Warren Ellis –

At the top of the year I turned off pretty much all my news app notifications on my phone. I read the surface of a dozen news providers in the morning over coffee and then put it all away til the evening, when I’ll catch up a bit, read a few longer pieces, then watch a bit of Bloomberg, Newsnight or Peston on television. This is very much an old person’s way of doing news. Read the paper in the morning, watch the analysis in the evening.

I read something the other day that characterises my practise as what is now being called “news avoidance.” Even journalists like Lyse Doucet have checked out of the churn.

(I read a piece in February containing the following quote: “For most people, social media gives you this sense that unless you care about everything, you care about nothing. You must try to swallow the world while it’s on fire.”)

Personally, I just didn’t want my day to be punctuated every thirty seconds by a dozen news providers all sending the same headline about American politics.

But. I have a friend who’s been telling me she wants to talk politics with me but can’t because I’ve “gone zen.” Between that and being indirectly shamed for news avoidance, I think it’s probably time to reconnect with that part of life. A bit.

Go slow. Personally, I can only take a couple of hours of local news and maybe an hour of MSNBC before I get aggravated.