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?

I got rid of Twitter on my phone. I still go on occasionally via the browser if I follow a link for example. I keep my cookies cleared.

And wow, the difference. Its easy to say Twitter is an echo chamber but until you actually see it with your own eyes it's hard to grasp how true it is. It really opened my eyes, every time I get a new slice of some factions priorities and 'truth' . People who are so blatantly, unrepentantly wrong, yet convinced they're right.

Newspapers and TV stations are the analogue versions of that, but not different in kind, just in degree.

I have a point of view.
You have a bias.
They are stupid and malevolent ideologues.

Most most of it is irrelevant bullshit and people are right to cut that out of their lives. It's just content for attracting eyeballs.

There's important issues of course, but it is actually hard work to do the critical thinking, the tracing of original sources AND THEN do the same story again from another side to get some balance.

Consuming news and current affairs is easy, being truly informed is hard. Even the best intentioned of us can't have a truly informed position on more than a couple of issues.

@RavenclawDiadem
Again, that being a 'major event' is your definition.
Tonga eruption : 'major event' from a natural history POV. From a 'disaster' POV Indian monsoon floods displaced millions of people last year. The monsoons happen every year but are getting worse while in other times there's draught etc.

Ukraine : NATO involvement and they're training with UK weapons so yes, major event.

The point I'm making is that it's hard to define something 'everyone should know'. And by should I mean has enough understanding to chat about the issue beyond just 'oh yeah I saw the headline'/

IMO people should know about things that affect them. So Ukraine, leaving Afghanistan, UK Covid, etc, since we're in the UK. But not unrelated international news.

I wouldn't consider someone uninformed if they had no idea about Tonga. I would however if they had no idea about the build-up of troops in Ukraine. In fact my most 'well-informed' friends who do this for a living (policy researchers, academics, geopolitical risk consultants) would have no idea of 'headline news' behind the actual headlines.

I look at the headlines on the news app. Occasionally read the article. Listen to the news on the radio most mornings.
If something particularly interests me I will make a point of reading updates.
Thats it of me keeping up with current affairs.

@theDudesmummy

Keeping up with scientific as well as political news often provides that balance of bad news and good news that people would like. Try reading the New Scientist every week, it can be very uplifting.

I'd also recommend the New Statesman (no relation) for some interesting perspectivs, the Diplomat for APAC news.

Even the Ukrainians are saying the US/UK etc are over egging the pudding.
Yes, because Ukraine was so happy to have the Crimea forcibly taken off it.

I was talking to someone in 2016, the week after Trump was elected. She was about 25, English, educated, typical middle class upbringing etc. I expressed my shock at his election....and it turned out she had never even HEARD of Trump. Or his recent election. Dismissed it with a 'I don't watch the news' comment. It blew my mind.

The news is full of propaganda and is so biased. They only tell you what they want you to know. I feel like I'm fairly up to date with what's going on in the world, but I definitely don't take what the news says as absolute.i get the basics then look into it myself from other places. Every time I watch the news, it feels like a big brainwashing operation.

@Tsuni

Some of you posters just scream, "Dunning Kruger Effect."

www.mcgill.ca/oss/article/critical-thinking/dunning-kruger-effect-probably-not-real

@madisonbridges

Even the Ukrainians are saying the US/UK etc are over egging the pudding. Yes, because Ukraine was so happy to have the Crimea forcibly taken off it.

The Crimea only became part of Ukraine in 1954. Prior to that it was autonomous or part of Russia.

Heard a story recently about a man who cut himself off from all news after Trump won the election. Gave up his CEO job, moved to a pig farm and blocked out all current affairs. Bit extreme as he basically had to live as a hermit to do it fully, but I do think he sort of had the right idea. Constant streaming news, especially over the last couple of years, has become a major stressor for a lot of people

The Crimea only became part of Ukraine in 1954. Prior to that it was autonomous or part of Russia.
So what? The Soviets transferred it to Ukraine voluntarily so it became part of Ukraine. The Russians can't just decide unilaterally to take it back. They sold Alaska to the Americans. Is it OK for them just to take that back too?

@madisonbridges

The Crimea only became part of Ukraine in 1954. Prior to that it was autonomous or part of Russia. So what? The Soviets transferred it to Ukraine voluntarily so it became part of Ukraine. The Russians can't just decide unilaterally to take it back. They sold Alaska to the Americans. Is it OK for them just to take that back too?

It matters because of the ethnic make up in Crimea, its mostly ethnic Russians how are happy to be under Russias flag. Not all of course, but largely. In that region of the world borders are more fluid that perhaps we island dwellers are used to conceptualising them. I read an American woman whose family came from around there. She, her parents and her grandparents were all born in the same town but in 3 different countries! Pretty mind-blowing, the level of instability.

@Pedalpushers

It's ironic that the people who are so pro-news on here seem to think that:

Don't watch news = stupid, vote brexit, vote Tory, only read the Mail and social media.

Seems watching the news doesn't give you great critical thinking skills?

More ironic in that part of the narrative was that Brexiters were apparently fooled by false news and lies in the newspaper and social medial.

Seems that some folk want it both ways.

Besides even if people read the news etc. it would still be the wrong news from the wrong source.

It matters because of the ethnic make up in Crimea, its mostly ethnic Russians how are happy to be under Russias flag.
The Tatars might not be so happy but that's immaterial. Regardless of why the Soviets decided to give the Crimea to Ukraine, that's a decision they made. It's against international law to march into another country and decide they're going to keep it. If they feel there is a mandate, Russia should negotiate. All Russia has done is made things more unstable.