Stop Reading the News
How to Cope with the Information Overload and Think More Clearly
By Rolf Dobelli
Category: Technology & the Future | Reading Duration: 19 min | Rating: 4.5/5 (409 ratings)
About the Book
Stop Reading the News (2020) shows us how we can live a calmer, healthier, and more thoughtful life if we simply stop reading the news. By practicing what the author calls radical abstinence from the news media, we can rescue our minds from the overload of information, and focus on what actually matters in life.
Who Should Read This?
- News addicts desperate to break the habit
- Those looking to leave the news media and become long-form journalists
- Anyone curious about technology and its impact
What’s in it for me? Live a life free of the distracting and draining news cycle.
It’s become a habit: you wake up, immediately reach for your phone, then scroll through the most recent news. Bleary-eyed, you’ll read a few headlines, then click the odd article, which you’ll skim distractedly. Then all through the day, you’ll keep checking as more and more bad news pours in, making you anxious and listless.If this sounds familiar, then this summary are for you. News addiction has become widespread, with more of us glued to rolling updates than ever before. And as you’ll discover, it’s doing our mental and physical health no good. If that’s the case, why not give up the news completely? Why not delete that app, block that website, and cancel that newspaper subscription? You’ve got nothing to lose – and a clearer, calmer head to gain.In this summary, you’ll learn - that reading the news rewires your brain;
- why you should find your circle of competence; and
- how negativity bias helps sell newspapers.
Chapter 1: News attracted the author from an early age, and then took over his life.
It’s almost impossible to escape the news – whether that’s the minute-by-minute updates that flash across our phones, a cab driver’s radio, or the giant screens in an airport lounge. The news follows us everywhere.In the author’s case, he actively sought out the news. Growing up in Lucerne, Switzerland in the seventies, the news came from the paperboy and on the radio early in the morning. Then, there was the TV news and current affairs shows in the evening. But this wasn’t enough for Rolf Dobelli – by the age of 17, he was thoroughly addicted to the news.The key message here is: News attracted the author from an early age, and then took over his life.The seventeen-year-old Dobelli spent every Saturday in the reading room at Lucerne’s library. There, he sat with the elderly men, in their old-fashioned horn-rimmed glasses and suits, as they leafed quietly through the weekend papers.By doing this, he hoped he could someday be as worldly and sophisticated as they seemed. He wanted no part in the banalities and gossip of everyday life in Lucerne. He wanted to feel like a high-flying intellectual – what interested him was world-historical events: leaders shaking hands, faraway disasters, political unrest on the other side of the world.Then, when Dobelli got his first job as a financial controller for Swissair, his newspaper reading increased exponentially. As he spent most of his time on a plane, he read all of the papers that the flight attendant brought round. And the ones he couldn’t read during the flight, he crammed into his briefcase and saved for later.With the advent of widespread internet use in the 1990s, this habit spiraled out of control. His computer screensaver was a display of the newest headlines, which scrolled past just like on the screens in Times Square. He subscribed to newspapers’ daily newsletters and set up push notifications so he wouldn’t miss anything. In this way, he felt as if he were connected to every corner of the earth.Then, one day, he suddenly noticed that he could no longer concentrate on books and longer articles. His mind gave up after just a few paragraphs without absorbing any of the content. And he began to suffer from anxiety. Dobelli realized that he must be suffering from information overload.What had all this news consumption brought him? Was he any wiser now? Was he any happier? Could he think more clearly? The answer to all of these questions was a resounding No.
Chapter 2: Since the first newspapers, news has been based on novelty rather than relevance to our lives.
Let’s try a little experiment. Think back to five years ago. See if you can remember the most important news stories of that time. Chances are, you’ll only be able to recall one or two big things, if that.So, where did all those breaking news stories go? Why can’t you recall all of those major headlines that seemed so important at the time?While those headlines grabbed attention back then, in the long run, many had no broader significance. What’s considered news might mean a celebrity going to rehab, a plane crash over the Pacific ocean, or a minor dispute inside the British royal family. And while some stories might be tragic, very few of them have broader significance for the human species, or indeed, your own life.The key message here is: Since the first newspapers, news has been based on novelty rather than relevance to our lives.There’s long been an obsession with novelty in the news business. Ever since the first daily newspaper appeared in Leipzig, Germany in 1650, “news” has meant presenting whatever is most likely to grab the attention of passersby.To sell newspapers, early editors needed to print the latest, most eye-catching headlines. It didn’t matter whether the stories were relevant to most people’s lives or not. And for the most part, whether it was coverage of a public hanging or a scandal at one of the merchant houses, they simply weren’t.And this trick is still being played on us today. In fact, it’s the news media’s dominant business model. Most online media outlets survive off advertising, and adverts need clicks. To get these clicks, the news has to be even more eye-catching and novel. With the invention of the smartphone, we can now stay glued to the news 24/7, as it pours ever-less relevant information into our lives.We can follow minute-by-minute updates on a hostage situation halfway across the world, addicted to each new, grisly development. In doing so, we’re simply rewarding the business model that directs us away from what the author argues should be most relevant in our lives – our health, our families and friends, our neighborhoods. It hijacks our attention instead to scrutinize things we have no control over.In the next blink, we’ll look at what all this news is doing to our brains.
Chapter 3: Reading lots of news rewires our brains negatively.
Let’s consider the human brain. For a long time, we thought that the brain was fully developed by the time we reached adulthood. But scientists now know that the brain is continually reshaping. Nerve cells break off old connections and create new ones. This ever-developing process of renewal depends on our habits and choices.Take London taxi drivers who every day rely on memorization of the sprawling map of London. An experiment conducted by University College, London, showed that these taxi drivers had many more nerve cells in their hippocampus – which is important for long-term memory – than bus drivers, who didn’t have to memorize that map. Their day job had rewired their brains.So, let’s imagine that you’re an avid consumer of news. If you’re constantly subjecting your brain to a deluge of news, it’ll begin to reshape your brain. Your nerve cells will form new connections and break off others as a result of all of those stimuli. And even when you’re not reading the news, your brain will still work differently.And not in a good way.The key message here is: Reading lots of news rewires our brains negatively.Like the taxi driver, we’re toning up one part of our brains and neglecting others. So what part of the brain are we developing more when we consume lots of news? As we flit from headline to headline, we encourage the growth of neuronal circuits suited to multitasking and processing lots of new information.At the same time, another part of the brain will begin to waste away. Research done by the University of Tokyo found that the more a person consumes multiple types of media, the fewer brain cells there were in the anterior cingulate cortex. This is the part of the brain responsible for attention span and moral deliberation.According to Nicholas Carr, a leading researcher on the effect of internet use on our brains, when we scroll through online news, our brains are being rewired to adapt to “cursory reading, hurried and distracted thinking, and superficial learning.” So, the neuronal circuits necessary for deep thought and careful reading will dwindle.You may have noticed it in yourself if you’re now a big news consumer. Even if you were once a serious bookworm who could think deeply about what you were reading, you might now find that your mind wanders after five or six pages. Even worse, you might find yourself involuntarily reaching for your phone.In the words of neuroscientist Michael Merzenich of the University of California: “We are training our brains to pay attention to crap.”
Chapter 4: Bad news is toxic for your body.
If you look at the front page of a newspaper or browse a news site, you’ll notice that most of the headlines will be bad news. You’ll surely read about a murder spree somewhere, or a spate of forest fires, or perhaps the death of a famous soccer player. Good news, like the introduction of a new law that protects workers from carcinogens, will almost never get the front-page treatment.This is because good news doesn’t sell newspapers or earn clicks. But all of that bad news isn’t doing us any good.The key message here is: Bad news is toxic for your body.Why do we gravitate toward bad news? It’s an evolutionary trait: bad news is seen to be more relevant than good news. Simply put, for millennia, we’ve needed to be aware of danger to stay alive. Because of this, human beings have something called a negativity bias. This means that negative information has twice the impact on us that positive information does.Take this example: if a stock crashes by 10 percent, it’ll make us twice as unhappy as one that rises by the same. This negativity bias is something that’s deeply rooted in us.The news media, then, preys on this susceptibility to negative information. While the media didn’t inculcate this tendency in us, it’s ruthlessly exploited it. To get clicks, to sell newspapers, the media puts the bad news front and center.Sadly, this has a negative impact on the body. Bad news, as a psychological stressor, causes the brain’s hypothalamus to release adrenaline. Then, this adrenaline leads to a rise in cortisol, which then floods the bloodstream. This weakens the immune system and hinders the production of growth hormones.By consuming all of this news (which is nearly all bad news), you’re stressing your body out, weakening its ability to fight off infection, and potentially causing digestive and growth problems. In a study carried out by the American Psychological Association, half of all adults are suffering from stress caused by news addiction.The really bad news is that news consumption is a vicious cycle that’s hard to get out of. Stress weakens your willpower. Without the willpower to put your phone down or turn off your computer, you’re likely to consume more and more news. And so the pattern continues.
Chapter 5: Reading the news doesn’t help you change the world for the better.
Imagine an earthquake ripping through a faraway country.The tremors begin to rock tall, brittle buildings. Ceilings collapse in a puff of brick dust. Huge fissures open in the middle of busy streets, swallowing cars, buses, and walkers. Schools and hospitals are reduced to rubble.After a short while, the first photographs of the dust-covered survivors and wounded hit news desks all across the world. Then, as soon as they can be typed, the headlines appear. Suddenly, the whole world knows about the terrible earthquake.We all know how it feels to receive dreadful news like this – from natural disasters to terror attacks and school shootings. We scroll furiously for information; we wait for updates. Most of all, we feel helpless. The sad truth, though, is this kind of news consumption doesn’t do a thing to help those suffering.The key message here is: Reading the news doesn’t help you change the world for the better.Perhaps you think by following every development of an unfolding disaster, you’re showing your empathy for the sufferers. By agonizing along with them, you feel as if you’re showing your humanity. And at times like that, humanity is needed more than ever, isn’t it?Unfortunately, the only people you’re helping are the media outlets and their sponsors. With your endless clicks, you’re filling the pockets of those who benefit from the media’s revenue model. That’s it. And in fact, isn’t there something quite wrong with consuming every gruesome detail of others’ misfortune?Instead, you could do something real and concrete to help the suffering. All the time you spend “doom-scrolling” through the most recent catastrophe could be spent working overtime, so you could donate money to disaster-relief charities, for example. If you really want to show your humanity, donate money to people who know how to help people in need.It’s also important to remember that lots of bad news stories simply slip off the front page. After a while, the media becomes bored with a particular story, even if the fortunes of those involved have stayed the same or gotten worse. Take the Palestinian situation, or the dreadful famine in Yemen, for instance.If you really want to alleviate suffering and make the world a safer place, look for concrete ways to do something about it.
Chapter 6: To break from the news, you should cut yourself off from it completely.
You’ve now learned how an addiction to the news can be bad for you. It drags your attention toward things that are largely irrelevant to your life. It rewires your brain in a way that makes you a shallow, distracted thinker. It causes stress that reduces your physical health. And it gives you the illusion that you’re somehow empathizing with the suffering of others, while actually rendering you impassive and useless.So what can be done to break this addictive, harmful habit? The best way is the most dramatic. It involves cutting yourself off from the news media entirely.The key message here is: To break from the news, you should cut yourself off from it completely.The key to breaking your news habit is by what Dobelli calls radical abstinence. You need to make a complete break. The best way to do this is to push through 30 days of no news at all. By the end of those 30 days, you’ll hopefully reach the point where you don’t feel the urge to peek at the headlines.To do this, you should delete all news apps from your phone, and all the news websites from your favorites in your browser. Try setting your homepage to something news-free. You should stop buying newspapers, stop watching TV news, and turn off the radio.At first, you might find this radical break difficult. You’ll find the urge to click on a news site very tempting. And when you socialize with those who consume lots of news, you might worry that you’ll be cut off from conversation. But if something really interesting or dramatic happens, you’ll soon find out from them.By the end of these 30 days, you should be feeling the benefits – a new calm and the ability to think more clearly. In all likelihood, you won’t want to go back to your old ways.What should you do with all this new-found time? Instead of news, you could read actual books. You could read long-form articles written by experts. You could embark on a new course. Rather than a shallow understanding of the world, you’ll be able to go deep. A decent book or a long article can give you a more nuanced understanding of the world than the news media can ever provide.
Chapter 7: Stay within your circle of competence. Give up the news.
In the last blink, we saw how, by giving up the news, you’d be able to engage with the world on a deeper level than before. When you stop reading the simplified information you get from news articles, you can reflect better on the world and all of its complexity. You can go deep, rather than shallow.If you’re always reading the news, you’ll be learning about hundreds of different topics, but only in a fleeting way. You’ll never have the ability to focus on something properly.Even worse, you’ll find that you don’t dedicate enough time to the thing that you’re really supposed to be doing. And if you want to be successful at that thing, whether that’s writing, graphic design, or mathematics, you need to focus hard on it.The great investor, Warren Buffet, has something that he calls a circle of competence. Plainly speaking, this is what he knows best. For him, that’s the stock market. He knows about this perhaps better than anyone else. He doesn’t stray very far outside of this circle of competence.The key message here is: Stay within your circle of competence. Give up the news.Reading the news tells us about so many things happening outside our circles of competence that we can never be an expert on any of them. How can you be expected to write brilliant novels or become a great physicist and understand the particular political situations in hundreds of different countries? The truth is, you can’t.To be really successful at something, you need to dedicate yourself to it fully. Albert Einstein, Frida Kahlo, and Beethoven didn’t become greats in their respective fields by scrolling through news feeds every few moments. They simply couldn’t have done, wasting all of that time.Imagine that you’re about to have open-heart surgery and you have to choose between two surgeons. One of those surgeons keeps up with the news, checking his phone every little while. The other doesn’t. Instead, she spends her time reading textbooks in her very specialized field. Which one would you choose? Naturally, it would be the second.The ideal, then, is for all of us to become more like that second surgeon. People who know and care about their area of expertise, not distracted, irritable news addicts desperate to get back to their phone screens.
Chapter 8: Cutting out the news doesn’t harm democracy.
So, you’re on the cusp of giving up the news, but then a persistent doubt comes to you. If you don’t read the news, how are you meant to understand current affairs? And then, more worryingly, if you don’t read the news, how can you still be an informed citizen and take part in democracy?Well, quite simply, just like many other people did before the advent of mass media. How did active citizens manage to stay informed during the early democracy of Ancient Greece? They thought deeply and debated one another.The intellectual fathers of modern democracy did that too. Thinkers like Rousseau, Montesquieu, Hume, and Locke didn’t need rolling news to develop their arguments. Instead, their discourse took place in salons, pamphlets, essays, and debating societies. A healthy democracy doesn’t require the blitz of news that we receive today.The key message here is: Cutting out the news doesn’t harm democracy.That’s all very well, you might say, but how are we supposed to keep power in check without the news media? Democracy only functions when the truth is brought to light. And who will do that, apart from the media? The answer to that is journalists willing to write well-researched articles.There’s a clear difference between real journalism and “the news.” Journalism requires real digging, providing background information, and being able to tell complex stories. It doesn’t simplify or cut corners. It requires skill, expertise, and time.And that kind of journalism is the best for holding power to account. A great example of this is Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein’s work on the Watergate scandal for the Washington Post. Their lengthy articles effectively ended Richard Nixon’s presidency.This kind of journalism means employing journalists who have a distinct area of expertise rather than those who superficially hold forth on 20 or 30 different subjects. It means articles that tell us something new and complex about a particular subject, rather than just the copy and paste clichés that often pass for journalism. It’s work that is best suited to long articles, documentaries, podcasts, and books, rather than the way we experience the news.And if you want to keep up with current affairs, a great way to do that is to read publications that provide a measured summary. For instance, the Economist provides a weekly feature called “The world this week,” which does just that. This way, you’ll still be able to keep in touch with subjects of conversation, without being glued to the news.So don’t fret. Democracy will still work fine without rolling news. Are you ready to take the leap into that calmer, more thoughtful world?
Final summary
The key message in this summary:Overloading on news rewires your brain so that you become a more distracted, shallower thinker. To capture your attention, the media exploits your susceptibility to negative information. This bad news causes stress, which, in turn, weakens your immune system and causes physical health problems. The news also makes you feel passive and useless in the face of disasters. To get out of these negative habits, a clean break is necessary. You should give up the news entirely. By embracing radical abstinence, you’ll hopefully be able to think more clearly and feel calmer. Actionable advice:Choose a conversation topic and stick to it.Next time you meet with a friend, ask her to tell you about one thing that she knows really well. Then discuss it with her in depth. Perhaps you’ll learn something new and important. Next time, you return the favor.
About the Author
Rolf Dobelli is an author and businessman who was born in Lucerne, Switzerland, in 1966. He began his writing career in 2003 as a novelist, with the publication of Fünfunddreissig, but is best known for his nonfictional work, The Art of Thinking Clearly. In 1999, he co-founded getAbstract, a publisher of book summaries and article abstracts.