Page 4 | To think it’s odd that Dfriend has no idea what’s happening in the news

Rightlessmore · 2022-04-07T08:36:33+00:00

Spoke to Dfriend and I mentioned how awful things are in Ukraine. I was surprised when she asked what I meant and it turned out she had absolutely no idea what was happening. This made me wonder how normal this is. To me it seems unavoidable as the information is everywhere, but maybe that’s just my life. I just can’t see how you can’t not know what’s going on and my teenage DC know too. I assumed everyone kind of knows what’s going on in the world at any given time. This Dfriend did seem misinformed regarding coronavirus too and now I can see why. I’m not criticising her - she’s great, but is this common?

Thereisnolight · 07/04/2022 14:01

@Justcallmebebes

Even my 6 year old granddaughter knows what's going on in Ukraine!!

I find it extremely ignorant. I am a current affairs junkie so tend to seek like minded people and would struggle to be friends with someone who was so insular and uneducated

Why are you so shocked that not everyone is a news junkie like you? Basically what you’re doing is sitting around reading partially accurate stuff you have no influence over, about people you don’t know and who don’t know you. Other people do other, possibly better and more productive, things with their lives. Each to their own.

RubbishRobotFromTheDawnOfTime · 07/04/2022 14:03

There’s a lot more to impacting us than that. We vote in our government. How can we know how they’re doing, who to vote for, if we don’t know how they’re responding to things that are happening? We could have the opportunity, say, to vote for a government that would make a positive difference.
I can’t see the deliberate choice to remain in total ignorance (not talking about people understandably not wishing to wallow in the news) as anything other than self-absorption, selfishness and lack of interest in our world.

AlexaShutUp · 07/04/2022 14:10

I'm always astonished at the number of people who think it doesn't matter if you don't know what's going on in the world. Surely in a democracy, we all have a duty to stay informed?

Of course, I understand that some people suffer with extreme anxiety and there is no point in watching the news if it's going to make you ill, but for the vast majority of people, I don't think that's the case. If anything, I would think that a little bit of information without any real knowledge or understanding is more likely to trigger anxiety than actually educating yourself about what is going on.

AlexaShutUp · 07/04/2022 14:13

Why are you so shocked that not everyone is a news junkie like you?
Basically what you’re doing is sitting around reading partially accurate stuff you have no influence over, about people you don’t know and who don’t know you.
Other people do other, possibly better and more productive, things with their lives.
Each to their own.

Do you vote? If so, how do you decide who to vote for if you haven't been following what's going on?

Or do you have better and more productive things to do than voting?

WirlyWillowtree · 07/04/2022 14:13

If she’s like me then she’s not watching news etc because of her mental health. I purposely don’t watch it. I’ve told my DH I’m not interested but if he thinks there's something I should be aware of to let me know.

You probably have no idea of the physical stress if might bring on, for me that means having eczema in lots of awful places which causes me physical pain. Since keeping away from the news I feel a lot better and the eczema is almost gone.

Chiefofstaff · 07/04/2022 14:14

I suspect there’s a lot of people who have no idea what’s going on in the world around them and who don’t even bother to vote in elections. I find it difficult to understand the complexities of a lot of issues but I try to keep up at a level I can make sense of . When people seem proud that they don’t bother to vote it makes me really angry knowing millions of people in the world are denied the right to vote and that it wasn’t that long ago that women weren’t given that right. Women have sacrificed so much for us to cast our vote that not doing so seems disrespectful and blasé. Even if a voting slip is spoiled, everyone should vote.

Greyarea12 · 07/04/2022 14:14

I have a friend like this. Completely oblivious to anything that is going on in the world and I have to say I find it weird. I find it weird that people wouldn't want to know what is happening within the world in which they live. Strange.

katseyes7 · 07/04/2022 14:17

I have a friend who is a primary school teacher.
She doesn't watch the news, and doesn't read newspapers/news online.
I'm absolutely baffled by this. She's very well educated, she's educating other people. Why would you not want to know what's going on?
It makes me wonder how she responds to questions from the kids at school, especially with children that age, we all know how much they question things, and at least some of them must have heard current affairs talked about at home or on tv.

Thereisnolight · 07/04/2022 14:18

@AlexaShutUp

Why are you so shocked that not everyone is a news junkie like you? Basically what you’re doing is sitting around reading partially accurate stuff you have no influence over, about people you don’t know and who don’t know you. Other people do other, possibly better and more productive, things with their lives. Each to their own.

Do you vote? If so, how do you decide who to vote for if you haven't been following what's going on?

Or do you have better and more productive things to do than voting?

Where did I say I didn’t watch the news? I watch it in moderation, bearing in mind that in life I should mostly stick to my own area of expertise.

Imo “news junkies” are people who have a breadth of knowledge but often very little depth once you scratch the surface. They’re easily distracted by the next sensation.

Mainly, I don’t understand people who get all shocked that other people don’t share their own personal interests.

gogohm · 07/04/2022 14:19

I cannot understand how she can not know, I'm guessing she never goes online, social media, in shops etc because help Ukrainians is everywhere not just on the news (where you get the reasons) how can she not be intrigued at least to find out why Ukrainian flags have appeared everywhere???

Sorry it would put me off friendship

Furrbabymama87 · 07/04/2022 14:20

I know a woman like this. She's just so wrapped up in her kids that she doesn't know what's going on in the world and not interested. She's intelligent too so it's not that she doesn't understand things. One example was that she didn't know Sarah Harding had died or been ill despite liking Girls Aloud. I think it's ignorance.

UsernameInTheTown · 07/04/2022 14:23

I suffer with (currently very poorly managed) BPD, Bipolar, severe depression and anxiety. I cannot cope with day to day stresses, let alone news. Unfortunately some news inevitably seeps into my life, but anyone who has a problem with my 'wilful ignorance' can kiss my big fat arse.

canwe · 07/04/2022 14:29

How do these people decide how to vote? How can we teach our DDs about democracy, equality and the fight for suffrage with people like this. I hope that there are as many males as females who act like this but I suspect that is not the case.

AlexaShutUp · 07/04/2022 14:31

Where did I say I didn’t watch the news? I watch it in moderation, bearing in mind that in life I should mostly stick to my own area of expertise.

OK, so this thread isn't about people like you who watch the news in moderation. This is about people who don't know anything at all about what's going on in the world, like the woman in the OP who has no idea about what's going on in Ukraine at the moment.

CouldaShouldaWoulda071 · 07/04/2022 14:42

I'm pretty oblivious to the outside world these days.....I know Russia invaded Ukraine but that's really all I know.....I don't keep up with celebrities.....I don't even know what's going on in the next town unless someone tells me (without me asking) and then I'm more apt to kind of just let it go because it's not something I've witnessed with my own eyes......those are really the only things I'm up to speed on....
Just getting through every day dealing with whatever happens along the way. I'm okay with that personally......lots of inner peace!!

pigsDOfly · 07/04/2022 14:45

I shows an extreme level of incuriosity surely, to have no idea what is happening in the world around you to some extent.

I hope people like the OP's friend don't vote. Although, if the friend is so ignorant of what's happening in Ukraine she probably wouldn't know about elections either.

Does she know we've left the EU, or even that we were ever in it?

waterlego · 07/04/2022 14:45

I’m another one who has to periodically avoid news/current affairs because it can cause sleepless nights and huge anxiety which can lead to further problems (attempting to ‘self-medicate’ in various unhelpful ways).

But there is surely a huge difference between not reading/watching/listening to news stories and not knowing that Russia has invaded Ukraine. I don’t know how anyone could have missed that unless other were just permanently at home and didn’t ever speak to anyone.

ddl1 · 07/04/2022 14:46

I think some people find the news so depressing that they try to avoid it. Others just aren't interested in what's going on abroad or even politically in the UK. After all, about 30% of people don't vote in general elections (and a majority don't in most by-elections and local elections).

There was an American writer who said something like, 'The trouble with most people isn't what they don't know, but their knowing so many things that ain't so'. I wouldn't judge a person for knowing little about the news so long as they admit it and don't pass judgement on things they know nothing about. If they consider that they know everything that needs to be known and that everything is the fault of the immigrants/ the Jews/ the New World Order, then I'd judge them rather more.

SleeplessInEngland · 07/04/2022 14:49

To not be aware of what's happening in Ukraine when it's been headline news for two months is an Olympian level of ignorance. I would definitely judge her accordingly.

thisplaceisweird · 07/04/2022 14:50

Why are you so shocked that not everyone is a news junkie like you?

Only in the UK would knowing about a war on the same continent make someone a 'news junkie'. How sad.

dottydodah · 07/04/2022 14:51

I can see where shes coming from TBH. Its too horrid to watch.I love BBC Breakfast ,but now just grab headlines on phone then straight to BBC2 for Repair Shop or whatever . I have sent a donation ,plan to give more and pray hard for this situation. Watching gory details on a loop is depressing and upsetting . Covid was 100% news most of the time .Even now its still being reported a lot .We have to deal with it,and Boris has stopped LFT tests and jabs for majority of us

SleeplessInEngland · 07/04/2022 14:52

@dottydodah

I can see where shes coming from TBH. Its too horrid to watch.I love BBC Breakfast ,but now just grab headlines on phone then straight to BBC2 for Repair Shop or whatever . I have sent a donation ,plan to give more and pray hard for this situation. Watching gory details on a loop is depressing and upsetting . Covid was 100% news most of the time .Even now its still being reported a lot .We have to deal with it,and Boris has stopped LFT tests and jabs for majority of us

But the OP makes it sound like her friend doesn't even have a clue there's an invasion going on. That's very different.

dottydodah · 07/04/2022 15:04

SleeplessInEngland . Yes thats true ,I had a friend who never bought a Newspaper or listened to the news as well .Oddly for that time neither did her parents! I think they just didnt feel it relevant to them or something like that. Trouble is they wont have a very good grasp of Current Affairs

waterlego · 07/04/2022 15:05

@SleeplessInEngland, that’s how I read it too.

I am currently sitting on the seafront in my town and a few metres away, a Ukraine flag is waving from the flagpole. I have seen lots of Ukraine flags about, as well as blue and yellow displays in shop windows, especially the local charity shops (along with signs in shop windows inviting people to come in and donate money to charities involved). I can’t imagine not noticing that, or noticing it and then not Googling ‘blue and yellow flag’ or ‘Ukraine’ which would inevitably lead to information about the war. I can’t imagine being so utterly incurious or oblivious.

BoredZelda · 07/04/2022 15:08

She does speak a lot about her DC (who are all teenagers now).

Why is that in any way relevant?

We don’t watch the news on TV and the only thing that keeps me up to date with the news is whatever people are talking about on SM, or my daily browse of BBC news at lunchtime at work. I’ve been off work for 3 weeks and haven’t browsed the news at all. If anything exceptional has happened in that time, I’ve only known about it because my husband or daughter has mentioned it. It’s actually been really nice not to see the doom and gloom every day.

People have different interests and some aren’t interested in world news. Doesn’t make them bad people.