[Closed] Current affairs........anyone not give a shyte?

I must admit you do get quiet news days/weeks where nothing is going on, the papers keep churning out the same old rubbish waiting for the next scandal. This Jimmy thing will run until something else replaces it!

R4 were covering misogyny in Australian politics this morning – must be a slow day.

me. I've not bought a newspaper in 20 years. Nor watched the news.

The only info i get is from posts i may find interesting on a forum.

I'm with you on those four "top" news items, ton.

Not in the slightest

Don't read the papers
Don't watch the news
Never watch live tv.
Don't do faceache or ****ter

Never feel like I'm missing anything

I know what you're saying but, like you, I find myself uncontrollably drawn to keep discussing the very same issues... 😕

Don't do faceache or ****ter

Just because you don't use something, does not mean you have to be a dick about it.

I watch and listen to the news a few times a day but don't have an opinion on any of it if I am being honest.

Don't read the papers
Don't watch the news
Never watch live tv.
Don't do faceache or ****ter

Do you live in a cave.?

I haven't bought a newspaper for 3 or 4 years now... oh tell a lie needed something to use for emergency dog piddle incidents recently... had to laugh at the news last night going on about Sarah Brightman (the one from farter of the opera with the big eyes) going into space ... is this really news ... I mean really?

Jamie - Member

Don't do faceache or ****ter

Just because you don't use something, does not mean you have to be a dick about it.

Yeh but it makes em feel superior dunnit.

[i]Sarah Brightman...going into space [/i]

Actually, I thought that was interesting! Space tourist to the ISS? Amazing.

Notice how quiet the news has gone on the execution of the family in France recently? Or did I just miss the end of that story?

I feel a bit isolated if I haven't seen the news at least once a day.

Jamie, how does me saying I don't use some websites constitute being a dick about it,
I merely said I don't use them. I was trying to get across that I have no use for either media. I don't in any way feel superior or special. I understand that they can be good for some people, just not me.

I also don't live in a cave. I just find that life is simpler without all the crap that is thrown at us on a daily basis.

I think it's important to be aware of what's going on in the world, in terms of social & economic issues/events. You just have to filter out the drivel.

The media seems to be obsessed with giving a profile to stuff that I wouldn't personally consider to be real 'current affairs' ... i.e. saville, lance, muslim hook bloke ... they may be worthy of a mention, but not to the massive extent that they get covered - we don't need a blow-by-blow account of every little development.

Since media coverage became 24x7 & more accessible through an interwebs it's become more and more Daily Mail-ish, almost like gossip.

I suppose they've got to find something to fill 24 hours of every day with.

20 years ago we pretty much just had daily newspapers and the 10 0'clock news, so only the really newsworthy stuff was covered.

Now, every little piffling bit of information is suddenly a 'news' item.

May have something to do with face[i]ache[/i] and t[i]wa[/i]tter rather than the correct names...

^ why not just say 'facebook' or 'twitter' then?

Supply and demand, most people don't have anything better to do 😯

So 💡 will ❗ read ➡ any 😐 old 👿 shyte ❓

Maybe the news should focus on why the UK has no real leadership or guidance and as a result absolutely no direction 😉

I'm with transporter13 faceache and ****ter it is. Ooh look at me! Me! ME!

[i]Ooh look at me! Me! ME![/i]

so shall we call this Single****world for your sake? 😆

Yeah, I got that

What does it matter what I call them?
Apologies if I've come across all wrong, it's just that I tend to make up silly names for things.

I use to be bothered, and then realised that no one else gave a 5h1t, so gave up worrying.

yeah cockchops, you did come across all wrong. Ooh look, I made up a silly name!

Pretty much with the OP, I hear the headlines but don't really give a **** about any off it. Life's too short to get stressed out by shit you can't really change, I learnt that years ago.

Thanks pook, very good

Interesting. I started actively avoiding the news about 6 months ago.

Calling it 'News' is a misnomer. I'm getting old and cynical but the world just trots out the same crap on constant repeat.
For example:

Maybe the news should focus on why the UK has no real leadership or guidance and as a result absolutely no direction

You cannot avoid the big stories or the really salacious stuff but I don't, in any way, feel I'm missing anything.

Notice how quiet the news has gone on the execution of the family in France recently? Or did I just miss the end of that story?

[url= http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/9599174/Alps-family-murder-French-police-launch-witness-appeal-as-clues-run-out.html ]Apparently they've run out of clues[/url], which I found quite interesting but it got buried in the "news" by more important things like political party conferences and Jimmy Savile. Am I the only one that finds pre-staged political party events totally un-newsworthy?

does not taking this "philosophy" to the extreme lead to the inevitable [i]All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing[/i].

Not in the slightest

Don't read the papers
Don't watch the news
Never watch live tv.
Don't do facebook or twitter

Never feel like I'm missing anything

I thought it was just me? thought it was an age thing? Stopped reading papers about 3 years ago, can't stand reality tv and any 'celebrity goss' type stuff just has me leaving the room and doing something I'm interested in, even if it's only reading a bike forum.

Not just me whose an anti-social git then.

Stopped giving a fig about [i]News[/i] ages ago....

IMO the only people really interested are those who either make money out of selling [i]News[/i] or have such empty dull lives that "being up with the [i]News[/i]" and being able to give a full comment on [i]Current Affairs[/i] gives them some feeling of importance....

....[i]News[/i] I've shat it
😆

Does anyone really not give a ******? Really? I agree with Joao, the key is to apply your own personal filters. But fundamental questions relating to current affairs and the notion of "what is the right thing to do" have exercised human thinking throughout history and will continue to do so. This forum is a constant reminder of that.

Ton, isn't the issue really about how current affairs are presented, manipluted, sensationalised, distorted, exaggerated etc? On that point, I am with you! 24 hour news is a great misnomer. It should be called 24 hour noise.

See what you've done Ton?

Back to the Faceache/****ter thingy? I must admit I enjoy both, but I dont go on there for current affairs updates....does anyone? Twitter maybe if you select certain feeds to follow...

On Facebook you do regularly get misspelled, badly punctuated and ill-informed rants about bringing back hanging for paedos/lefties/muslims/benefit spongers though, so in that way it's just like Singletrackworld but with more pictures of babies....

Motozulu : Don't get me started on reality TV.... bike fiddling in the man cave with music on is the preferred option.

There are some stories that I don't give a **** about, and others that make me angry, such as the misinformation about the food price increases to come. Yes there have been below-average harvests, there have been such before, and there will be such again. But the real reason that food prices are going to increase is because those speculating spivs, you know, the ones who crashed our economy, have been given untold amounts of taxpayers money via Quantative Easing, and have used that money to speculate on one f the few things that you can't do without; food.

Wish I followed it less tbh. I agree that 24hr news has a lot to answer for. R4 is the only source of sanity at least some of the time.

IMO the only people really interested are those who either make money out of selling News or have such empty dull lives that "being up with the News" and being able to give a full comment on Current Affairs gives them some feeling of importance....

Whereas you get your feeling of importance by thinking you're superior to all those people? Why does not following the news have to involve smug condescension of those who do? Oh I forgot, this is STW.

DezB - Member
Ooh look at me! Me! ME!

so shall we call this Single****world for your sake?

That's how 'Elma Fudd' would say it. 🙂

To widen the subject slightly. Isn't it time that the BBC dropped the red and white jungle drums and time signal beep news intro? And how about not sending reporters to the scene to report that there is nothing going on? Can we also have economic news without a backdrop of slowly floating down money? And not repeating statistics in print on screen in such a patronising form?

I know I'm getting old but... I remember when the BBC news was actual news, rather than polically influenced, planned in advance 'issues' based reporting; when you could watch a news bulletin and feel as if you'd been informed rather than stunned, numbed and dumbed. Sadly I think it is too late to recover what we have lost, and so we must look for alternative sources of information.

Let's not start on ITV, Sky, and Channel 5 'news'. I don't think my brain could take it...

Silly names for silly things--

Faceache- is that offensive ? ****ter- ****terati, ****nav, depends on the context, on a forum such as this i would hope not, in a primary school lesson probably....

[quote=rudebwoy ]Silly names for silly things--
Faceache- is that offensive ? ****ter- ****terati, ****nav, depends on the context, on a forum such as this i would hope not, in a primary school lesson probably....
In the context given, it comes across as bit contemptuous. However, if I was to say "I was on Faceache last night" or "I sent you a ****ter message" it would be less so as it would then be apparent I was a user of the service and was therefore merely making fun of the name.

fair comment druidh, i took the original a bit like that, in the sense that its a non life essential really, but for some it appears to be the opposite,

It seems to have become essential for the 'news' organisations who seem to spend more of their time regurgitating social media posts and paper reviews.

Ohnohesbake - there's a lot that we could do with the scripting of BBC news.

"and let's join our reporter outside No 10 right now"...... (why? does the fact that he is standing outside No 10 add gravitas and/or insight?)

"thanks XXX, well in extraordinary scenes here in Westminster".....(cue dull reporting of extremely mundane noise, with added hype and bias from chosen chief/leading/senior/average political correspondent)

Newsnight even feels the need to sensationalise and dumb things down and as for BBC's QT? Most of the guest/"real people" merely demonstrate their lack of understanding. But if getting that property woman to blurt out "bollo***" is what winning ratings and getting real people involved, well so be it!!!!

Is it a modern thing that newspapers merely cut and paste stories from news agencies? Noticed a lot of articles in different papers that are word-for-word. Quality journalism????

[quote=teamhurtmore ]
Is it a modern thing that newspapers merely cut and paste stories from news agencies?
No. However, with the advent of the internet and online access to multiple channels you are now noticing it.

Or maybe those of us who have been alive long enough have realised the scope and scale of the last thirty years of dumbing down.

But if getting that property woman to blurt out "bollo***" is what winning ratings and getting real people involved, well so be it!!!!

edit while we are on the subject ,the media's hard on for kate wotshername, you know, married that prince guy, is starting to grate ever so slightly. The public's response to her is pretty galling too, "ooh she's so suited to this work, what a fantastic performance" she walked around watched the little show you put on for her said hello to a few people, managed to look a bit interested and not to dribble or insult anyone. Even I could do that job FFS (OK maybe a little dribbling)

Sexing up the 'news' been going for a long time now- Chris Morris did a great take on all this a few years back-- The Day Today-

The effect though is a homogenised interpretation, that is the 'correct' one-- if you do hear dissenting views on say newsnight,they are usually followed by sneers from Paxman--

The phone tap 'scandal' exposed the cosy and incestuous relationship between the 'media and politrickery, they live in each others world.

Thats why sometimes regional reporting can be more objective--but since the ownership of the press/media is in such a small cabal this is rare.

They call it Democracy !

It's both amusing and depressing how the news continues to get more like The Day Today/Brass Eye all the time.

Another pet hate of mine at the moment is lazy reliance on social media for 'stories' and 'reaction'.

Edit: rudebwoy beat me to it.

I think we need strict guidelines for use of the word 'celebrity' in mainstream media

OED : "a famous person, especially in entertainment or sport"

Unfotunately, 99% of 'famous' people these days are just famous for being famous, having no recognizable talent or reason for their fame other than high media exposure

If we could remove the obsession with 'celebrity' from the news then we'd lose most of the drivel and be left with stories with actual substance and significance.

Another pet hate of mine at the moment is lazy reliance on social media for 'stories' and 'reaction'

Absolutely agree with this. Especially the 'reaction' bit.

Often catch some of BBC Breakfast News - "in response to our report about xyz, Alan from Watford has tweeted 'bla bla yada yada'" ... I don't care what Alan from Watford, or Clare from Newcastle, or anybody else for that matter, thinks about the news.

Just report the news, stop reporting peoples opinions about the news!

😀

Obviously some of the stories quoted by the OP are not that important on the world scale, but food price increases is massively important and will effect everyone world wide.

I don't ever watch the News.
I never read Newspapers.

I do listen to the radio a lot, so get news on there I suppose so I'm not totally in the dark.

Supply and demand, most people don't have anything better to do
So will read any old shyte

What, like this type of "old shyte" ?.....

[url= http://abovetopsecret.com/ ]http://abovetopsecret.com/[/url]
[url= http://theinsider.org/ ]http://theinsider.org/[/url]
[url= http://infowars.com/ ]http://infowars.com/[/url]
[url= http://educate-yourself.org/nwo/ ]http://educate-yourself.org/nwo/[/url]

Probably true druidh! But it seems particularly noticeable.

And then the is the FT which has a strong stance against people cutting and pasting it's articles (try it and you get an automated "please don't do it" addition to your paste) and yet one of their leading correspondents is allowed to pretty much copy and paste whole sections of the latest IMF World Economic Outlook before adding the briefest of original analysis at the end only yesterday!

I remember on the local news they did a feature on people who ate their dinner at the table.
A camera crew was sent to film them eating their dinner while they said how much they preferred it.
Jeeeeeeesus.
Watched the mars landing but that's about it this year.

Ahhh... local news... Don't get me started on what passes for 'news' on the BBC local radio stations I can recieve... And Five Live... Ye Gods!...

[url=

shown before but worth a repeat[/url]

Thing is, gossip (for that’s what News really is) is craved by Humans.
It’s in our nature to be nosey, it’s what not only saved us from extinction but drove us to the point at where we are today.

I can’t get that far away from it. I listen to the radio when on the train so get obliterated by 20min “updates”. This, this is oppose, I’m only interested in significant movements in News, not the same thing banded out at a higher pitch as the day goes on.
Don’t watch evening News, never have. Waste of good TV time the 10’oclock slot IMO. I’m fairly sure some good TV could be put on then.
Oh, haven’t watched ITV since the last time they took the Old version of Midsommer Murders off (replacing Barnaby) I just can’t stand that channel. It’s like watching running gloop.

But, but heres something, I wouldn’t have known the Felix fella was going to jump if it hadn’t been for Chris Evans telling me this..

So, I guess, I guess it’s useful in some small part.

Cynicism comes with age - that's a fact. I used to think everything was important and used to watch the news religiously.
Then you get to a certain age and realise, it's all happened, been done, before - and we're all still here. For cynicism read complacency? Anyhow, I've found myself hating this media reliance on twitter and facebook, it's made me even more sure I'll never look at either of them because I too don't give a flying stuff what Alan of Doncaster has just tweeted either.
Blokes at work sit in the canteen for the whole break staring at their i-phones, not saying a word, smiling to themselves occasionally - they may sometimes turn to the berk next to em who is doing the same and tell them what so and so has just put on their wall? and I feel a bit sad for the poor sheep.
That's not me feeling superior to them either, just a bit non-plussed by it.

[i]gossip (for that’s what News really is) [/i]

No it's not. News can be gossip, but news is not gossip.

The opposite - the older I get the more angry I'm becoming. Sick to the back teeth of the arrogance and contempt displayed by politicians, industry and public servants.

They are so removed from 'normal life' that they have zero experience of the struggle faced by many who've been badly let down by successive Governments. These people need a voice and need to be valued by Society.

I genuinely hope that those who've been dishonest, disingenuous and with a blatant disregard for humanity get what they deserve. What goes around comes around.

It's obvious I've wasted my life - should have been an activist!

Peace.

Mainstream news should be renamed Inflammatory and Divisive Behavior.

You could try and get your news from closer to the source but most people have things to do with their time so just take what's delivered to them at a convenient time and place. More and more people accept what they're told and more importantly the order and way it's told and that's the formation of their opinion.

Bet the mainstream tv broadcasters love it when it snows and 20 minutes of a broadcast can be filled with someone standing in a gritting depot rather than looking for a story or making one out of nothing.

I'm the opposite, I really enjoy reading the paper and keeping up with current affairs though I agree that I couldn't really give a shit about most of the things you list in the OP- I wouldn't really class these as current affairs.

Enjoyed keeping up with the US elections though and a lot of domestic political stuff as well as more global affairs like the Arab Spring etc.

It's easy to see why people get turned off though- the amount of bullshit is staggering. Eg the tabloids are just awful, 24hour news means everything ...THAT IS EVEN THE SMALLEST MOLEHILL GETS MADE INTO A MOUNTAIN ON A ROLLING TICKET TAPE THAT NEVER EVER ENDS AT THE BOTTOM OF YOUR SCREEN...and as some others have mentioned it's infuriating the amount of stuff that gets regurgitated from social media.

Most of this can be avoided though, I don't really watch news on TV and just read a newspaper that I prefer once a day. I think it's good to be informed and sometimes quite exciting to follow events that you know are quite historic.

Blokes at work sit in the canteen for the whole break staring at their i-phones, not saying a word, smiling to themselves occasionally - they may sometimes turn to the berk next to em who is doing the same and tell them what so and so has just put on their wall? and I feel a bit sad for the poor sheep.
That's not me feeling superior to them either, just a bit non-plussed by it.

Certainly comes across as you feeling superior to them, though.

I also get the feeling that people assume Twitter is entirely made up of Facebook style personal updates - there is that, of course, but there's also a wealth of information about topics that can interest you - just checking out the last few tweets I've received there's a couple of news links, a personal photo, an item about an update to a bit of Java IT software I use, etc.

[b]ton[/b]
jimmy being a paedo
lance being a druggie
food price increase
muslim hook bloke
seriously, who gives a ****.........anyone not give a shyte like me?

I suppose I am the polar opposite to you and a few other posters here

Jimmy - raises serious issues about the protection of vulnerabke children and asks the questions as to why adults did not come forward at the time r much sooner. it also raises the issues about such a "trial by media" when the person concerned cannot defend themselves.

Lance - if pro cycling is to continue it needs to come clean at every level, it's pretty clear from Millar's book that the team management and the administrators of cycling turned a blind eye to this

Food prices (and indeed our system of production and food sales) are vitally important issues impacting everyone and particularly the poor

Muslim Hook Bloke - a vile individual stoking up hatred and violence, what he has done is to show us that our justice system is too leanient and to slow to react to such individuals

FWIW pretty much the only thing I watch on TV are current affairs programmes. I spend at least an hour reading the papers every day including foreign papers to get a different perspective.

good post jambalaya..easy to trivialise stuff, but always bigger issues at work behind the trivia...

I'm with the 'not interested' crowd.
Haven't watched the news for about 10 years or buy newspapers.

I do use forums, twitter and facebook, but still somehow manage to avoid most news items.

I'd like to keep up-to-date with certain things, but I find the amount of complete drivel/gossip/scaremongering/etc in between too much to bear.

I even turn the news off if it comes on the radio while I'm in the car.

I really don't think I'm missing out on anything.
People in the pub have tried to convince me otherwise before, but I haven't been swayed.

Absolutely agree with this. Especially the 'reaction' bit.

Often catch some of BBC Breakfast News - "in response to our report about xyz, Alan from Watford has tweeted 'bla bla yada yada'" ... I don't care what Alan from Watford, or Clare from Newcastle, or anybody else for that matter, thinks about the news.

Just report the news, stop reporting peoples opinions about the news!

I think it's the most barrel scrapingly cowardly form of journalism.

The daily mail can splash headline saying "XXYYZ IS A DISGUSTING PEADO" then in the small print "says Disgruntled of Tumbrisge Wells on twitter", thus they're reporting the event of someone saying something rahter than an actual fact, making them untouchable for any litigation and possibly getting away with bare faced lying!

I still read the sunday papers, usualy The Times as at least it's elitist flaws are aspirational rather than barrle dredging and sensationalist, what else are post club run Sunday afternoons for?

Fair play Mogrim, I can see how my use of the word 'berk' might suggest that - I don't mean to though and I'm sure you are right, there are probably many plusses to having an account, just seems most seem to use it as a gossip mag and mainstream news and media come to rely on it more and more.

Signed, Dinosaur of Staffs. 😀

Great news article on the BBC today

The number of visitors to the UK fell in August, [b]despite[/b] the Olympics

Of course, they could have written [i]The number of visitors to the UK fell in August, [b]because of [/b]the Olympics[/i]. It's all in the spin eh?

Muslim Hook Bloke - a vile individual stoking up hatred and violence

So you've met him to form this opinion?

I'm not interested in the personal stuff (i.e. Jimmy Savile, Freddie Starr, Lance Armstrong), its just celebrity based nonsense, but am interested in the bigger issues behind all this stuff.

"says Disgruntled of Tumbrisge Wells on twitter",

Annoys me too..

not having a telly for a number of years in the past, I was interested to note how little news / tittle / tattle actually affected any part of my life, even labour's landslide victory kind of passed me by, i think in 4 or 5 years of no telly the greatest direct impact on me was not knowing a load of shops would be shut during Lady Di's funeral 😳

Every single news worthy article that I have had first hand knowledge of has been factually incorrect - and that's the simple facts before any news hound even starts to put a twist on it.

QED - I don't give a rats arse either but its always entertaining warbling on about stuff on't net / down pub 🙂

Every single news worthy article that I have had first hand knowledge of has been factually incorrect - and that's the simple facts before any news hound even starts to put a twist on it.

Me too - does make you realise how inaccurate stuff in even the 'quality' media is.

"Current affairs......." disappointed by misleading thread title!

Don't do faceache or ****ter

http://mashable.com/2012/08/07/no-facebook-psychopath/

Hehe

"Current affairs......." disappointed by misleading thread title!

ok- Gove is having it off with Osbourne's dog..... allegedly

ok- Gove is [s]having it off with [/s]Osbourne's dog

I'm with the 'not interested' crowd.
Haven't watched the news for about 10 years or buy newspapers.

Same here. Moreover, I've [i]never[/i] actively read newspapers or watched news broadcasts. I don't think I've got more jaded as I've got older, but I think perhaps 'why' has evolved over the years.

When I was little, I genuinely had no interest. John Craven's Newsround used to bore me, I wished they'd just hurry up and get on with Crackerjack. As I got older, that void was filled not with traditional news media but with actual social interaction and, yes of course, the Internet. With the Web and its precursors I found I could pull what I wanted rather than get pushed what someone else wanted to tell me.

These days, that's still the case. I get a constant feed of information from various sources - various [i]trusted [/i]sources - and follow up from there. Friends send me links to things that they think might interest me, and I follow on Twitter some accounts whose stream contains useful information. About the only broadcast news I'm exposed to is the radio when I'm driving to / from work, which provides me with the headlines of the day in case there actually is anything I want to go and look into further.

This ad-hoc peer-driven system works well for me. It acts as an effective first tier bullshit filter. Which is good, because what I do see of the news either leaves me cold due to being vacuous non-stories, or makes me angry from the lies and misinformation.

Newspapers are especially good at this; running weaselly-worded non-stories that something "may" be the case, misinterpreting (accidentally or intentionally) research for the sake of a headline, or straight out making shit up. But this aside, even when it's trying to be factual, what do we get?

[i]BONG! Here is the news.

Lead stories. Someone's been senselessly killed in a country it'd take you an hour to find on a map. A small child is still missing, police fear the worst.

Science news. Scientists might think that chilli powder may *flips coin* cure cancer. Actually reading the research paper shows that a trace element may have a mild effect on rats but they've not yet ruled out statistical error and you'd have to eat two kilos of Nagas a day to replicate the dosage, but none of this is mentioned in the news article.

Politics news. If something bad is happening, they'll run a story everyone's forgotten about from four years ago in order to divert attention from the real story. If nothing's happening then it'll be soundbites from one party blaming the other party for the state the country is in. And if something good is happening then it almost certainly won't concern me anyway as I'm not rich enough.

'Personality' news. Someone famous has done something that the rest of the world also manages to do on a daily basis without getting on the telly about it. Sometimes it'll be an affair, they're the best ones as they can run for weeks. There will be cries for his resignation, talk of fines or suspensions or tour cancellations, etc etc. Frankly I never really understood a) why an affair could or should affect your ability to talk shite in Parliament or kick a ball about and b) what business it is of anyone else other than the handful of people directly involved. But I digress.

Slow news day filler. Madeline McCann is still missing. Peter Sutcliffe hasn't been granted parole. Princess Diana is still dead. Look, here's some puppies.

Sport news. Aka, football news.

Weather. It's grey, cold and damp. Film at 11.
[/i]

So you know what? No thanks. My life is better, richer and less stressful by not subjecting myself to biased opinion and conjecture as to what the rest of the world might be up to.

But, I'm usually abreast of what's going on almost by association anyway partly because you can never truly get away from things short of going and living in a tree, but also because my news feeds are simply [i]better[/i] than the traditional ones. Via Twitter, Mono, STW, email, SMS, messenger et al I get direct news which is relevant to my interests almost immediately, certainly far faster than the TV or print can hope to deliver, but also accurately from people whose opinions and judgement I trust (or at least, whose biases I understand). I can then do my own research, cross-referencing multiple online sources, to learn more actual facts about any interesting stories.

It's the future, I've seen it.

I also get the feeling that people assume Twitter is entirely made up of Facebook style personal updates - there is that, of course, but there's also a wealth of information about topics that can interest you

This. I touched on this above, but it's a very good point. Twitter is what you make of it, if you think that it's full of comments like "JUST HAVIN A CRAP LOL" then the issue there isn't the media, it's that your friends are retards. Its immediacy and reach is pretty much unique, and I find it to be an invaluable resource (as well as a convenient way of keeping in touch with friends).

for not giving a shyte this thread is getting long...

or not giving a shyte this thread is getting long...

like a toilet blocker....

Klunk - Member
does not taking this "philosophy" to the extreme lead to the inevitable All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.

Wise words.

But, I'm usually abreast of what's going on almost by association anyway partly because you can never truly get away from things short of going and living in a tree, but also because my news feeds are simply better than the traditional ones. Via Twitter, Mono, STW, email, SMS, messenger et al I get direct news which is relevant to my interests almost immediately, certainly far faster than the TV or print can hope to deliver, but also accurately from people whose opinions and judgement I trust (or at least, whose biases I understand). I can then do my own research, cross-referencing multiple online sources, to learn more actual facts about any interesting stories.

It's the future, I've seen it.

I also get the feeling that people assume Twitter is entirely made up of Facebook style personal updates - there is that, of course, but there's also a wealth of information about topics that can interest you

This. I touched on this above, but it's a very good point. Twitter is what you make of it, if you think that it's full of comments like "JUST HAVIN A CRAP LOL" then the issue there isn't the media, it's that your friends are retards. Its immediacy and reach is pretty much unique, and I find it to be an invaluable resource (as well as a convenient way of keeping in touch with friends).