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The Junk Food for Our Brains: Rethinking Our News Diet

On April 30, I wrote about Stop Reading the News: A Manifesto for a Happier, Calmer and Wiser Life, in a piece titled “The High Cost of Staying Informed and Being Irrelevant.”

The book deepens its argument with several key points:

  • News doesn’t inform you about what truly matters. In business, importance doesn’t equate to “newsworthiness.”

  • News rarely improves your abilities. Most of what’s reported has little to do with your world or your circle of competence.

  • News doesn’t help you discern right from wrong. In an age of big data and algorithmic targeting, fake news and advertorials are more pervasive than ever.

  • News scatters your focus and attention, and distorts your sense of risk. Sensational, oversimplified stories grab attention—but often at the cost of depth and accuracy.

The author argues that, at our core, we’re still cavemen in suits. Our brains evolved for a world of hunting and gathering—not for the nonstop flood of headlines, tweets, and clickbait. This mismatch between our primitive wiring and our modern media environment leads to dangerous behaviors and poor decisions.

We’ve already started to adjust our diets in response to the dangers of excess—obesity, diabetes, and metabolic disease. But few people realize that news is to the mind what sugar is to the body: easily consumed, instantly gratifying, but ultimately hollow. The media feeds us a constant stream of trivialities and gossip—content that requires no real thought and offers no lasting value. That’s why we’re left mentally restless and unsatisfied.

Books, journals, and long-form essays challenge us to think. News, by contrast, is like candy for the brain—colorful, addictive, and devoid of nutrition.

Today, we face a crisis of information overload, much like the earlier crisis of overconsumption. But awareness is growing. As we cut back on news, we reclaim our focus, reduce anxiety, and make room for deeper thought and wiser choices.

What we need now is not more news, but clearer thinking, better insights, smarter decisions—and more time for what truly matters.

In a world that rewards noise, the real wisdom lies in knowing when to turn it off. Cutting back on news is self-preservation. The less we react to every headline, the more space we create for deep thinking, meaningful work, and a life aligned with what truly matters.

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