearing about the struggles other countries/people/communities are going through even if it doesn't effect you and you can't help. But I also think there is a limit, and it also helps to read 'positive' news stories to balance out.

^THIS.

I totally get that some people have MH issues or get too upset to cope when they hear of the terrible things that are happening in other parts of the world, but I doubt that applies to the vast majority of people who can't be bothered or simply tune out.

The unfortunates who live in war zones, areas of water shortage and/or famine, refugee camps and countries where political and human rights suppression is the norm - they are people like us, and they deserve our awareness and compassion, and ideally any practical help we may be able to offer via charitable contributions, as well as understanding and dissemination of their plight.

Apologies for sounding like I'm preaching, but this is something I feel quite strongly about.

@Dailywalk

Thanks for the responses. Personally I do think it’s important to be aware but I’m struggling to understand why I think that. Why should it matter if I know about the volcano in Tonga or Australia deporting Novak Djokovic? It doesn’t really but I’m interested and glad I do. Is ignorance really bliss?

I mainly get the news from radio or radio talk shows. I like phone in shows as that usually helps to hear other peoples opinions on a current topic. I agree with those that have said if someone has lived through something the least we can do is hear about it.

Completely understand stepping back from it for MH issues (the non stop Covid updates in the early days helped nobody).

The thing is though it's easy to read about stuff that interests you. But it doesn't interest everyone. Life is generally pretty busy so not carving out time to learn about stuff that doesn't interest you happens.

And whilst I agree that the covid updates at the start of lockdown were over the top I also understand why they were there. It's not quite true to say they didn't help anyone - they helped the government. The government needed people to be frightened as it would mean much more compliant population re lockdown measures.

It's very difficult to sift through the political spin sometimes on stories

Watching the news ( UK, BBC or ITV) doesn’t give you any idea about what is going on in the UK, let alone the rest of the world, with the exception of the US and anywhere that sport is happening and people that are popular are competing (as in the Djokovic shenanigans at the Australian open)…
At the moment, we are hearing about Russia because UK troops are deployed, but I haven’t seen anything recently about what is happening in Romania or Belarus. China is exterminating certain religious groups in concentration camps - no, nothing about that, either. And there is far too much focus on unimportant stuff, like alleged rule-breaking over COVID ( which has no affect on most people at all, if you think about it, because outrage, genuine or false, isn’t really newsworthy), or what’s happening in the US - which again, affects very few people in a meaningful way.
So while I agree that adults should know what’s going on in the world, I don’t agree that anyone can find out from the TV, given the narrow and edited context of our normal news channels…

But that awareness is mostly an illusion. Yes it's good to be aware of Ukraine, but what about Eritrea, South Sudan, Nicaragua, Malaysia, Bangladesh?

How much awareness is needed? I follow French and Italian elections pretty closely due to personal ties, but I couldn't physically do that even for Western Europe never mind the rest of the globe.

Many of the places I'm interested in never make the news at all, not for major or minor issues, political, environmental or scandal. We only read what the algorithms have calculated will garner clicks and sell newspapers.

I do think people should have an awareness but at times it does affect my mood and I feel no guilt taking a break from it.

I find it easier to keep up now as there are current affairs podcasts I can follow without engaging in the rolling news cycle. I listen to a few that are pretty general and some focussed on things that interest me personally. I especially like podcasts that are a little more lighthearted as well.

I find it quite frightening that so many people on here, intelligent sounding people, seem to think 'the news' is an actual thing, a genuine collection of the most important events of the day. Its a list of stories an editor thinks will be entertaining (even if they're shocking and awful still entertainment) watching 'the news' does not make you informed on the genuine, important issues of the day. Its 5 or 6 stories selected from the billions of political events that happened that day.

@MrsTerryPratchett

If you don't care and don't engage, that's your choice.

But don't then think your reckons are as right as my properly thought out, reasonable, considered, educated opinion.

Choosing to know nothing, read nothing and learn nothing? Great. Avoid referenda!

I agree. I get so tired of hearing people trot out ludicrous statements about all sorts of shite, because they can't be arsed to inform themselves.

Some of my ILs are shocking like that. I had to explain to MIL that the age of consent is different in parts of America from the age of consent in the UK, so the fact that Virginia Giuffre was over 16 was meaningless. She was adamant that the queen's favourite son hadn't done anything wrong. She didn't understand what being trafficked meant or that someone isn't consenting if they do so under duress.

And one BIL and SIL reckon that the NI increase won't affect poor people because they don't pay NI. They spend more than the NI threshold on their summer holiday, ffs.

To be fair to the OP, she didn't mention "watching the news". She talks about being up to date with what's going on in the world. We have more ways than ever to achieve that.

I also understand that too much news can be overwhelming. I had to delete news apps and purposely watched fluff like "say yes to the dress" in March 2020 as the constant covid covid covid was destroying my mental health.

But I do think it's important to know about the major issues and news stories going on. OK, Putin potentially invading Ukraine, changes to the Highway Code or the fuss over Djokovic and his visa might not affect you directly, but there has been so much coverage that it's hard to avoid.

I don't really have time for people who wear their ignorance and unwillingness to engage with news or issues as a badge of honour though.

The news is too miserable. There is literally nothing positive in it and it majorly affects my mental health. I actively avoid the news and have done for years. It’s been better for me and I have no intention of going back.

@Bingomangoes

I find it quite frightening that so many people on here, intelligent sounding people, seem to think 'the news' is an actual thing, a genuine collection of the most important events of the day. Its a list of stories an editor thinks will be entertaining (even if they're shocking and awful still entertainment) watching 'the news' does not make you informed on the genuine, important issues of the day. Its 5 or 6 stories selected from the billions of political events that happened that day.

People do get that. They know the news doesn’t just magically appear out of the ether, written by news fairies.

The hope is you follow enough reputable outlets to get a broad overview of events journalists you trust deem to important enough to report on.

Moltenlasagne and sanbeiji You said it well.

A lot of people don't realise how much they truly don't know when all they do is consume what's been shown to them. They then declare themselves knowledgeable about the world. All they know is what makes the "popular news" and it's not even half of what's happening everywhere.

I like finding out what is going on in the world and it means I also understand the industry I work in better.
Similarly it means I understand what other people are talking about and can explain to my daughter better about what she is learning at school.
I think the news refusers are talking about the morbid awful news that is on repeat on some news feeds. I feel the BBC and Times and Economist doesn’t dwell on the horrors so much.

Some of what is reported as “news” is information about what is happening on Love Island and Strictly etc that “news” can get to fuck.

I expect for some people not watching news programmes or keeping up with current events is a coping strategy of some kind, to help their well being.

A general awareness of topical issues is what keeps my days trundling along. (I work in a pharmacy, a lot of people waiting for 5 min or so). A chat about covid, tennis, Ukraine, energy prices etc makes the time fly. Even the good old British weather.

I can't talk about this stuff with my colleagues as the 3 I tend to work with have decided that "news is just toxic" and insta/tiktok are the modern day discussion points... fair enough, but it is so frustrating speaking with colleagues who spend all their downtime on their phones or online but know bog all about anything, they spend their lives watching other people live the lives they want to be leading.

I took my umbrella in a couple of weeks ago... response "its not raining"... no, but it was due to for my walk home... you'd have thought I was a witch or something when lo and behold it started raining before I left...

@SlidingInto2022sDMs

Moltenlasagne and sanbeiji You said it well.

A lot of people don't realise how much they truly don't know when all they do is consume what's been shown to them. They then declare themselves knowledgeable about the world. All they know is what makes the "popular news" and it's not even half of what's happening everywhere.

But you can't possibly know what's happening everywhere. 200 odd countries in the world, then national and local news? You'd spend all day reading, listening or watching and still wouldn't keep up. You have to be selective.

But having a broad overview of major events like volcanoes in Tonga or the threat to the Ukraine is a different matter.

A pp said that they can't switch the pictures off in their head - That's how it affects me too.
I used to be a news junkie, I like to be informed, but it has just got to the stage that it is too much. Too much info, too much detail. Too many things that I can't change, so I'd just be a voyeur of someone else's suffering.
I used to enjoy contributing to debates with people, but everyone is so polarised now, there's no debating, just shouting down other people's perspectives and the news reinforces this. Journalists often give personal and unbalanced information, that is more opinion based than fact. I might read more again if I had a reputable unbiased source.