15 Reasons Why News Is Bad for You

That’s it, you should probably just stop reading this site. Except for maybe the cat videos. In a paper presented at TED this year, Rolf Dobelli breaks down 15 reasons news is bad for you:

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1. News misleads systematically

2. News is irrelevant

3. News limits understanding

4. News is toxic to your body

5. News massively increases cognitive errors

6. News inhibits thinking

7. News changes the structure of your brain

8. News is costly

9. News sunders the relationship between reputation and achievement

10. News is produced by journalists

11. Reported facts are sometimes wrong, forecasts always

12. News is manipulative

13. News makes us passive

14. News gives us the illusion of caring

15. News kills creativity

Each point is elaborated upon in Dobelli’s paper. [PDF]

(Rolf Dobelli [PDF] via Paul Kedrosky)


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