Self-Imposed News Blackout
I've been really behind in my reading for what seems like the last several years. Reading books that usually took no time to finish seems to stretch into ungodly lengths, and don't even mention keeping up with all the magazines I subscribe to. Add on top of that the New York Times that I receive every day, and, as you can imagine, it adds up to a lot of reading material to devour during a given day, week, month.
When I leave for any amount of time, naturally, I suspend my paper delivery. And while I can still buy the paper when I'm at home, I still feel less a sense of obligation to read it thoroughly or on time, and I feel much more relaxed with regard to my reading schedule, if you want to call it that.
I'm not sure why I had never thought of this before, but why can't I suspend it for a time even while I'm home? There's nothing that says I can't still be here and not have it delivered for a time, right? Right, so I figured I'd try it for a few days to try to finish a book that's been lingering on my nightstand, and just to give myself a break from it all. How would this turn out?
It turns out that, I didn't miss being out of the loop all that much. While I did feel a certain sense of unawareness, and even out of touch with the world for a bit (I really do not look at news sites on the web. I can't stand reading them, and would much rather have a newspaper in my hands than staring at at screen.) and somewhat ignorant of events, I soon felt a little sense of relief. It was nice not feeling the obligation to have to read the paper every day. I wouldn't want to do this all the time, but the break did serve its purpose and allowed me to catch up and finish my book and just live a little easier.
The other thing I noticed, though, was that I was out of the loop enough to have any sort of anger at the affairs of the world subside substantially. I think you have to be a truly devout critic of the president to hate him 24/7, but it's really hard to muster up any sort of animus towards him when I wasn't reading the paper on a daily basis and, primarily, the editorial page, that lambastes him daily.
I don't think I want to live without the news on a such a frequent basis, but I do believe I will be taking these respites even when I don't leave town more often in the future.
5 comments:
[gently rolling my eyes] :) You and my dad! My dad always asks for--well, he doesn't so much ask for as he does respond well when he receives--books for his birthday, Christmas, and Father's Day, so we all tend to get him books and magazines and renewed subscriptions for those occasions. But then what does he say upon opening these gifts? "Arghgh, I have so much to read! YOU got me a book and your BROTHERS got me books and your mom found me the latest issue of [Blah Blah]!" Like he's got a deadline to work with and needs to stick to some tough reading regime now. Why are you guys like this?! :) I get what you're saying here, really--I know the break from the news can be nice--but why not just have them delivered and let them pile up until you get to them? Or discard them without having read them at all if it comes to that? I know, your mind boggles at the thought. Dad never goes for it either. :) --v.
I understand that sentiment, and I will do just as you suggest, let them build up and read them later, but that takes so much more time to go through, it becomes even more of a daunting task. :(
My point, though, was that without the daily paper to rile me up, I felt a little more at ease in life, albeit it was at the expense of also feeling a little out of it. So it's ignorance versus convenience in a duel to the death.
No, I did get that point out of it--it's just not the aspect of it I commented on here. Carry on. :) --v.
Carry on the battle of futility, you mean? :)
kingmob, kingmob, kingmob. :) --v.
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