My experience with living on a ‘News Fast’

Motivation: As the tragic events unfolded on Friday night in Paris, I was caught up in staying abreast of what was happening there. I spent many hours following live news feed (with endless looping grim footage) on cable TV and then clicking on links on Facebook and NY Times and following WSJ updates. By Sunday night I realized that the news/real time FB feeds were driving my life. Over the past few months I would get the same stories from NPR/WSJ/NY Times and then 2-3 months later I would read detailed account of them in the New Yorker or the Atlantic. Bottom line is I was using up all these brain cycles rehashing what I already knew, from multiple sources. So on Sunday night I decided I was no longer going to be hostage to the News and create some mindspace.

Day1: I was able to turn off NPR and switch to XM Music Channel on my way to work (about 30 minutes). At work I had to actively resist looking at myYahoo page with its news feeds. Fortunately, I was driving to visit a customer in my colleague’s car 3 hours away so I didn’t have much of a chance to be checking news. I did resist checking FB updated on my smartphone.  Couple of times I sub-consciously clicked on the NYTimes icon, realizing what I had done, and hastily closed the app. On the way home I listened to a Podcast by Tim Ferris on “How Philsophy can change your lfie”  - conversation with Alain de Bottom – very deep and interesting. Evening meditation was a lot easier with less mind traffic.

Day 2: Started the day with a meditation (didn’t check my phone for email or news as I used to). I was at the gym at 6:00 AM again resisting watching CNBC on the cross trainer, but instead listening to another podcast with Tim Ferris and Kevin Costner. Had a pretty busy day at work so didn’t feel compelled to check the news. I did accidentally clicked the commodities (pricing) page on Bloomberg Business Week. I also deposited all my issues of WSJ to the recycle bin, without glancing at the headlines. At night I had extra time so I volunteered to do the dishes (to my wife’s delight) and saw an episode of Heidi on Netflix with my daughter. Something we had not done in months.  Another day passed and today I didn’t reflexively click on the NYTImes icon on my smartphone.  Maybe there is hope after all.

Day 3: It was raining heavily and very windy. Morning meditation wasn’t the best due to the racket outside. I listened to XM radio music on the way to work and studiously avoided NPR/CNBC. The day was a whir of activity dealing with emergencies related to the storm (it took out a sliver of our roof over the furnace and a couple of offices were flooded). During lunch I had to resist opening up my NYTimes app and instead read a Chapter of the latest Freakonomics book. Mike from Habitat Humanity board showed up at Quizinos, so we had a pleasant conversation that distracted me from worrying about the news. The rest of the day was busy with new product launch reviews and a board call in the evening. On the way home I listened to Tim Ferris show podcast. Though I did miss "Marketplace" as I was pulling off the interstate in my final stretch home.  Given the free time I had in the evening, I practiced soldering connector pins to Arduino boards - small computers used in creating Internet of Things (IoT)devices.  A very productive 2-3 hours without worrying about the world coming to an end. Another news free day! I am actually enjoying it.

Day 4: Morning routine was almost effortless this time around – did not have to resist checking the NYTimes or WSJ apps. Never even tried once. Keeping myself on to music on XM Radio was also easy as my daughter was riding with me to school and she likes music over NPR. Told my Vistage CEO group about my news fast and it was received with equal parts derision and admiration. Some of them mistook a newsfast as being away from a connected device – that is not the point. I am still plugged into emails, just not visiting news web site or reading papers. Stopped by at the temple on the way home to get some extra moments of peace. I do miss logging into Facebook and getting updates form friends. It will be interesting to see if the feeling lingers after day 7.

Day 5: After joining my daughter for an early morning pancake breakfast at her school I had a 45 min drive to work today. Again an interview of Tim Ferris with Lisa Randall (famous Harvard Particle Physicist) on dark matter and the nature of physics, saved the morning. During lunch I shared my ‘news fast’ experiment with work colleagues. They all agreed that the events of Paris were depressing and one of them talked about getting nightmares. I almost had an allergic reaction when a colleague started talking about the day’s news – as if someone had lit up a cigarette next to me and as if I had just quit a month ago. I was surprised by the sudden reaction. The evening I continued to listen to Prof. Randall.  My daughter and I spent the evening watching old episode of Start Trek Next Generation – a welcome change from scouring for Facebook updates. All in all, the ‘news fast’ has become somewhat routine. I am not contemplating in what measure would I let the news back in my life after the fast is over. Somewhat similar to have you slowly start cutting back on running after finishing a half marathon.

Day 6: Day started without me listening to NPR’s Scott Simon, while I made breakfast for my daughter. I had a long meaningful conversation with my brother about IoT and the Arduino platform and its variations. Later we enjoyed an outing to the science center and a visit to the Farmer’s market food court, Greek take out and Jeni’s ice cream. I did pick up the WSJ weekend edition and tossed the first two sections and enjoyed reading the book reviews. Had extra time this evening so cooked a nice meal for the family followed by another long chat with my best friend on marathon running, philosophy, product innovation, IoT and flying cars. As I am looking back, I see much more meaningful conversations, activity with the family, and general reduction of aloneness one can feel, even while living in the midst of family members.

Day 7: I decided to leave the Sunday newspaper by the curb. No overnight news and checking of emails meant that I had a very nice 15 minute morning meditation and really good preparation for teaching classes at the temple. Interestingly enough I had my first ‘forced fed’ encounter with the local TV news. At some of the local gas stations, as you pull in, the TVs come on as you start pumping gas. You are forced to listen to news about shootings overnight and wrongful convictions. I dutifully put the nozzle on auto fill and pulled myself inside the relative safety of my car. WSJ text updates continued to scroll across my iPhone which I continued to try to ignore. These accidental encounters with ‘news’ were not at all disturbing or anxiety creating. They felt more like annoyances, like you would shoo away a fly. I think I have reached a state of “News Independence.” The rest of the day was news free, limited dosage of NFL not withstanding. After my afternoon run, at the Starbucks I sat down and drank my latte, sitting and enjoying the coffee experience, while, people around me sat in pairs scrolling through their smartphones or checking on their smartphones while they waited for the orders. Suddenly, being at a Starbucks without a digital device, I felt like an interloper or an alien. It is amazing how ubiquitous smartphones have become as a coffee companion.

So to summarize key points from this experience.

• Source of news is ubiquitous – text alerts on your smartphone, TV monitors at workout places, airports, push TV on gas stations, monitors on workout machines just to name a few. So it is really hard to avoid news.
• It takes a couple of days to get over trigger finger to click on the icons on your mobile phone for news. In my case New York Times (NYT) and Wall Street Journal (WSJ).
•  If you have a long commute, switch to a commercial free music radio station such as on XM radio or find a source of ‘off line’ high quality content such as an audio book or a podcast. In my case Tim Ferris was an excellent resource and I caught up on some interviews on philosophy, high energy physics and art.
• The extra 1-2 hours per evening allowed me a lot of extra activities both personal and for the greater good. I was able to help out with more home chores, cook, spent time with my daughter and bone up on IoT projects.
•  In the absence of constant interruptions the interactions with your loved ones and friends are much richer and meaningful.
• The meditation sessions became more successful as there was less mind traffic.
• I finally achieved ‘News Independence’ – by day 6 I didn’t care if I got news or not.

8.     The big question is what level of ‘news diet’ can I sustain without being negatively impacted by it.