52 To Do

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.