Is it harmful NOT to keep up on current events?

harmful? no.
vaguely pathetic? yes.

George Santayana apparently thought so.

@The_Idler So do you feel that choosing not to stay with current politics relations for the simple fact that heated debates and people feelings often get flustered, is bad due to the fact?

Imagine the looks you’d receive if you said, who’s this Obama fellow then?

It depends on what you consider current events. Most things parading around as “news” today are just sensationalism for ratings. You have to be diligent about where you get your news and hopefully look to many different POVs before coming to any conclusions. That being said there are times in my life when things are too hectic, stressful and draining to even try to sort through what it happening out there. And really how much ends up effecting you anyway?

When dem dere socialist bastards come to take yer grandma away to the death panels, you’ll know harmful, awright!

*shakes fist

@Axemusica No, but it is vaguely pathetic.

People debate these issues and feel strongly about them because they directly or indirectly concern the lives and futures of significant portions of humanity.

Ignoring them for the reasons you describe is ultimately ignoring them because they are important to humanity, and such wilful ignorance is, as I said, vaguely pathetic.

@The_Idler granted I agree, but what about choosing not to discuss them?

A different matter entirely.

The depressing inconsequentiality of ‘petty party politicking’ trumps any single issue, within ‘petty party politicking’, as subject for concern and debate, with regards to its dangerous effects on the lives and futures of people.

No.

I checked out of TV and all media 8 years ago.

Not missin’ a thing, ( chorus:.......lol )

I figure if it’s a worst case scenario I’ll know it when it happens, otherwise I spend zero time nor emotional energy on current events, politics or any celebrity BS at all.

I think the media has everyone by the balls, well….no balls here.

Walking along with your eyes closed is great, ‘til the lemming in front walks off a cliff.
At least you won’t know ‘til… it’s too late?

I agree with not being obliged to discuss them, but to be informed is of extreme importance. It is like being in a family and not knowing the problems/issues each member faces.

Why would you not want to keep up? Unless you just like living in the past.

The ‘Lemming’ is the one that follows blindly…not the one that makes a conscious choice to opt out of the madness. lol

There are plenty of wide awake Lemmings.

Whats a lemming?

Lemming myths and misconceptions

A lemming is a short tailed rodent. whats that got to do with it? lol

@Coloma

The madness is reality.

But rejection of reality is also madness.

My life is so much more calm and I’m more focused on my work, family and friends ever since I gave up reading newspapers for several cities, watching TV and porring over foreign news sites. Am I pathetic and shallow? Maybe but I’ve never before felt like I’m really living my awake time as I have in the past few years.

Finally, I understand the American Dream!

“I don’t care whats happens out thar in that big wide world George, so long as we’s gets a lil’ house on the hill, and we can grow us a lil’ patch o’ alfalfa NoCal and you gon’ let me tend them rabbits geese.”

@The_Idler
Right on, you know exactly where I’m headed!

@The Idler

There is no news under the sun.

Period.

We could all be standing drinking wine with Plato listening to the same woes that were being lamented centuries ago. Slight if any variation, same rope different ends.

Do what you can and be quiet about it.

As far as your clever assumption of my lifestyle..let me assure you that you are completely clueless. lol

My choice to enjoy my life without the slow fear drip of media is actually one of the healthiest choices one could ever make.

I think it’s called wisdom and maturity my good fellow.

Is that what the New World is really like?

You mean it doesn’t matter what colour my skin is, or how I speak, or how much money I got, I can still make an honest living in a plentiful land, with no need to concern myself with matters like labour laws and taxes and exploitation of the working man, because the land is bounteous and the people eternally beneficent!?

Ima stow-away!

Don’t get me wrong though guys, I’m not saying you should watch the Television.

You can learn about current events without the sensationalism and commercialism and bias – all to easy to associate generally with “News”, thanks to mainstream media.

@Coloma
or apathy and resignation.

As far as your self-assured assurance of my complete cluelessness with regards to my ‘clever assumption’ of your lifestyle…let me assure you that I was just kidding.

Because humanity faces similar problems today as yesterday, you feel they are not worth discussing?
Perhaps in your wisdom you could contribute a more profound and fundamental interpretation of contemporary issues? It could be helpful or at least thought-provoking.
Not that I’m demanding… wouldn’t want to trouble the font.

I don’t watch the news, I don’t read a newspaper, I don’t listen to the radio and I don’t surf the web looking for anything newsworthy. The constant negation that seeps through the news really bothers me so I have chosen to not let it be a part of my life. I’m healthier because of that. However, I do know who Obama is, I do know what’s going on in Haiti, I understand what’s happened to our economy, I do know that the healthcare bill passed, I do know about the swine flu epidemic, etc. etc.
Perhaps I don’t know about any of these things in incredible detail, but I know of them, mostly because of word of mouth and people talking about them on websites such as Fluther. I choose not to indulge in conversations about politics, religion, government and economics, etc. often because none of it is appealing to me and I won’t debate over something I don’t know much about.
However, I’m not opposed to learning a thing or two about any current events if someone is willing to teach me. I like information. Information is good. Information is my friend.

Has it done me any harm to not follow closely with current events? No.
Do I think it makes me pathetic? No.
Does it mean I reject reality? Hell no. I’m a realist and I always have been. I choose to see things for how they really are and I don’t need to watch the news everyday in order for that to happen.

I think it means that I have other priorities that I’ve put first, that are either more important to me or more interesting to me. There’s nothing wrong with that.
I still allow myself to be informed of certain things that are newsworthy, but I refuse to drown in them. I became a much more positive person after I focused away from what was going on in the media/news. I’m happier. If anything, not keeping a close eye on current events has been entirely helpful, not harmful.

@The_Idler

I’m so gald you are giving your approval to how much media/information, TV all of us Lemmings should be consuming.

Let me run off that cliff now since tribal chief big kahuna lemming miester said so! lol

The question you posed, which we all are answering has now transformed to….
Who made The Idler nazi police of the almighty club of the ‘informed.’ ???

a person not knowing about wars and earthquakes is living in the moment…..day
by day.

If you are into political warfare, which i am, then be involved.

It’s all about perspective and choices. It takes all kinds. I do love my zen, but love the nightly news. tornadoes and earthquakes.

Seriously, I wish my life was that carefree, but I am naturally curious as to why I have to pay tuition fees under a socialist/Labour government. Why are we taxed at minimum wage? How can I be getting laid off to make way for immigrant labour? How can people, impervious to economic disruption, be making decisions that can ruin me?

These things matter to me, because they have and will seriously affect my life and the lives of millions of others.

@The_Idler

Oh I see, your ‘humor’ is just that, no tiny little rivulet of raspberry contempt beneath the swirling layers ey?

Methinks you have just swallowed some chum son, yet more assumption springs forth…NOW all those that choose to censor their media exposeure are APATHETIC!

Thanks for the belly laugh…it’s awesome! Really, I mean that sincerely! lololol

@The_Idler Are you implying that people who don’t keep up with current events only care about themselves? Are you implying that we’re irresponsible and don’t have any troubles or worries by calling us carefree?

@Coloma
dismissing all current events and serious issues within our society as unworthy of gracing your ears, based on “same rope different ends.” is what I would call apathetic and resigned.

@Vunessuh
No and no.
I really wish all those things that I concern myself with didn’t concern me and my future, but they do.

It would be different if the news media weren’t owned and operated by giant corporations and swayed by the US government.
But the news media is just another form of entertainment and is used to make idiots out of the fools who believe the tripe they are swilling out of the tube into our homes…

@Idler
There is no way short of holing up in a cave to escape the events of the world. I’ve not worn a wristwatch in 20yrs yet always know what time it is. I don’t watch TV at home but never escape the “news” blurting out at me from somewhere as I live my life going from place to place, taking care of immediate concerns for myself and those around me which down the line lessons the burden on your apprehensive shoulders. Get over yourself.

If I were stranded on a fertile island with good land to cultivate and trees to climb, I wouldn’t care about the news either.

So if you can retire to a place of plenty, where you are impervious to the machinations of the establishment in their eternal quest to exploit, and the consequences of the desperation that causes further down the line, I wholly accept your wilful ignorance of it all.

@The_Idler

Call it what you will, doesn’t make it true.
Okay…allow me to answer your question with perfect clarity!

YES! It is HARMFUL to not follow the media, BECAUSE angry extremist media mongers will kill you for the wrong answer.

I have been harmed in this exchange! lolololol

My questions were actually:

“Because humanity faces similar problems today as yesterday, you feel they are not worth discussing?”

“Perhaps in your wisdom you could contribute a more profound and fundamental interpretation of contemporary issues? It could be helpful or at least thought-provoking.”

@The_Idler We are being ground down by the money elite and supercorporations who want us to revert back to straight out slavery.
They have thrust another depression on us in the last several years and now use the news media to control our belief in this matter.

@davidbetterman
Pretty much, which is why it is important to make personal efforts to understand the mechanics of it, and, hence, how to fare best within or without it.

Unless, of course, you have plenty of money, a bit of land, negligible debt and healthy job security/pension. In which case, forget about me…

@The_Idler Just because we don’t watch the news, doesn’t mean we don’t care about it. Those are two totally different ideas.
What’s going on with the world affects everyone, not just yourself, but some of us feel like we don’t need to turn on our televisions and invite the news into our homes every single day.
Listen, we get it. You watch the news because keeping up with current events is very important to you. Awesome. I’m happy for you.
Why do you think that gives you the right to be pompous towards people who choose otherwise? You’re coming off as if you’re looking down on us. No one said they didn’t care about certain events and natural disasters and what’s happening with other people around the world. If they did, your argument would be valid. You could call those people pathetic and ignorant all you’d like, but out of every reason presented in this thread for why someone chooses to not watch the news, not one of them was because someone didn’t care or that they were too good for the news. So relax. Take a Vicodin and go watch the news or something.

@The_Idler A direct connection to the creator of the universe would do you much mo better.

Right!

And my answer remains, I have found I am better off without it.

You didn’t disclose the trick part of the question which should have had the addendum of….

If you are not a media follower be prepared to take this question to another level.

I am not interested in debating my lifestyle choices with a paragraph of a person online.

I gave my answer, it’s done.

I don’t even “watch” “the news”.

I got the impression some people were unconcerned about current events, because…. something about us having the same problems since antiquity.

I wholly understand and sympathise with rejection and avoidance of the mainstream media, as I said, I just think that going so far as to purposely avoid learning about the goings on in world around us is intellectually unhealthy.

If that ain’t what you’re doing though, if you’re just “Not watching Fox News”, umm… sorry!
Me too.

@The_Idler ”I just think that going so far as to purposely avoid learning about the goings on in world around us is intellectually unhealthy.”

Yes, I see where you’re coming from and I agree.
But keep in mind that not watching the news or reading a newspaper or indulging in conversations about current events, doesn’t necessarily mean someone is purposely avoiding or rejecting the information. We all have a different list of priorities. That’s all I’m sayin’.

I used to think that and basically still do, but now there are times when I decide it is better for my mental health to ignore current events for a time.

I think the issue here is:
y’all thought I was equating “active concern for current events” and “interest in mainstream media”.

I gotta apologize if I offended anyone, I have no interest in mainstream media for the same reasons, so I just didn’t think about it as a reasonable resource for learning about current events, anyway.

I am more concerned with history, either way.
I am interested in how the issues and crises of the past have shaped our present.
This inevitably and inexorably leads me through the chain of causality to the issues of today.

Yes, but being concerned over current events and/or history is still different from not keeping up with them on a day to day or even weekly basis.

Good point, I won’t pretend to check anything everyday.

But I don’t think you could pretend to be concerned about current events, if you never took active interest and essentially had the mental policy of “I’ll be better off, if I don’t even think about it.”

Not harmful, just not particularly smart. I’ve been less interested in current events for the past few weeks. I’m sure the interest will again surface when I get some things behind me.

Is it harmful to yourself? Well, you won’t be hit by a bus if you don’t keep up on current events… probably.

However, if you choose not to be informed about some basic items, please stay home on voting day to avoid harming yourself and others.

If you insist on voting anyway, because you have a right to your vote and to tell the government your opinion, then yes, it is harmful to not know what the hell you’re doing in the voting booth.

There are other ways it can be harmful (don’t know about that hurricane coming/chemical spill/crime spree in your neighborhood?), but those are your own problem and the rest of us can’t be quite as harmed by your ignorance as long as you stay out of the way.

Find a good internet news feed and glance at it every day or so but don’t get caught in the spin. Most people who think they have a grasp on how this world works based on the available sources are probably more foolish than the “pathetic” person who doesn’t worry much about what doesn’t concern him/her directly.

It can be hurt full and it can not be hurt full. If you don’t keep up you might repeat the past and that could serve as a wrong decision. As they say “United we stand, Divided we fall.”

@Cheeseball451

That saying will probably be changed to something more like “United we stand, united we fall” soon enough. Lack of diversity means lack of adaptability. There always needs to be some contention—between a variety of perceptions. That’s why not everyone should watch the news religiously.

I’d change that to ‘divided we stand united we fall.’ haha

Well yes, then in that case, the person would be purposefully avoiding and/or rejecting information because they feel they would be better off, which imo can easily translate to pure arrogance and ignorance.
I won’t deny that I usually don’t openly invite any form of medium into my life pertaining to current events, which these days seem to be all about the government and politics, but it doesn’t mean that I reject the information if the opportunity presents itself. I have moments where I take time to learn about these things and I come to both understand and care about them. I just don’t want to drown in them and I don’t want to put a lot of time into something, like politics, that is completely unappealing to me.
But just to be clear, I do not reject information when the opportunity to learn it is right in front of me, especially when gaining that knowledge is free. I learn new things from Fluther everyday, whilst doing something I enjoy. :)

@Vunessuh

I avoid any information I’m not interested in. There’s too much information to allow anything that isn’t apparently relevant into my sphere of awareness.

I don’t think I’m very arrogant about it, if at all. If someone wants to tell me about something, I’ll listen of course. But with mainstream media, I avoid it all out of defensiveness.

I have to analyze everything that I see, and that takes too much energy if I don’t carefully avoid the unreliable influences. I don’t want to become like most people are, apathetic about the details, only caring about something when its simple and when there’s emotional drama to be stirred up around it.

It’s such a blatantly obvious method of control, this flood of information, and we would all see it clearly if they would just back off from their bottomless TV’s and radio-stations.

Current events though, should generally be kept up with, and it’s easy to do with any of the “non-bias,” unsensationalistic news feeds on the net.

@zophu I agree with you and if you read my first answer you’ll see where I stand on this topic.
My last answer was just in response to people who constantly purposefully reject/avoid information on current events, therefore choosing to stay in the dark about things that are easy to learn about, as you already pointed out.

@Vunessuh

sorry for not reading your earlier post :(

@zophu No worries. :)

I study up on things before I vote. If I was overly concerned about something I would write a representative or a letter to the editor. However, I don’t see how sitting at the edge of my seat watching the news, complete with who wore what to the grammies, and shots of famous people’s wardrobe malfunctions, is going to change the world.

Hmmm let’s see what CNN has for us today.

Tiger Woods talks infidelity, golf
Seattelites throw massive pillow fight
Activists go topless to prove point… oooh there’s video.

Hey look at that! Jessica Alba is going to adopt a child! And a bunch of people have died horrible deaths. Ok that’s enough news for me.

lol lol lol

I don’t see how it could possibly be harmful to a single individual to not keep up on current events, as long as you keep yourself informed about the things you care about, such as eating properly.

what you don’t know can’t hurt you.
I like online newspapers, I’ll read the headlines there I don’t think it would be harmful for me to not do those things…unless there was like a huge hurricane coming and i didn’t know until it was to late to evacuate or something.

This Just In: We’re all gonna die!

Yes.

Or when the man shows up at your door with a gun you’re going to be so surprised.

In a business context it might be harmful. Oh, George W. Bush isn’t president anymore? Sorry, I missed that.

During a vacation it can be a good idea to ignore current events for a while.

If you didn’t, you wouldn’t be aware of the upcoming spike in gas prices and wouldn’t be able to plan for it.