this post was submitted on 16 Jun 2024
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I've realized that I check the news several times a day but not because I'm curious about what's happening on the grand scheme of things, but because my brain wants to check something that keeps changing with new, evolving information. It fills a slightly different niche than social media, and I don't watch sports so I don't have that to check. Can anyone think of something else that could fill this need? I could read blogs but they just don't feel current. And the news is making be stress about information I didn't need to know.

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[–] Carrolade 47 points 4 months ago (2 children)

Going for a walk can sometimes scratch that itch. Instead of checking the news of a national or global scale, which you can't ultimately do a lot about anyway, you're checking "the news" of your immediate environment with your own eyeballs. It usually doesn't change a lot, but what else is new?

[–] [email protected] 12 points 4 months ago

Everytime i go for a walk i see something new that i haven't noticed before.

Doing what to casual observater seems like the same thing over and over again, can actually be the process of developing a deeper understanding of the subject area than before, (in this case your local neighbourhood).

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 months ago

And if it’s nature that catches your interest, in addition to walking, you could follow a live stream of some animal you may or may not care about.

I got into watching an Osprey hatch her eggs on a stream. Didn’t even know about the birds until I started, but the hook set quickly.

Watched that feed for weeks, checking to see who’s been eating, who’s been pooping, & who’s still sleeping. Pretty satisfying by the time the chicks left the nest.

[–] [email protected] 27 points 4 months ago (1 children)
[–] subtext 5 points 4 months ago (1 children)

I need to start doing this more… β€œActive” starts to get pretty stale.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

Yeah, Top 6 Hours stays pretty fresh. And if I feel like it's getting stale it means I've been on too long in a row and need a break anyway.

Then I just block any communities or instances I don't want to see in my feed.

[–] [email protected] 23 points 4 months ago (2 children)

RSS reader. Curate your own news

[–] 200ok 6 points 4 months ago (3 children)

Do you have any RSS feed apps you'd recommend?

[–] [email protected] 7 points 4 months ago

Fresh RSS if you want a self hosted option

[–] [email protected] 5 points 4 months ago

Newsblur. it's open source but there's a hosted instance of it, and it's paid (but very cheap) so it's a fair exchange. it's run by one guy and has been for a long time; I've used it for over 10 years now.

[–] jimmydoreisalefty 0 points 4 months ago

'Saved'

Thanks for reminding us and for letting us know, I will have to make time to set one up for myself!

[–] [email protected] 16 points 4 months ago

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portal:Current_events

Only very short summaries of what happened, linked to Wikipedia article for more reading.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 4 months ago

Is there any chance you'd want to, at least in part, get away from the instant hit of info? It's possible to train your brain out of that habit if you'd rather be doing something else. No judgment if you'd really rather find something Iike you described.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 4 months ago

I'm definitely a news junkie and I used to spend many hours per day on that other Platform because it made for such an effective news-media aggregator. It sounds like your seeking out a replacement for that dopamine hit you used to get from checking the news all of the time. There are plenty of bad alternatives out there as others have already mentioned. Regardless of what you choose to do, I hope you periodically take stock of your own mental health. Personally speaking, this habit has sent me into major depression more than once in my life.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

Hacker news is often interesting: https://news.ycombinator.com/

I started looking at summarized hacker news articles in the last month also, I like the format of this:

https://hackernews.betacat.io/#

But sometimes I check Lemmy instead. It's a lot easier to digest for the brain.

[–] Crisps 9 points 4 months ago

Consider a site like arstechnica. Just tech news, less depressing crap.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 4 months ago

Hardware News: Louis Rossmann, GamersNexus

Other News: Lemmy (very heavily curated), Mastodon (rarely)

US Pol, Israel/Palestine, Ukraine/Russia: Blocked

[–] [email protected] 6 points 4 months ago (2 children)
[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 months ago

Now that is someone who has thought about this question a lot

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 months ago

This looks like it deserves my time, I will give it a read.

[–] son_named_bort 6 points 4 months ago
[–] solidgrue 5 points 4 months ago (1 children)

I'm a junkie for YouTube maker videos and other forms of creative infotainment. I binge on This Old Tony and Farmcraft101 videos, but I also listen to several podcasts adjacent to my (rather technical) professional sector.

Ugh, and politics. Stresses me out too.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 months ago

This old tony is the GOAT

[–] Reddfugee42 4 points 4 months ago

I hope you mean "as well as the news"

[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

This may not be the type of answer you are looking for, but personally I check on my friends and family. It helps me somewhat avoid overly browsing Lemmy. I'll send them a text asking how they are or what's new.

I tell my brain that this is a local and personalized news source. πŸ™ƒ

[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 months ago

History wiki's. Not current, but shows that the news isn't new.

[–] eightpix 3 points 4 months ago (2 children)

I like watching well-done cinematic synopses of characters or storylines. Watched only AFTER having seen the series.

Here's one for Altered Carbon S01. Very BladeRunner, very neo-noir, 80s meets 20s. Here's one for the Expanse, story focused, 2 movements, so compassion-inducing

Both are by this creator.

Two of my top ten shows right now. I think I'm going to go finish DEVS right now.

Devs Poster, simple

[–] Kolrami 5 points 4 months ago

I liked Devs. It had a dope concept. That show didn't get much buzz.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 months ago

Here is an alternative Piped link(s):

Altered Carbon S01

Expanse

this creator

Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.

I'm open-source; check me out at GitHub.

[–] TehBamski 3 points 4 months ago

If you want a summary of science events, check out https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2024_in_science.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 months ago

The mastodon feed I've painstakingly curated for myself

[–] Today 3 points 4 months ago (1 children)

The news communities on lemmy. It's still the news, but sometimes i appreciate the comments.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 4 months ago (2 children)

Comments is where the real work gets done. That's how reddit used to work before it turned into bot networks spinning narratives for interested parties etc

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (1 children)

I think a lot of the meme content here is bots as well.

But since most users don't post anything, it's better than the alternative.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 months ago

We do have bots are they are labeled and I haven't seen bot nets driving narrative... Yet.

Also engagement quality is way better. Even when disagree with comments, they feel like real people with their own opinions.

[–] TheFonz 1 points 4 months ago

Eh. Sort of. It's still a big echo chamber with lots of feel good statements that amount to not much

[–] Hikermick 3 points 4 months ago

There's always the weather. I check that plus an app I have for the guages on our local rivers as I am a fly fisherman.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 months ago

my Lemmy feed. Google Scholar sorted by most recent.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 months ago

Don't bother with the 24 rolling news updates. It is much better to watch a video news summary a few days later. A really really good YouTube channel called TLDR news (they have a number of subchannels) that I would highly recommend.

The other thing is to use RSS...never news websites. RSS presents news chronologically. Websites curate to put absolute shit on their front-page so avoid that. If you use an RSS app like Pluma, then it lets you set a blacklist (like I've excluded news about Biden, Trump, Covid, vaccines, Israel, Ukraine, Superbowl, football, etc)... It really let's you exclude what you don't want to see and improve what shows up in your list.

[–] BonesOfTheMoon 2 points 4 months ago

Metafilter!

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 months ago
[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 months ago

coupla blogs and lemmy subscribed ordered by top day; once I'm done with it, that's it, no doomscrolling no more. all news and sports are filtered out, along with memes and similar stupid shit.

if im really craving something, read a book (thanks Anna!), reinstall one of the cheap laptops I got, go for a run/walk/bike ride etc. works most of the time.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 months ago

Inoreader for android. It's just a news links aggregator that you opt in various topics or networks and get fed a plethora of headlines and links to the articles. Sometimes they'll even grab a paragraph or two from the article. I started using that at the same time I hopped on Lemmy.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 months ago

How about deep diving? It's not easy and consistent with one app, but it's pretty satisfying to be the one figuring stuff out.

Or local city planning. Future plans on what to build and where. Doesn't update as frequently, but it's something to circle back to on occasion, or you might want to get involved and go to a meeting.

Some people like to listen to police scanners, or alternatively there is usually someone with a social media account who posts just the most important or funniest transmissions from the city/county/whatever

Or you could get an idle game app that you occasionally need to pop into to collect money and upgrade.

Start day trading?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 months ago

I get my "education" from Lemmy

[–] Norbas 1 points 4 months ago
[–] [email protected] -2 points 4 months ago (1 children)

tiktok. you get war news faster than any news outlet does, you get unvarnished war and protest news as it's happening before it's been filtered by the spin room. I found out about Chiquita banana being held liable for multiple banana farm related murders in Columbia on tiktok well before it popped up on any other news source, stuff like that.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 months ago

oh you meant instead of getting the news lol. I watch stuff on Plex and scroll Lemmy on the bottom in split screen