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Table of Contents

1. Preface

2. Main Article

3. Readers’ Favorite

Preface

Over the years, I've reduced my news consumption to the bare minimum.

But on October 7th, things took a dramatic turn. I found myself checking news sites 20-30 times a day, and I would do it more if I had more time.

However, this habit contributes very little to my understanding of what’s happening. Checking news sites 3 times a day will keep me just as updated.

In wartime, this constant news checking seems almost justified. Take last weekend, for example. We all wanted to see a group of hostages back home. Seeing a few pictures should have been enough, yet we drowned ourselves in a sea of digital content.

Much of it was filled with psychological terror meant to make us feel bad.

This is a major problem in our digital world.

It made me think back to my childhood, long before the internet.

Our parents and grandparents also lived through wars and tragedies. But they’ve done it in an analog world of print newspapers, radio shows, and vinyl records.

Was it better? Let's step back in time and see.

Number 66.

Main Article

Reading The Newspaper

As a kid, buying the weekend newspaper was my task.

My dad would leave money on the dining room table, and I'd pick up the paper on my way home from school.

I loved reading it. The front pages dedicated to current events were brief.

They were followed by long-form content: opinion columns, in-depth articles, international news, culture, movies, TV, sports, and finance.

I'd spend hours reading it.

Watching daily TV news was limited.

At 9 pm, we'd gather for the evening news on TV, lasting 25-30 minutes. We never had 24-hour news channels (thank god), and "breaking news" hadn’t been invented yet.

Reading the newspaper is a pleasant memory of mine.

Listening To The Radio

We got our first car radio when I was 12.

Before that, radio listening was confined to our kitchen and my room.

My alarm clock was a radio. I was waking up at 6:45 am to the morning show, followed by a children's news segment (read by Alex Ansky), and a brief news update.

After school, the kitchen radio played an afternoon show with long-form content and in-depth interviews.

Even during the Gulf War, the radio was our comfort source.

Listening to the radio is a pleasant memory of mine.

Putting a Record On

My parents had a record collection and a turntable in the living room.

Every weekend lunch, and often during the week, we'd listen to a record.

Putting a record on is a ritual: flipping it halfway, dusting it off, gently lowering the needle.

We listened from start to finish, fully absorbing each one.

At 13, I got my first CD player. It made skipping tracks easy, but I maintained my habit of listening to each CD fully. I immersed myself in each one.

Listening to them is a pleasant memory of mine.

Going Digital

We're now in the digital age.

Going digital has enormous advantages:

⚫ We can keep in touch with all our friends anywhere in the world.

⚫ We can find any manuscript without wasting hours at the medical library.

⚫ We can find any information we want in a matter of seconds.

⚫ We no longer waste hours standing in line for things we can do online.

And the list goes on and on.

But today's digital world is so different from the digital world we had 10 years ago.

Digital, Sugar, and Diabetes

So much information is at our fingertips. It’s like having sugar.

We need some sugar in our diet, but when we have too much, it becomes toxic. So toxic, we become sick. It’s called diabetes.

Nowadays, everything is "breaking news."

Social media turns everyone into reporters.

Yet, like sugar, we can't resist it. We must have it all.

So, to have it all, everything is condensed into short-form content.

Fewer words, more impact, like a concentrated sugar candy.

Have We Gone Too Far Digital?

When I open a news site (wartime or not), I don’t enjoy it like I enjoyed the weekend newspaper.

When I open social media, I don’t enjoy it like I enjoyed radio shows.

When I listen to single songs on Spotify or Apple Music, I don’t enjoy it like I enjoyed our record and CD collection.

This is a symptom of excessive digital consumption. Digital-Diabetes.

Nothing is profound. Everything is too much.

So What Can We Do?

Everyone is different, and there’s no right or wrong.

But here's my approach. It brought a smile and joy back to my digital life. (Not as much today as before the war, but you get the picture)

🔵 For news - I read newsletters sent by writers I trust. I limit news websites to the bare minimum. That’s 5 minutes a day during wartime, 5 minutes a week (or less) otherwise.

🔵 My social media use focuses on science and inviting readers to my newsletter, podcast, and YouTube channel. I NEVER scroll a general feed. I only read content WRITTEN BY the people I follow.

🔵 I listen to full albums on Apple Music. From start to finish. Our kids use iPods. Back home, our CDs, records, and turntable await our return (dragging them to Boston was a bit too much).

🔵 For audio-visual content, I consume podcasts and YouTube channels I’m SUBSCRIBED to.

If it's not long-form content, it's not for me.

There’s no one-size-fits-all. But consuming superficial short-form content is terrible for the soul and your well-being. Seizing back control of what you consume will make you happier.

Give it a try.

Readers’ Favorite

The 3 Things I Know Today I Wish I Had Known When I Was 30.

You can read it by clicking here.

Epilogue

That’s it for this issue.

Hope for better times.

Shay