I used to spend a lot of time watching the news and thinking about politics. I used to tweet about those sorts of things. My belief was that it is good to be opinionated, and it is good to seek to persuade others. Then I stopped.
My reasons were:
- I wasn’t really learning anything fundamentally new anymore. It was just different actors with the same drama. It was consuming more time and attention than it was worth.
- I realized my best opportunity to make a positive impact was to build startups and create jobs; not tweet about sensitive issues that I cannot control.
- Tweeting about politics is going to make at least 50% of people angry, cause the split is so narrowly close in how people are divided. The persuasive value of tweets is nil.
- My own opinions change over time (as they should since I like to continually learn), so I’m not really fond of posting opinions that may change as I learn.
When I made the change, I deleted all my history of tweets. I removed browser bookmarks to sites that I frequented. I stopped watching the news on TV. I stopped cold turkey.
I find that I don’t miss much. I see other people’s tweets. The news is still on in enough random places that I catch it. I’m not against the news. I just don’t actively bring it into my life anymore.
It has been over two years now like this. My thoughts have been more focused on important things.
What are your thoughts on the amount of attention to news and politics?
Comments on this entry are closed.