Do you filter what information you receive?

Selective. I guess everyone is, which is why we choose not to watch fox news.

I follow the information I need to make the right decisions in life, with the understanding that filtering, by the ones supplying the information, probably has already happened. Filtering can also work the opposite way. You can only handle so much information. It sounds to me that you’re doing a great job trying to avoid “borrowing” other people’s emotions. Good for you.

Selective. I wouldn’t dream of watching any of the crap reality shows on TV, which I believe are dumbing down the minds of so many.
Otherwise, I take in the information I’m looking for with the knowledge of the filtering process mentioned above.

I am an information omnivore. I always have been. I have seen some of the most beautiful and some of the most ugly things possible. If I am not ‘doing’ something, I am usually trying to absorb more information.

I have always been that way. When small, I got much less sleep than my friends: I would read under the covers. If something new catches my attention, I try to learn as much about it as possible.

However, I am with @Blackberry – watching Fox News is where I draw the line.

I am selective, probably too much so. I won’t watch the news, because our news is so horrific. It just adds to that feeling of despair. But that aside, I am becoming more aware of how movies can affect me, or even when I watch You Tube. So now I realise what I watch is a choice, and I am better off filtering as much as I can. You say you can’t change the world, how true. But the world can change you. So that thought for me is an important one.

Yes, I especially try to limit images of violence. I believe that we were not meant for global, instant news.

I just found out yesterday one of my “heoroes” (I put it in quotes because he always said he didn’t want people to have heroes, least of all to be one, but I have no better word to describe him) died four months ago. It’s pretty safe to say my streams of information are selective to the point of lacking.

By the way, in case you’re wondering if it’s possible to mourn someone you’ve never met, it is.

I deliberately seek out a wide variety of information from many different sources to give me a bit of balance. There are almost NO sources I fully trust. : (

I filter. There is such a thing as too much information in too short a time frame. The days I’m feeling particularly drowned, I even minimize eye contact so that the person’s emotional state doesn’t overwhelm me. It’s could get me fired, but I almost wish it would.

Yes, I’m selective. I checked out of all media after 9–11, do not subscribe to cable/satelliteTV, and only watch DVD’s, mostly documentaries, some movies.
My Netflix queue is 80% documentaries, primarily science, nature, animals and history and art, music, etc. I do not EVER read about horrific stuff, I don’t need to know, I don’t want to know and I believe that we are what we think as much as we are what we eat.

There is no new news under the sun and the reruns of negativity, drama, abuse, murder, war and mayham just just keep manifesting in the same but slightly different ways they always have.
My two new Netflix docs. arrived today, they are about the possible discovery of the long thought extinct Ivory Billed Woodpecker and one on the sport of bull riding.
I have long referred to the media as a “slow fear drip” and I chose to unhook that IV years ago. Just not good for you mentally, emotionally or spiritually.

I heard a story on the radio and while I can’t remember the exact numbers it was something like “a contemporary teenager has already been bombarded with more information that an adult might have expected to encounter in their entire lives 100 years ago.” I really do believe that we are only equipped to take on so much information, particularly bad or disturbing visual images and stories.

My job is stressful enough and it is made more stressful by having to interact with a bunch of ill-informed crackpots on a daily basis. I sure don’t need to continue the flow of misinformation when I arrive safely home each evening.

I am selective and filter information carefully. I don’t quickly believe what I hear, see or read, but wait to get as many sides to the story as possible. I also don’t automatically agree with something because it flies under my favored banners and it takes a lot of thinking and research for me to jump on bandwagons.

In the Trayvor Martin case, I still haven’t taken either side because I don’t feel I’m qualified to do so—I don’t have enough information.

It drives me nuts when people immediately believe the most ludicrous bits of information without checking their sources, facts, both sides, and all that! Unfortunately, it seems like a lot of news outlets today cater to those type of people :(

@linguaphile Amen to that.

I do not watch or listen to talk shows or things like Rush Limbaugh. I check sources and ignore the unreliable

I am an omnivore like ro_in_motion. But it tends to go in phases with me. I love to just “feed my brain” voraciously for a while, then let it marinate (take a break from ingesting information) and then start to assimilate and build connections between disparate sources. I will accept high brow and lowbrow sources but I won’t waste my time on anything brain dead like most reality TV. (ok, I have watched Little People, Big World for 15 minute snippets!!)

I work in fashion and I go through phases where I have an actual aversion to fashion magazines! I have subscriptions and I just will not even look at them for months! Then I know I need to start goiing to museums and spending time on other pursuits. After awhile I come back to fashion again and like it again. I always love clothing and style and personal expression, but not always “Fashion” with a capital F!!

I have certain shows that I love, like Bill Moyers or Charlie Rose or McGlaughlin Group or Religion and Ethiics Newsweekly. I can watch them anytime. I also like to get my news with some humor, like on The Daily Show, Colbert Report or Bill Maher. I like Rachel Maddow but she is a little hard to take sometimes.

I understand what you are saying about needing to protect yourself emotionally sometimes Hawaii_Jake Because I have times when I feel the same way. You sound like you are engaged in the world and doing the things you feel you can make a contribution with. That is all that can be expected of anyone. Everyone needs to stay in balance. Knowing how much you can handle at any time and acting accordingly is important I think.

Depends on the day.

I really don’t, not consciously or systematically, though sometimes I am not in the mood to read something in the news or it doesn’t interest me. Sort of early or maybe not so early, in the internet age, a lot people promoted, and I guess still promote, personalized news services that will deliver only the news important to you and only the new you are interested in I always thought that, well, I have no interest in that sort of thing. How the hell do I know what is interesting to me? If I filtered it all out and had a service deliver only information I was already interested in, I would miss all those things that I have yet to find fascinating, that I didn’t know or might have assumed weren’t interesting at all. I don’t want to miss anything fascinating or interesting just because I was stupid enough to assume that I am always the best judge of what I may or not find interesting or useful. :-)

And so the babbling begins… perhaps it is time to go to bed.

I’m selective too, but mostly by what information I find interesting and what would bore me to tears. I avoid anything that I know is going to be right-wing, racist or homophobic nonsense.

I used to be a news junkie, watched several news programs and read several newspapers a day. At some point, it all got to be too much, and my empathy gene got a little out of control. I would cry while watching the news, fairly often. I had to put myself on a news diet because of it. So, yes, I am selective these days. I tend to just hear about the big things, and mostly online.

Selective. I’m super sensitive.