Jan 21, 2017

I struggle with being informed. I want to be informed and involved. I don’t want to be naive about important things that are going on. I want to have a better-formed opinion and not just fake it or piggy back what I pick up on so much of the time. 

But I also struggle with gossip and people trying too hard to make me agree with them. I honestly don’t want any part of it. Nor do I want to keep harping on about goings on when what’s worth saying has already been said and what’s worth doing is already being done. I don’t enjoy reveling in bad news.

For years my answer has been to just pick up on the news from others, but obviously that path has its flaws. Every now and then I’ll get embarrassed at being so ignorant of what’s going on and delve into the news, only to be completely overwhelmed by it. There are so many things happening all the time and so much to keep track of. Some of it I’m interested in and care about, a lot of it I don’t understand, and if I’m being honest then the rest I just skip over.

Politics don’t excite me. They just don’t. I’m sorry if that’s appalling. I care what happens and it matters how we get there, but the politics just make me shut down.

I also get really nervous about things that are popular. Every now and then it’s things that are really truly good that get the limelight, but that rarely happens anytime but Christmas. The rest of the time it’s just everyone doing their best to make sense of the nonsense. Or some people doing that and then everyone else reposting and following along.

Likewise, I have a hard time with newscycles that everybody gets caught up in. More often than not it has the feel of a tornado with a news station logo stamped across it.

All this to say, I admit I can’t remember the last time I went looking for a regular day’s news on my own. And I know that for some people this is shameful and ignorant. But for others it’s the way they feel too.

How do you stay informed, genuinely informed about what’s actually going on and not just the gossip of how certain people feel about it? I’m not trying to be cynical or poetic, I just really want to know. I want to be better and be a better resource for those I might help in some way. I want to know enough to stand up about the things that matter to me. I just don’t want to get swept up in all the daily namecalling and general hogwash.

I don’t care about column inches, where do you find real news?