I read a story in the New York Times about a man in Ohio who was observing a news moratorium that included any and all news stories from every possible source. He had developed a routine around non-news that included going daily to his local cafe without the benefit of WiFi that would infiltrate the black out. He donned noise cancellation headphones to prevent the possibility of overhearing conversations about events du jour. He planned to adhere to the black out throughout the Trump presidency. He turned his attention to other quieter things like planting a garden. I closed the newspaper as I decided to give a news moratorium a one-month trial.
On March 13, my son’s birthday, I blocked all social media, news sites, television programs. When I called to cancel my subscription to the NYT, I was asked "Why?" I replied I could no longer read all that news fit to print. I told my family and friends and colleagues not to share any information with me about anything that was happening in the world. It was harder on them than on me. It seemed some thought that I needed to know exactly what I was not wanting to know about border separations of parents from their children, Muslims banned from the U.S., meetings between Putin and Trump, so-called "love letters" from Kim Jong Un, and budding friendships with Crown Prince of Saudi Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud. You the reader know more than I about those events because I stayed steadfast in my own news moratorium like the man in Ohio. I settled into a quieter routine without the news as background or foreground. I read more; listened to music and played my piano regularly. I spent more time at my writing desk. It wasn't as hard as you might think.
Since the time I was a young child I had been an avid news follower, faithfully watching the evening news with my mother after supper. I am not sure why I was so drawn in when I could have been doing other things with my siblings. I recall how it served me in my current events class because I was one of the few who could identify the cast of characters from presidents to criminals. (Who woulda thought that in my lifetime this would be one and the same person here in our own country?)
A month passed peacefully and I let the moratorium linger through Spring. I did not miss knowing what I didn't know. It was blissful, as ignorance is, and I forgot all about things beyond my own thoughts and immediate surroundings. As you might imagine, time took on a different meaning as I meandered day to day without regard for yesterday's news or tomorrow's woes. One day, noticing the flags flying at half mast was the first reminder that news was in fact still happening. I decided to ask why the flags were lowered because I feared there may have been yet another horrible school shooting which was the very thing that had driven me to my decision in the first place. I had reached my breaking point on these pointless murders. I could no longer tolerate another one of these senseless school massacres after the Parkland High School shooting in South Florida. Despite being a few hundred miles from where I live, that shooting came close to home.
My three grandchildren were all in high school on that horrible day. I was viscerally angry, completely frustrated, and empathically saddened for the families, the students who lived through it and would never forget, and for those teeenagers who had been murdered in their classroom. My grandkids spoke about it in a "once again" tone. Sometimes I overheard them asking each other if they had "gone into lockdown" at school during the day. How could they ever feel safe in the one place away from home where they needed to go each day? The very place where we parents sent them day after day? This commonplace action should never mean sending them into harm's way. Never. My blood boiled over when the news reeled on and on showing those fateful moments in Parkland. It is boiling even now, a news moratorium not withstanding, as I write about the senselessness and selfishness that has stunted any true development and progress to stopping gun violence in the U.S. Nothing has been done to prevent the next inevitability. Nothing. That we refuse to rectify the worst impulses in some warped idea wrapped in the Second Amendment "right" comes from a very dark place. Consider all those other "rights" that are trampled by the Government without regard. Yet, this so-called right is sacrosanct. There is no reasonable explanation whatsoever. None.
My news moratorium felt like a relief from feeling all those feelings, thinking all those thoughts, fighting all those rights. Friends and family scrolled on in the doomsday newsfeeds and got used to me dropping out. My birthday comes six months after my son's and I was determined to continue my black out until that date. When I emerged from the quiet days, I never resumed my subscription to the NYT. It had become clear to me during the pause that I did not need to know ALL the news that's fit to print. I had not missed being in the know to the degree that I was used to since back in the day when news came from a few reliable sources that one knew were trustworthy.
Half a year had passed before I woke up like Rip Van Winkle from a long sleep. Upon awakening, I learned immediately that we were looking down the barrel of COVID-19. My first news reports came out of an Italy in full lock down. It was shocking to see the city empty of people. The Pope cut a lonely figure standing solo in St. Peter's Square! There was nothing like this in recent history, nor in our collective memory, and certainly not in our lifetime. The news took on great significance as we inched towards our own lock down in the U.S. The news moratorium had kept me from drowning in the blood of school massacres. It would not protect me from a pandemic raging across continents. I needed to know. I turned once again to those sources that I had grown up trusting for information.
At some future time, I can imagine spending time in blissful ignorance again. It had attuned me to the world in a different way. Sadly, it didn't change the facts. The bloody truth is that since the Parkland High School Shooting on Valentine's Day 2018, . . ."In all, 103 people have been killed and 281 people injured from school shootings since 2018. In 2022, there were 51 school shootings—more than double the numbers for 2018 and 2019, which both saw 24 such incidents. Last year, school shootings hit a record, with 100 people shot on school campuses and 40 people killed.
I appreciate your thoughtful comments and reminder that we "learn from history".
On occasion, I will forego a day or two of news - assuming if the story is important enough, it will still be around for me to catch up.
Perhaps more the problem is to find a solution to these god-awful happenings rather than pretend…
Appreciate the comment.
While I was working, I felt I had to keep up with the news. It was a continual source of stress. After I retired, I took an extended time out from the news. It was quite a relief. Since then I've severely limited the amount of time I spend on the news and focus on local affairs. It helps me keep my equanimity.