2010-10-15

Current affairs

Was having a chat the other day about someone watching news and how there is 24 hour news and people watching miners getting rescued at some ungodly hour of the morning.

I hardly watch news at all - what's the point? So I did wonder what was the point?

Obviously there is news that could affect me. Some things have impact because they are local to me or my business or things that affect my family or friends. Some things have impact even if they are world news (like volcanic ash clouds) as they can have impact on me (e.g. people not making meetings because flights cancelled, etc). So there is reason to keep up with relevant current affairs - though generally not an urgent reason (i.e. not to be up watching 24 hour news in the middle of the night).

Then it occurs that the main reason to keep up with current affairs is conversations with other people. People I talk to assume a level of awareness of current affairs, and use them as part of conversation. Even so, it does not require the level of urgency with 24 hour news!

Then it occurred to me - with the people I talk to it is far more critical to have read today's Dilbert and XKCD than know if some miners have been rescued safely or not. Is that sad?

P.S. Glad they got out safely.

1 comment:

  1. I stopped watching the news a long time ago, and in the end I threw out my TV altogether (which has now resulted in a long running battle with TV licensing who assume that everyone who claims not to have a TV surely must be a cheat and a criminal - but that's another story). I can get updated on those current affairs that interest me through my RNS newsreader. Most of the time, I find myself reading El Reg. Is that sad also?

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