Own the Day, Own Your Life: Optimized Practices for Waking, Working, Learning, Eating, Training, Playing, Sleeping, and Sex

by Aubrey Marcus

I’m not in politics, so the idea that I, an average person, should be following breaking news in real time is ridiculous. While I think it’s important to be an informed citizen, I’m not interested in making myself miserable by plugging into the 24/7 news cycle of endless outrage and conflict. For the same reason, I strongly suggest you resist talk radio of all political persuasions. The point is to learn something, not gorge on nonsense. Far too much media is designed to provoke and distract—the opposite of both mindfulness and mindfillness—and so when people think they are informing themselves, they are in fact falling for a giant con. Psychologists even have a term for it: narcotizing dysfunction. In fact, the more you follow the news, in some cases, the less likely you are to be an active, involved citizen, because you’ve confused consuming information with acting on it.