News is everywhere, you can't escape it. When you stop to think about it, you will be surprised by how much news seeps into our everyday life without us even realizing it, i certainly was. I was asked to perform an experiment that made me black out all news media for 48 hours. Before this experiment, i thought that i would be able to go through with my days as usual, but i was surprised to find myself jittery and anxious.
But why? Why was I incapable of spending the day without reaching for my phone to check the New York Times? I would try to substitute ways around that, but it would seem my life is saturated by news. Twitter, Facebook, and even entertainment shows, like The Daily Show, have some type of news involved. Even speaking to my freinds was a challenge, and the result were empty distant and boring conversations.
In Deresiewicz's article, The End of Solitude, he explains that people of my generation are bred for boredom. We have to be doing things constantly, connected to someone at all times, and i find this is true. I can never really find an instance where I am not doing something. I have no time to find solitude and I sometimes I think I don't really want to either, but with this experiment, I was surprised by the fact that I did enjoy the moments that I had by myself.
After this experiment, I think that news is a necessary intrusion in our lives if handled correctly. It influences our actions and thoughts in a way other sources cant. It breaks through out solitude and gets us to think about things outside of ourselves.
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