I dont read “mainstream” news, I am convinced that it is junk and not useful.
By mainstream news, I am refering to the news that traditional news outlet like Channels, CNN, BBC and co brings to our notice daily.
Why do I do that?
News is negative
“The news media are, for the most part, the bringers of bad news… and it’s not entirely the media’s fault, bad news gets higher ratings and sells more papers than good news.” – Peter McWilliams
A bad news headline sells more online or offline than good news headlines. And so, everyday journalists make their rounds frantically searching for the bad news of the day. Why should I care?
News report about wars, natural disasters, murders and other kinds of suffering. It seems the only natural conclusion of watching or reading news is that the world is a terrible place, Nigeria is a graveyard and that it is getting worse every day. However, I feel that it NOT as worse as they paint it.
Negative news breeds negative emotions and for an Inventor like me, I cannot afford to load up negativity into my system; it will pollute it.
No time to check headlines
As the old saying goes:
“People who make the news don’t watch the news” – Anonymous
I am hoping to make the news shortly, so I guess I am getting ready. But really, the amount of time people sink into news watching, analysis and arguments at the bus stop is enough for me to think about my next marketing strategy or next idea.
Following the news passionately is just a grand waste of my time.
What do I do instead?
I created my own newspaper, so that I read only the kind of stories I want to read. You see: INFORMATION IS FOOD.
Information is food, certainly! It is like a buffet in that you are solely responsible for the kind of information you feed yourself, so here is how to create your own newspaper:
Head over to Twitter, create an account and search for people in your fields of interest and “Follow” them. These people will be always talking about information you actually need, like new trends in the industry.
A fashion designer is better off reading tweets from other fashion designers than reading The Punch.
Stage 2 is to set up a feed reader. A feed reader allows you to read the latest content from websites you are interested in keeping up with. Head over to Digg Reader now to get started.
Do good stuff,
M.
