Global Ignorance Is Bliss: Thinking Locally

I have a confession to make: I am ridiculously well versed on current events, but believe that following so many things so emotionally, yet powerlessly,  actually takes away from my energy and daily enjoyment. Something I have been trying this year, especially since beginning my second round of travels the last half of January, is to avoid following the news altogether and limit my internet activity.

Everyday I spent hours reading the news online—cnn.com, foxnews.com, msn.com, yahoo.com, etc. I read “intellectual” and pop culture articles from aldaily.com. If a newspaper is near, I’ll skim it cover to cover, reading at least the headlines and a paragraph or two. If I’m in a waiting room, I look through magazines in search of the most compelling articles. I often go to book stores and spend a couple hours, browsing through several chapters of several books. Economics, sports, traveling, personal finance, biographies, hobbies, history, science—nothing is off limits. It’s all brain food and I crave it, but much of the information, namely current events, simply ticks me off.

Every injustice making the news, every instance of corruption, and every game-changing officiating error makes me want to track the violators down and kick them in the shins. Hard. Unfortunately, that is illegal and impractical. Thus, I am mired in this situation of believing that I know how to fix so much of what is wrong with the world, yet powerless to change anything significantly. In other words, I’m like almost everybody else out there.

Well, I’m finally doing something about it. Since there are two parts of the equation—news and powerlessness—I have to alter one or both. There is no way I’m going to be in a position of power anytime soon, so the powerlessness will have to remain unchanged. Only one option is left: Eliminate (or significantly reduce) my interest in news. That’s exactly what I’ve done in the past two and a half weeks.

I put my laptop in storage (last year I traveled with it), am deliberately avoiding reading or watching news, slashed and burned my facebook/social media activity, and have been reading a lot. It feels great. Instead of tracking the horrendous decisions of federal judges, analyzing the lies of politicians, and following the world’s most recent tragic events, all of which I am powerless to affect, I worry only about my immediate surroundings.

I’ve nearly isolated myself into an awareness bubble of things that directly impact me, or over which I have some level of influence. Amazingly, I feel more energetic and carefree. My little personal experiment is still in the early stages, so the results are definitely inconclusive. I’ll continue ignoring the rest of the world as best I can (I admit, I find myself subconsciously typing in news websites still) and see if this is worth making a permanent change.

Maybe those happy, yet self-centered people we all know—you know, the ones who haven’t the slightest clue about global current events, are onto something beneficial to healthy living? Maybe the impoverished, who lack the means to follow news, are unknowingly avoiding an information vortex that sucks their energy and drive for them to act locally? Maybe ignorant bliss is better than informed frustration?