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Too much News

True, that's something to consider. I see your point about the limits of stimulation and being desensitized after overstimulation.

I think that's something they manipulate intentionally; they've probably measured through marketing studies how many reviews it takes for a person to trust a product. Same with events that few people directly observe. Probably only takes three or four sources crying wolf to convince someone there's a wolf. Some platforms are like echo chambers, or the algorithm is the echo chamber. And just in general the news can be sensational and overblown. That's part of the pattern of coercion I see, and desensitizing could be a desired side effect of more ambitious ideological campaigns.

Lately people will say one newsworthy event is a coverup for a different news event they prioritize focus on. While that might be true sometimes, the events often deserve their own attention, and I think it's careless when people write them off as merely fabricated distractions. But I suppose those excuses get justified when someone is overstimulated.

For example the extradition of Nicolas Maduro was written off as being a distraction from the Epstein files; not a big deal; or if it did raise concerns, they're absolved because he's a bad guy that deserved it. All short sighted in my opinion, but I'm not sure if that's obvious unless you're reading between the lines. (Mods if this is too political please delete this paragraph because it's not my intention to start a political debate)

It seems too the gap between info and fact is widening with the sheer amount of information. I believe in dead internet theory, where one day it could become impossible to confidently know anything with the sheer amount of misinformation getting pumped out, intentionally or not. I think modern tools like AI are efficient strategies to condense research, but it could just be the love-bombing early stages of a long con to migrate people away from open information platforms. An authoritarian government could stop supporting the world wide web as we know it, in favor for a more controlled, unified information stream.

Free speech is tricky cuz you want to silence the misinformation, but the collective frustration over that could be used against people by convincing them to give up the right for everyone to say their piece. I'm undecided, because in the wrong hands that system could be even more manipulated than free speech. But without regulation, the corporations and big brother have overt and covert influence.
 
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For example the extradition of Nicolas Maduro was written off as being a distraction from the Epstein files; not a big deal; or if it did raise concerns, they're absolved because he's a bad guy that deserved it. All short sighted in my opinion, but I'm not sure if that's obvious unless you're reading between the lines. (Mods if this is too political please delete this paragraph because it's not my intention to start a political debate)
Not too political by itself IMO, but let's not continue down that line ;)

I believe in dead internet theory, where one day it could become impossible to confidently know anything with the sheer amount of misinformation getting pumped out, intentionally or not. I think modern tools like AI are efficient strategies to condense research, but it could just be the love-bombing early stages of a long con to migrate people away from open information platforms
I do think the amount of open lies found on the internet is going to get worse as video and image generation keeps improving. And I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of traditional media start becoming less and less accurate as younger journalists that have been accustomed to trust language models since childhood become a majority.
It's also very likely that future models will be tuned to influence you, at the bare minimum for advertisement purposes. And even nowadays, using them for summaries is not that good of an idea, as they often will omit important points. That's a problem with the technology that hasn't been solved and may not be solvable for LLMs.
 



I feel like these videos by this channel do a great job of talking about the many variables inherent to this discussion.

A few random notes before I get out of bed. The news used to be for the elite, interestingly enough. It was a business move that put it into the hands of the masses.

It's been shown that people can have internal responses to things seen on the news leading to an internal type of PTSD like response.

The human mind and condition, through many types of research, seems to be equipped to only handle certain amounts, types, and permutations of information. This is why we encounter certain types of blindness not related to sight and why heuristics and cognitive biases seem necessary for us to function.

One love
 
I miss old news, the feel-good boring local stuff, the slow-news-days where they send someone out to do a story about a lost cat or a gardener who grew a massive cabbage or something.
We are bombarded with World news and it can feel like we almost have to know everything, globalised news, we all kick up a stink about what's happening here, there and everywhere, how thinly can we spread our empathy and care across the whole world?
Broadly speaking I feel I would be better being blissfully unaware, but I tend to feel a need to watch what's going on on the world stage.... it's just a shame that more likely than not it's an absolute horror show.
If it wasn't for my work I'd ditch all social media, and I look forward to the day when I can close my business and ignore the lot of it.
I don't read news papers, I tend to get most of my news from the BBC website plus a mix of social media (If you can believe the socials).
 
I am familiar with how you describe this Transistor. Blissful ignorance does seem preferable.

Do you think it is possible to go back to ignorance now? Or is it likely that we can never really forget that News is out there, waiting for us, once we have seen it?
 
It seems like the news is continuously going from bad to worse. Writer and retired psychotherapist, Francis Weller, refers to this time as the long dark, speculating that it will take at least two generations for things to start getting truly better…


While it is easy to get nostalgic about the simpler days of grizzly suit guy, the adage of the only way out is through seems truer now than ever…

 
It makes a lot of sense to me that seeing stuff on the news can give us some PTSD response. Not just because the things we're seeing are often quite horrible, but also because they sometimes signal an underlying threat.

I don't think i should be giving very specific examples here (to avoid making this political) but when you're seeing horrible things, knowing that you could have been that victim too, it probably will get under your skin in some way.

We are hardwired to spot danger. That' s the underlying principle behind ragebaiting and many of the algorhytm rabbitholes. When our very existence is at stake, we have to know about it. So when something signals a threat, we will click on it.

I know i fall for it all the time myself. I suspect the algorhytm knows very well what kind of things really scare me by now.

This underlying principle, call it fearbaiting, is probably what idiots like andrew tate owe their notoriety to as well.
 
I am familiar with how you describe this Transistor. Blissful ignorance does seem preferable.

Do you think it is possible to go back to ignorance now? Or is it likely that we can never really forget that News is out there, waiting for us, once we have seen it?
Probably not possible to go back now, maybe buy a small island and live off nature.
 
It makes a lot of sense to me that seeing stuff on the news can give us some PTSD response. Not just because the things we're seeing are often quite horrible, but also because they sometimes signal an underlying threat.

I don't think i should be giving very specific examples here (to avoid making this political) but when you're seeing horrible things, knowing that you could have been that victim too, it probably will get under your skin in some way.

We are hardwired to spot danger. That' s the underlying principle behind ragebaiting and many of the algorhytm rabbitholes. When our very existence is at stake, we have to know about it. So when something signals a threat, we will click on it.

I know i fall for it all the time myself. I suspect the algorhytm knows very well what kind of things really scare me by now.

This underlying principle, call it fearbaiting, is probably what idiots like andrew tate owe their notoriety to as well.

That is relatable to many people in 2026, well said.

I would say tate is just an actor on the stage as any other celebrity. I doubt he is stupid. Just milking the game. Those people dont exist if the internet is off.

As you describe so well above, today's news reaches you in your house. Even if you board up the doors and windows.

The part I'm watching is how a town of 1000 people are potentially all living completely different realities.

Before 500 years ago, everyone in the town was more or less experiencing the same reality.

200 years ago, global communications might create a few factions within the town. Mostly still everyone agrees on local reality.

But by now? My goodness everyone in the town can pick and choose their reality without leaving the sofa.

Neighbours supporting two different sides of a foreign war without ever visiting any of the countries involved.

I see that as a sharp evolutionary twist into individualism. In a species that naturally excels at co-operation.

I wont predict if that is good or bad for a species. It's certainly a bad choice. I dont think we choose it. The internet rules us, it does not serve us as we had expected.

We set the frame work for humanity to express itself publicly without restrictions. In all our glory, a whole species had a voice.

We have been alive for the witnessing of some kind of cosmic analysis check. Some alien gods threw us the internet so we would make a report for them to view without having to come down into our filth... I digress.
 
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I don't seek out normie news, like e.g. wars, disasters, elections etc. as their relevance to me is usually low. Traces of it appear in my feeds in relation to the topics I follow.
If a new war broke out, I'd probably accidentally find out about it from X or Reddit within hours, or I'd just notice the red on TradingView and ask Perplexity what caused it, and that's how I'd find out about the war - which I then might look deeper into WRT implications that are relevant to me.
I'm also finding that reading entire articles is obsolete. It makes more sense to get a summary and then extract the needed information with LLMs.

I also check out Google Discover on my phone, which is a news feed based on web and app activity and search history, but it's not that great and offers limited control over blocking unwanted content.

I like to hear news from both the left and the right personally because I want to know what’s going on,
A lot is going on.
For example, a second ago, someone went to the bathroom and pooped.

But for some reason, some media outlets tend to create the impression that some other events are more important and preferentially report on those over the aforementioned one. A choice I don't necessarily relate to.

Most of the news of today, people won't even remember in a year from now.
They consume it so they can tell themselves they're "well informed" when in reality it only serves as a distraction.
 
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