89. Good riddance to bad rubbish

Raddi being weighed

As I have now put to rest newspaper reading as an erstwhile compelling habit, my memory goes back in time when my father would coax me to read a few column inches in the newspaper every day with an aim at improving my written and spoken language. Without doubt, it did improve quite a bit. In a small hilly town where we lived during my school days, the newspaper would get delivered only towards the afternoon but in time before I'd return from the school. It was lowly priced by today's standards, but some neighbors used to share the newspaper.      

Not for news alone, newspapers fetched petty cash for the household by way of selling newspapers as raddi. For working journalists in those days, the raddi value of a dozen complimentary newspapers could easily buy a dinner. Not without reason was selling old newspapers every month a keenly observed family activity, over the weekends.

The old newspapers were given the ceremonial send-off it deserved as the Fourth Estate. The print media was known to spread authentic facts and credible views. There was no going back on what was seen and read in print, the news often got quoted as the last word of wisdom, truth and authenticity.  

However, much has changed since then. Need it be said that newspapers have only degenerated to the extent of missing out on truth, authenticity and credibility. It took me quite a while to realize the reasons propounded by Swiss journalist Rolf Dobelli in his book Stop Reading the News, wherein he argues that to reward oneself with less disruption, more time, less anxiety, and more insights could only be possible by avoiding news. 

Now that I have stopped subscribing and reading newspapers, news is no longer to the mind what sugar is to the body. I am no longer addictively overconfident about carrying news, as it is a permanently inflamed and completely pointless appendix. The illusion of empowerment is grossly erroneous as the news is an opposite of understanding the world. It only reports events - events without context and perspective - which can easily be done away with.  One is better without such news.

The Merriam-Webster focus on 'authentic' as the word needing attention in 2023, has made the search for authenticity reach a new height since then. With the media (both print and digital) passing off fake news as authentic, the readers like me are like rudderless boats in a sea of misinformation and lies. As the media's business model involves shoveling the greatest possible magnitude of rubbish over the print and digital space, I am pleased not to be part of it anymore. I firmly refuse to be part of this sinister model.  

It is hard for me to imagine that what we used to discard as raddi after reading news, is now being thrust back on us as news. By getting rid of the compulsive newspaper reading habit, I have given good riddance to bad rubbish.