When I read the blog post assignment, I knew immediately what my answer was. The problem I felt like I faced was trying to figure out why it was, and I think i have an answer. So, where do I get my news from? The answer is simple: I only get news from word-of-mouth from fiends and family. I do not read new articles from news papers or website, I do not watch television news, and I sure don't hunt down news. If there's any news story that's important, my parents will tell me. Even so, the last major piece of news I got interested in was pointed out to me by my roommate.
So why? Why do I not go after news personally? The answer is simple: I hate news. For the most part, I find news can be split up into 4 major categories, and I have a reason each for not liking them.
The first is political news. This became very prevalent last year for obvious reasons, but I despise them not for what they are, but for what they represent. Politics is just people with firm beliefs trying to push their beliefs on other people. I don't believe that there is one right solution for most problems – I do not believe that either raising or lowering taxes is inherently a good or bad thing – and I despise anybody not willing to compromise, which is all politics is. Political news is just these same uncompromising people not getting anywhere.
The second is "Hollywood" news. This is the easiest to explain why I don't like it. It's people obsessing over people I couldn't care less about. Enough said.
The third is any news that is "Sad News." This specifically covers the latest trend of news about mass shootings. Now I know this will sound a little offensive to people from around here because of the Aurora shooting, but I hate these types of articles. While, yes, lives lost are inherently a sad thing, the news stories about them show a bit of arrogance and obliviousness. Daily, lives are lost all around the world. Lives are lost in all the wars going on. Thousands of Palestinian rockets have attacked Israel in the last year alone. Many children die from starvation in Africa. The world mortality rate is 8.37 per 1000 people, with the highest being in South Africa. About 577,190 deaths from cancer happen earch year. Yes, a mass shooting in a school is sad, but why should it get all this attention when there are many more lethal issues to consiter?
The last is just boring news. Anything that doesn't fit into any of the above categories is just "meh" on my level of interest. While keeping up with the world's happening is good, there just isn't anything worth reading about. I would go into detail, but CGPGrey has an article that explains it much better than I can. Seriously, read that article.
There are, occasionally, a few news stories that catch my attention – such as the Jonathan Coulton vs Glee debacle – but I was personally invested into Jonathan Coulton's work long before the news article. Scanning a news source for something that would interest me is unrewarding, and not worth my time. If there's something I would want to hear about something I'm already invested in, I will find it. Otherwise, I just don't care.
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