How do you stop yourself from looking at the news all the time?

[Fambo Number Mive]

Aside from the excellent Cookd and Bombd (and Wimblewrong is also helping) how else do you distract yourself from looking at the news too much? I watch stuff on Youtube and enjoy bad movie reviews in particular (I love GBBB and Red Letter Media).

I just can't focus on reading at the moment and most of TV is rubbish. I do exercises and talk to people by phone as well. I just wondered if there were any other websites or Youtube channels aside from Wikipedia people used to distract themselves. Any online quizzes or other sites to keep yourself thinking? I find Buzzfeed quizzes annoying.

Obviously Cookd and Bombd is the best website but you can't be on Cookd and Bombd all the time and I got so bored last week I watched that Festival film with Joe Thomas which was a surprisingly good distraction.

[Captain Z]

The best technique is to look at that news site then try to get as far away from it as possible.

[Sebastian Cobb]

Thankfully I gave up on the establishment news when it was pillorying Corbyn relentlessly but I also didn't really get sucked into cranks either.

[Puce Moment]

This isn't much of a solution to your problem - but I find the BBC News to be completely empty calories, such that it kind of forces you to keep watching it even though it is carouselling the same old nonsense, with it's 6-hour old BREAKING NEWS!!

I find an hour of Al Jazeera to be far more noroushing, and I feel satiated enough to turn it off for the day. The global contexts for Covid-19 (for instance) give a far stronger sense of what is happening and where this is going, and I appreciate not feeling that queasy Brit bias that the BBC has that I could not give two shits about.

[Sony Walkman Prophecies]

Look at books instead. There's loads more pages for one thing; it'll take you forever to finish.

[bgmnts]

Yeah just swap everything for Al Jazeera and you'll be full in a few minutes. Then play some video games or do whatever normal people do to be happy.

[Ray Travez]

I don't have a specific answer for you fambo. Maybe treat it like any other addiction, and formulate a strategy. It's easier said than done. It doesn't bother me to go without news, but then, I'm not addicted to it. The things I am addicted to can be very hard to deal with though. Addiction is a bastard![nb]edit- to be clear, I'm not suggesting that you are addicted to news, but that treating it as addictive behaviour might be a way of tackling it.[/nb]

Someone posted this essay on their website a while back, and I thought maybe it would interest you. It had an effect on my news consumption.

Avoid news- Towards a Healthy News Diet

[Butchers Blind]

Obviously Cookd and Bombd is the best website but you can't be on Cookd and Bombd all the time

How dare you!

[Fambo Number Mive]

I don't have a specific answer for you fambo. Maybe treat it like any other addiction, and formulate a strategy. It's easier said than done. It doesn't bother me to go without news, but then, I'm not addicted to it. The things I am addicted to can be very hard to deal with though. Addiction is a bastard![nb]edit- to be clear, I'm not suggesting that you are addicted to news, but that treating it as addictive behaviour might be a way of tackling it.[/nb]

Someone posted this essay on their website a while back, and I thought maybe it would interest you. It had an effect on my news consumption.

Avoid news- Towards a Healthy News Diet

Thanks, I've just read that essay, it's useful on putting the news in perspective.

I think news did become and addiction for me once Coronavirus made headlines.

[Cloud]

I stopped caring about anything except the daily government briefing that is put on the Beeb.  I know it may not be perfect and they're Tory clowns who keep fucking things up etc - but trying to second-guess the government, whilst perfectly understandable, is exhausting.  There's a theory out there to supposedly confirm whatever bias you want on how long the lockdown might ultimately be or should ultimately be, how it might affect us in the long run, whether the curve is being sufficiently flattened, how much danger you're in, how many have died, how many will die, etc.  It's pointless thinking about it.  All we can do is be sensible - stay home, disinfect and wash your hands when dealing with anything brought into the household, and otherwise do something else.  Play some games, watch some fiction, read some books

[Alberon]

How have we got almost to the bottom of the first page without anyone suggesting wanking as a solution?

Shame on you CaB!