Am I informed?
June 6, 2011 § 1 Comment
I’ve never been a news junkie, but I used to be pretty good about keeping up with what was happening in the world around me. Over the past few years, however, I quit keeping up with the news. For awhile I just didn’t have a lot of time to keep up with anything other than Apple, but I still didn’t pick it back up over the past year when that changed. I think part of the reason was a desire to simplify the information I was taking in; the other reason was I found it kind of depressing. It can really feel like doomsday out there sometimes. Facebook has contributed as well. I tend to be well informed about things I would typically care about from my friends.
An interesting example with Facebook was when the terrible earthquakes hit Japan. I immediately found out about it through FB and also found out the most important information, that my friends and their families were all ok. I didn’t want to watch the repetition of images of destruction on TV. Through FB, I also found out about a number of relief programs I could help contribute to. I was informed in a personal way and there was something I could do about it.
I know I need to do more than just rely upon FB & friends to keep up to date. I want to be informed myself. I know in my desire to shut out the bad stuff, I’m also shutting out a lot of important & interesting stuff as well. This week I want to look into a few things when it comes to the news:
1) Who do I want to inform me? (yes, I will even give Fox News a fair glance)
2) How often do I want to be informed? (daily? weekly?)
3) What aspects of the news do I want to keep up with? (Sports? not likely. A new interest in local Boulder news? probably.)
It may seem like a silly thing to spend a week contemplating, but so much has changed in how you can get news (and even what qualifies as news), I don’t know that going back to my old habits makes sense. Plus, I will be in NY this week and I can think of few better cities to be asking these questions in.
52 To Do 
CNN has a daily morning news email that I get every day. It shows the top 2-4 headlines in each of the categories they cover. You can click on it if you want more info, or just continue with your day. However, if you’re not in the mood for news you can just skip it all together and hit delete.
I love it and it works very well for keeping me informed on the big stuff, even in entertainment, and it takes less than 10 min to scroll through. Just a tip.