Hey beehaw. I’m here after years of being on Twitter, and I know a lot of y’all are on Lemmy/the fediverse after spending a lot of time on there or reddit.
I’m wondering: does anyone have any tips for coping with the lack of ambient awareness of what’s going on in the world after you lose your main information source? I used to get a vague idea of what was going on on Twitter, with on the ground reports on things like protests from people who were there. Now that is, for the most part, gone.
I’m both looking for tips on dealing with having less information-- the fact is that I don’t need to know as much as I did-- and help with finding emotionally healthy ways to keep up with news, some of the time. I’m also happy to hear about other people’s experiences with this kind of thing happening in the past; I’m sure some of y’all have been through this before.
I think you hit the nail on the head - we don’t need to know as much as we did. The internet had explosive growth and now with a phone in your hand, information overload is easier than ever before, because it used to just be the television while you were at home. Now you can be out with friends and glued to a device feeding you data every waking moment.
What I’m trying to do in the absence of those constant data streams is be more intentional with my time. Your serotonin doesn’t need to come from hitting refresh on a post for upvotes/likes, though that is what modern social media conditioned us to do. Consume media that doesn’t demand emotional labor. Create. Play. Read. Travel. The world outside has changed a little bit, everything is more expensive, but nature is still (mostly) free.
At the end of the day you aren’t missing much, despite what your fomo is telling you. And your phone is still a p2p communicator. Hopefully when something consequential happens, a friend or loved one will relay the message. I hope this helps a little.
I ended up setting up rss feeds and am reading more articles now. I come here for the comment socializing and occasionally I still use reddit in Google searches when I need more specific information.
This is the way. If you just want news and not the “social experience”, an RSS Reader is the best way to keep up with the world. Shame that a lot of non-tech news websites have removed (or hidden) their RSS feed in order to replace them with trackable (= ads) email newsletters.
Tell me more, is love to get started on rss feeds. What’s your personal experience?
I mostly downloaded an app, Feedly and then Inoreader (I like this one better). Then I just used their interface to subscribe to all the sites I was interested in. It was as easy as subscribing to subs on reddit. I get a lot of repeat articles as I have a lot of crossover, but overall it’s been pretty good.
this is what i was going to suggest. while i haven’t set up an rss feed myself (yet), i think it sounds like that would likely be a great option for OP in this situation.
I purposefully cut myself off from “ambient awareness of what’s going on in the world” a long time ago and have been a much happier person for it. If something is really bad I have lots of people who care about me enough to let me know relevant things. Otherwise I found that it was stressing me out a lot over things I had absolutely zero control over.
hi nora!!! i miss it too but i’ve found that keeping up with specific groups of people is more fun and keeps me less stressed than being subjected to Algorithm, so keep doing what you’re doing where i see ya elsewhere!!! sometimes it helps to make space in those communities for talking about news but make sure you aren’t just subjecting others to awful stuff just cuz it’s happening- be more intentional with what you share, make sure what you share has purpose beyond just “keeping others informed” cuz that’s just the friendship equivalent of doom scrolling. hope it helps!
I get much of my news from podcasts. Democracy Now, Popular Front, Canadaland, the Guardian, stuff like that.
I’m a Canadaland supporter for a reason. Gonna check out the others you mentioned
If I’m being honest I still check reddit once every few days for a couple minutes. I just lurk with ublock origin for what’s hitting /all
But I’ve noticed that the feed is really kinda shit now. I don’t know if its because on boost I had configured my entire experience or what. But the front page is just filled with so much garbage. It’s debatable if it’s even worth sifting through. So I’ve been checking my local sub and Ukraine news. Thats about it.
It does feel weird not having that feed. But I also recognize it was distracting me a lot and that I used it as a time filler. I’ve been trying to fill that time with more meaning and purposeful activities, but it’s still a challenge.
Like others have mentioned , I also use an RSS reader to keep up with the gist of current events. I think getting info that way is much more productive than doomscrolling twitter opinions or reddit comments since you limit your experience to a writeup of something instead of random people’s opinions (just don’t look at the article comments lol, RSS readers help with not seeing those). Social media feeds have way too much garbage that fill our minds for no purpose.