Cold Turkey
This is my third day of going cold turkey from reading the news. Yes! News addiction is real... especially if you check the news at least fifteen times a day.
I still find myself unconsciously typing the address of one of the (many) news sights I'm addicted to, but as soon as I realize what I've done, I throw my phone away before I catch the PANIC-19 virus. A highly contagious virus, that spreads through reading the terrifying news titles: 'death toll reaches xxx' or 'President X is still a fucking moron', or 'millions are to go hungry in country Y', or 'NHS workers don't have enough protective gear' etc.
The news addiction is something I picked up while living in Palestine; the country where I was born and raised, a country where uncertainty is the norm and the situation can change in seconds, the 'safe' road that you took a few hours ago, can be completely blocked with an Israeli checkpoint now or busy with clashes between Palestinian youth throwing stones at fully armed Israeli soldiers who respond with live bullets and tear gas. Trust me, you do not want to be stuck on a checkpoint for hours, moving nowhere, nor do you want to be stuck in your car while stones, live bullets and tear gas are flying around you and can invade your car at any minute. That is of course just one example of the many things that can change quickly in Palestine. Can you see now why checking the news a few times a day (or more in my case) is an absolute necessity?
However, checking the news can give you this false sense of security, of knowing what's happening, of being prepared to face the fucked up world we live in! Or at least it used to! Reading the news these days feels like waiting for an invisible invading army, reaping casualties along the way left right and centre. Under no circumstance does it give you any sense of security, real or not!
To be continued...
I still find myself unconsciously typing the address of one of the (many) news sights I'm addicted to, but as soon as I realize what I've done, I throw my phone away before I catch the PANIC-19 virus. A highly contagious virus, that spreads through reading the terrifying news titles: 'death toll reaches xxx' or 'President X is still a fucking moron', or 'millions are to go hungry in country Y', or 'NHS workers don't have enough protective gear' etc.
The news addiction is something I picked up while living in Palestine; the country where I was born and raised, a country where uncertainty is the norm and the situation can change in seconds, the 'safe' road that you took a few hours ago, can be completely blocked with an Israeli checkpoint now or busy with clashes between Palestinian youth throwing stones at fully armed Israeli soldiers who respond with live bullets and tear gas. Trust me, you do not want to be stuck on a checkpoint for hours, moving nowhere, nor do you want to be stuck in your car while stones, live bullets and tear gas are flying around you and can invade your car at any minute. That is of course just one example of the many things that can change quickly in Palestine. Can you see now why checking the news a few times a day (or more in my case) is an absolute necessity?
However, checking the news can give you this false sense of security, of knowing what's happening, of being prepared to face the fucked up world we live in! Or at least it used to! Reading the news these days feels like waiting for an invisible invading army, reaping casualties along the way left right and centre. Under no circumstance does it give you any sense of security, real or not!
To be continued...
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