35% of Brits now ‘actively avoiding the news’; only 9% willing to pay for it

Also +1 to getting lots of my news from here, although I appreciate that's not always a good thing.

I find that I now look at the news less and, sometimes, actively avoid it. Mainly because:

Dual wrote:...Everything is strawberry floating gooseberry fool.

Because gooseberry-fool, not because Dual.

When it comes to news, i read a tacky tabloid for entertainment purposes during lunch, while for serious news i check the BBC News site and watch at least 1 bulletin a day (usually the 10pm one).

I've more or less stopped paying attention to the news, because it's all just a massive clusterfuck and I need to preserve what little mental health I have left.

Yep I haven't read the news in years. I just hope PM Gordon Brown is still doing a good job.

I keep on top of the news but honestly I wish I didn't. It's non stop negativity from all angles, even the best of sources hopelessly get things wrong, or miss out quite vital details from stories. So I end up having to read multiple sources on the same story to try and get at least a semi accurate picture.

Half the time it feels like news organisations are almost creating stories, kind of like some kind of real life Tomorrow Never Dies.

Somebody Else's Problem wrote:I've more or less stopped paying attention to the news, because it's all just a massive clusterfuck and I need to preserve what little mental health I have left.

I understand that view, but I’d rather know what was coming rather than it being a sudden surprise.

I have a kid now so I don't have time to read news. Although sometimes they have kids news segments in between episodes of Paw Patrol.

Pedz wrote:Don't pay for news, don't watch news.

This.

Put me down for being in the avoiding news camp. I'm sick to the back banana split of hearing about the Tories and brexit.

Recently I've been trying to actively avoid the news as much as possible, because life is just depressing. Nothing good is happening anywhere and even if it did no news outlet would cover it as it doesn't bring clicks.

I read the guardian. Also I subscribe to Private Eye. Use to watch a lot more news but don't really get a chance any more.

The problem with Brexit is it's all very circular. It could be argued that Boris' leadership is actually stacking up quite a lot like May's. She went in with her red lines, no delays and Brexit means brexit and when the time came she erred. The question is will he actually have the guts to no deal and I'm really not sure.

RE: the news just focusing on the negative:

Lex-Man wrote:I read the guardian.

That must mean the readership has risen to 1.

Jenuall wrote:RE: the news just focusing on the negative:

Vermilion wrote:
Lex-Man wrote:I read the guardian.

That must mean the readership has risen to 1.

I actually only read it online.

I definitely wouldn't be willing to pay for news outright.

And I don't actively avoid news, but definitely seek it out less. I used to watch the BBC news nearly every night, would regularly read the BBC and Guardian websites, and get news from other sources as well (Radio 4, 5 Live, GRcade, reddit, etc).

But it's all too repetitive, depressing/negative or just not interesting to me.
There's only so much constant negativity and bad news that I can take before I get sick of it, or it actually has a detrimental effect on my life.

It's the same with why I'm visiting here less, or not using Facebook anymore, or cutting out other stuff - if it's dragging you down or having a negative impact, I find I'm just cutting it out.

I think in a lot of ways, 'ignorance is bliss' holds true with regards to the news.

Lex-Man wrote:
Vermilion wrote:
Lex-Man wrote:I read the guardian.

That must mean the readership has risen to 1.

I actually only read it online.

...and thus, it was zero once more.

35% of Brits now ‘actively avoiding the news’; only 9% willing to pay for it

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