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On the Advantages of Getting News Via Paper Only

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Farhad Manjoo wrote an article about an interesting experiment: For Two Months, I Got My News From Print Newspapers. Here’s What I Learned.

To be precise, he totally quit online media.

I urge you to read his ten-minute article.

Here are some quotes:

There was a lot I was glad to miss.
Not only had I spent less time with the story than if I had followed along as it unfolded online, I was better informed, too.
And I’m embarrassed about how much free time I have — in two months, I managed to read half a dozen books, took up pottery and (I think) became a more attentive husband and father.
You don’t have to read a print newspaper to get a better relationship with the news. But, for goodness’ sake, please stop getting your news mainly from Twitter and Facebook. In the long run, you and everyone else will be better off.

I can totally follow his arguments. I'd be happy to try it out myself. Currently, I'm hesitating because Twitter and Mastodon is not only about news. For me, it's about the open source community, random input, connecting people, infrequent updates on private projects, and so forth.

However, I do find it important to get a different view on things, like in this case social media, from time to time.

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