Slow news

As I turned my phone back on after a week of intensive meditation practice this Sunday, I quickly checked in with my wife. She sent a video of our cat, so I guessed that meant everything was ok. But I didn’t check anything further and blissfully had all notifications off.

As a few of us drove together from rural Wales to Bristol, we surmised that England must be playing in the final because of all the English flags out. When I finally got settled in Bristol, I turned to one of my group chats with some friends and asked “Other than England making it to the finals, anything else happen last week?”

A friend repeated her message a bit further up: “Imagine Derek checking his phone for the first time after the week 🫠”

I feel no desire to hop on Reddit, Twitter, or check any of the news sites. I did eventually get my daily email from The Economist, and despite it being days after The Big Thing That Happened, the confirmed information is basically the same. Finding out about it a few days later made no difference, and in fact, I’d argue that skipping the apparent web of conspiracy theories meant I know more about The Big Thing That Happened than those who had been following it closely.

This all goes to say, you’re far betting off checking a high-quality news source every once in awhile than reading what’s the latest hashtags.