News is bad for you – and giving up reading it will make you happier (2013)
Ignorance is certainly bliss.<p>Living a naïve life of detached privilege is great fun, so long as you are surrounded by people to take care of the nasty details.  Don't follow the news.  Don't learn about environmental problems.  Don't get angry at local businesses when they do bad things.  Don't feel bad when a racist cop does something horrible.  Don't vote.  Don't enlist.  Just passively consume and spend.  Let other people keep the world from falling apart around you.  Other people will guard the door as you watch cat videos.<p>The real joke is that 90% of the people I meet who "don't read the news" actually do.  They have just turned off realworld news, mostly politics.  They still know all about Hollywood and the latest fashion trends.