The Value of Newspapers and News Websites

The most entertaining news websites to me are nytimes.com and bbc.com. The former I find to be in-depth with comments close to an reflection of the US thoughtful population, and the latter I find to be short, sweet and informative world news.

I commented, today, on several articles in the times, and because it took a few hours for the comments to be posted, I felt for a while that they didn't include my comments because I said in my profile that I was homeless. I felt shunned by the suspicion. After I saw my comments, I realized how strangely paranoid I was. It had only been a few hours, and one can't expect the great New York Times to post everything immediately. When we are on our own, we trust people less. It  will be hard to connect with people again if I loose the skill. I will make it a point to start conversations with people, and to ask questions. I need to be interested in others, otherwise I risk others loosing all interest in me. And it is all too human to have society.

What do we get when we read papers or visit these websites? I view of events which occur in passing time, some extraordinary or not, depending on how one considers them. Many people rattle off their daily insights at the water cooler, others let the thoughts mull over in their brain, and to where do we all arrive? It can serve general and particular knowledge, can amuse by its very curios nature, and indeed, we will not be in the dark.

The negative affects are sill more poignant. We fill our mind with impracticalities; we fill our mind with more negative than positive thoughts, thus skewing a more agreeable perspective. There goes our time, into the abyss. In the end we only grow at the slow pace of history, and through news we can only expound upon ourselves at the whim of others.

I observe that the advantages may well make a quick glance of the news worthwhile; but that this must be done with due prudence. A mind to read the news without too much backlash must be capable of dismissing the non-important, must sweep over that news swiftly, and must go quickly thereafter to read a book (a hour from which you may gain the labor of years, as opposed to news, wherein we learn the day to day). 

My conclusion: things in moderation, this in extreme moderation.