Dexter wrote:This is a pretty good daily digest of the news

http://www.vox.com/vox-sentences

The site does have a bit of a left-leaning bias

I made a shortcut to it. Thanks Dexter!

I wrote a comment about current events in Ferguson, but it must have been too controversial; I think it was deleted by the administrator...or maybe I didn't do it right...whatever !

I seriously doubt it was deleted. We don't delete controversial posts around here. We encourage them.

You may have clicked a wrong button and thereby didn't actually "Submit" it. How long ago was this? And what was the name of the forum in which you posted it? I can look through the logs to see if perhaps your post was deleted or moved to a different forum.

Edit:

I just reread what you said. So you tried to post a comment right here in this thread? I'll go look through the logs.

We tell kids not to watch certain television programs or movies because they are "too violent" and yet the news, stuff happening in the real world is more violent then the stuff we tell them not to watch. Sure the news is important but only depending on the relevancy to how much it means to that individual. Weather, local news, traffic updates all that kind of stuff is need to know but for the most part the news has become filled with small stuff and nonsense that we could all probably go without and do just fine.

It wasn't that important. It was something like this: if you don't watch the news, you would have no idea what's happening in Ferguson and other cities and why, until you got a demonstration in your own neighborhood. I said something about the fact that there have been flyers being distributed listing certain "targets", etc. That marshal law may be declared, etc. All in the current news. And if you don't watch the news, you may not realize what and why your neighborhood is under attack.
Again, it wasn't important...just let it go.

Danimorg62, I think deciding what's relevant to you is an important part of it. Trying to follow everything that's happening around the world can be overwhelming, and not always helpful. It's a fractal, and it sounds like hearing about so many terrible events was taking a serious emotional toll on you.

As Dexter suggested, digests are helpful. And I agree with Justin that there's a lot of news that you don't need to know. As you mentioned earlier, if something really important happens, there's a good chance you'll hear about it through friends, family etc.

Hopefully, you can find a balance between being informed about important global events and social issues, and not feeling like it's taking over your life.

The guy who wrote The Four Hour Work Week had an interesting take. Basically, he was (is) of the view that listening to news programs is unimportant. But hearing about the news around the water cooler or like place brings you up to speed about the big ticket items daily (if it's important enough, someone will talk about it), while at the same time as giving you a conversation topic.

News programs are just that, programs made to attract a daily following ie ratings. There might be one or even no truly newsworthy stories depicted on that news program for that day (even if plenty of newsworthy action actually happened in the world). But there will be the cyclic bimonthly story about drugs being out of control, or half yearly story about unemployed people wanting/not wanting to work, or weekly story about a celebrity off the rails, or a daily story about that weird thing of our own design, namely the economy, being naughty or nice. Cyclic programming of "soft" news is the very essence of TV news programming; news programmers know where eighty percent of their show is coming from months in advance, even if the faces on the night change, so as to speak. So, again, I guess I would say that "news" is important even if a lot of what news programs show is not so important.

Hearing about the news around the water cooler may already be tainted with inaccurate information or slant, and many people are not working, so the water cooler is not applicable to many people. Not that news is not slanted by some TV stations, radio programs, and newspapers. My daughter remarked recently that she never realized that the news she hears are slanted towards one opinion or another, one political belief or another...and I just chuckled !!! I guess everybody has to do what is right for them. I, personally, listen to the news several times a day.

The Vox link Dexter put here is working well for me - I scroll thru and click on what I find relevant or interesting without having to filter thru what I consider "news junk" (or maybe, "junk news"). I'm bypassing a great deal of important information - I'm sure of it - but I'm keeping abreast of what I choose to keep abreast of and don't at all feel I'm living under a rock. I'm also relieved to be free of (most of) the many three second images I'm used to getting from the shock-value headlines.

I agree that if something happens I need to know about, I will find out.

Yes, JJ_Co - ratings, ratings, ratings! It's incredible, the lead-in local news stations strive for, trying to lure the audience to stay tuned. It would be comical if it wasn't so.. pathetic.

DK Mok - interesting avatar. What does it signify?

Danimorg62, I'm glad you're finding a system that works for you.

Regarding my avatar, when I first started getting published, I didn't have an author photo for my website or social media. The only picture I had that remotely summed up my personality was a stick figure I'd drawn as part of a webcomic, and now it's sort of become my online face. It was originally drawn to represent the ambivalence I felt at having graduated with a degree in psychology, but then my becoming a fantasy writer instead of a psychologist. The flower growing out of the figure's head alludes to lovely things growing from unexpected origins.

Also, it does look a lot like me. Just imagine a hat instead of the flower