The Curse of the 24 Hour News Cycle

At a recent gathering of formerly politically aware and engaged folks, I heard the following: "Did you hear the latest about the campaign?" "No, and don't tell me. If I hear one more word about politics, I'll melt down. I've even stopped listening to the news...only traffic reports."

The repetition of the same old themes, the same old nuggets of news, the same old "gotcha" lines from the same old sources is getting, well, old. And the real fun hasn't even begun yet. So what's a cranky person to do? Our world has been so overtaken by talk...talk radio, talk TV, podcasts and blogs that it's getting hard to think. The answer might be as simple as tuning out and turning off...a few hours a day.

A recent scholarly article examined an interesting phenomenon; people who spent the most time each day on Facebook were the least content, the most bitter about their lives. With no empirical evidence whatsoever to back this up, I suspect the same holds true for those who listen to or watch the most talk radio/TV. So here's my suggestion - get out more and come to a Town Hall event. You'll find it curiously refreshing ;-) Jon Goodman, President