Today marks a year since I stopped reading the news. After many years of being overly concerned with news I decided on 21 January 2021 that I:

  • would only look at the news if there was an event I needed to know about
  • would only use the BBC website as a news source (no apps, no notifications)
  • would never engage with the news for more than 5 minutes each day - enforced via a limit (set in the App Limits feature of Screen Time on macOS and iOS)
  • would use a ‘days since’ tracker to increase motivation and encourage consistency

I felt a bit of withdrawal over the first few days but quickly found that my focus turned to things within my circle of influence - and I rarely if ever thought about the news. This was is in stark contrast to the near constant obsessing that had filled my life in recent years. I’d estimate that over the course of the whole year I only visited the BBC News site perhaps ten times. I even stopped being drawn to look at the newspaper headlines when I passed them in the supermarket.

I definitely don’t feel like I’ve lost anything - quite the opposite: I’ve gained time, focus, seen improvements to my mood and am more present when with my family. Big gains.

About half way through the year I bought the book Stop Reading the News: A Manifesto for a Happier, Calmer and Wiser Life. Much more recently I read Ten Arguments For Deleting Your Social Media Accounts Right Now which I think explains how the mechanisms of social media led me into what had become an unhealthy news habit. I’d strongly recommend reading these books (especially Stop Reading the News) or - like I did - just trying a little experiment to see what happens if you withdraw from the news for a while.

Update for 2024

I’ve recently come across the BBC Living with the News podcast series that explores the modern news ecosystem. The whole series is only about an hour long and introduces ideas well in a way that’s much less opinionated. I thought it was so good that I’ve already listened to the whole thing twice.

Update for 2025

I’ve also encountered this quote from Nassim Taleb in Fooled by Randomness which really resonated with me

Some so-called wise and often rational persons often blame me for ignoring possible valuable information in the daily newspaper and refusing to discount the details of the noise as ‘short term events’… My problem is that I am not rational and I am extremely prone to drown in randomness and to incur emotional torture… My sole advantage in life is that I know some of my weaknesses. Mostly, that I am incapable of taming my emotions facing news and incapable of seeing a performance with a clear head. Silence is far better.