Our obsession with being informed makes it hard to think long-term. We spend hours consuming news because we want to be informed. The problem is, the news doesn’t make us informed – quite the opposite. The more news we consume, the more misinformed we become.
我們對於獲取資訊的執著使得我們難以思考長遠。我們花費數小時消耗新聞，因為我們想要獲得資訊。問題是，新聞並不能讓我們獲得資訊 - 相反地，我們消耗的新聞越多，我們就越容易被誤導。
News is, by definition, something that doesn’t last. It exists for only a moment before it changes. As news has become easier to distribute and cheaper to produce, the quality has decreased, and the quantity has increased, making it nearly impossible to find the signal in the noise.
新聞從定義上來說，是一種不會持續存在的東西。它只存在於改變之前的一瞬間。隨著新聞的傳播變得更容易且生產成本更低，質量下降了，數量增加了，使得在噪音中找到訊號幾乎變得不可能。
Rarely do we stop to ask ourselves questions about the media we consume: Is this good for me? Is this dense with detailed information? Is this important? Is this going to stand the test of time? Is the person writing someone who is well-informed on the issue? Asking those questions makes it clear the news isn’t good for you.
我們很少停下來問自己關於我們所消費的媒體的問題：這對我有好處嗎？這是否充滿詳細的資訊？這是否重要？這是否能經得起時間的考驗？這位作者是否對這個議題有深入了解？問這些問題讓人清楚地知道新聞對你來說並不好。
The information you consume today becomes the raw material of your thoughts tomorrow. If you want to change your thoughts, start with the information you consume.
你今天所消化的資訊將成為明天你思考的原材料。如果你想改變你的思想，就從你所消費的資訊開始。
[W]e’re surrounded by so much information that is of immediate interest to us that we feel overwhelmed by the never-ending pressure of trying to keep up with it all.
Nicolas carr 尼古拉斯·卡爾
我們被大量對我們立即有興趣的資訊所包圍，以至於我們感到被永無止境的壓力所壓倒，試圖跟上這一切。
Here are a few of the problems with the news:
以下是新聞的幾個問題：
- The speed of news delivery has increased. We used to have to wait to get a newspaper or gossip with people in our town to get news, but not anymore. Thanks to alerts, texts, and other interruptions, the news finds us almost the minute it’s published.
新聞傳遞的速度已經加快。我們過去必須等待拿到報紙或與鎮上的人閒聊才能得到新聞，但現在不再需要了。多虧了通知、短信和其他打擾，新聞幾乎在發布的那一刻就找到我們了。 - The cost of producing news has dropped significantly. Some people write 12 blog posts a day for major newspapers. It’s nearly impossible to write something thoughtful on one topic, let alone 12. The fluency of the person you’re getting news from in the subject they’re covering is near zero. As a result, you’re filling your head with surface-level insights.
新聞製作成本大幅下降。有些人每天為主要報紙寫12篇博客文章。在一個主題上寫出有思考的內容幾乎是不可能的，更不用說12篇了。你從這些人那裡獲得的新聞資訊的流暢度幾乎為零。因此，你的頭腦中充斥著表面層次的見解。 - Like other purveyors of drugs, producers of news want you to consume more of it. News producers perpetuate a culture of “tune in, don’t miss out, someone knows something you don’t, follow this or you’ll be misinformed, oh wait, look at this!” All the time you spend consuming perishable news comes at the expense of learning something that doesn’t expire.
就像其他毒品供應商一樣，新聞製作商希望你消費更多新聞。新聞製作商維持一種「收看，不要錯過，有人知道你不知道的事情，跟著這個，否則你會被誤導，哦等等，看這個！」的文化。你花在消費即時新聞上的時間，就是在放棄學習一些不會過期的知識。 - The incentives are misaligned. When the news is free, you still need to pay people. If people aren’t paying, advertisers are. And if advertisers are in charge, the incentives change. Page views become the name of the game. More page views mean more revenue. When it comes to page views, the more controversy, the more enraged you become, the better.
獎勵機制不協調。當新聞免費時，你仍然需要支付人們。如果人們不付費，廣告商就會付費。而且如果廣告商掌控，獎勵機制也會改變。頁面瀏覽量成為遊戲的名字。更多的頁面瀏覽量意味著更多的收入。當涉及到頁面瀏覽量時，爭議越多，你越激怒，就越好。 - Most journalists are not interested in the search for truth. They’re interested in telling a particular version of a story.
大多數記者對尋求真相不感興趣，他們只對講述特定版本的故事感興趣。
What information consumes is rather obvious: it consumes the attention of its recipients. Hence a wealth of information creates a poverty of attention, and a need to allocate that attention efficiently among the overabundance of information sources that might consume it.
Herbert Simon 赫伯特·西蒙
資訊所消耗的東西相當明顯：它消耗了接收者的注意力。因此，大量的資訊造成了注意力的貧乏，並需要有效地分配這種注意力在可能消耗它的過多資訊來源之間。
Most of what you read online today is pointless. It simply makes no difference in living a meaningful life. It is simply filler that won’t help you make better decisions, understand the world, or improve your connections with others.
今天在網上閱讀的大部分內容都是毫無意義的。它對於過上有意義的生活毫無影響。它只是填充物，不會幫助你做出更好的決策，理解世界，或改善與他人的聯繫。
Like a drug, the news is addictive. Once you get hooked, it’s hard to stop. Not only does it alter your mood, but it keeps you wanting more. Once you start consuming news, it’s hard to stop. The hotels, transportation, and ticketing systems in Disney World are all designed to keep you within the theme park rather than sightseeing elsewhere in Orlando. Similarly, casinos do everything they can to prevent you from leaving.
就像毒品一樣，新聞具有成癮性。一旦上癮，很難戒掉。它不僅改變你的情緒，還讓你渴望更多。一旦開始接觸新聞，很難停下來。迪士尼世界的酒店、交通和票務系統都是為了讓你留在主題公園內，而不是在奧蘭多其他地方觀光。同樣地，賭場會盡一切努力阻止你離開。
We are not innocent. Far from it. We want to be well-informed. (More accurately, we want to appear to be well-informed.) And this is the very weakness that gets manipulated.
我們並不無辜。相反地，我們希望能夠獲得充分的資訊（更準確地說，我們希望看起來像是獲得了充分的資訊）。而這正是被操縱的弱點所在。
To be completely cured of newspapers, spend a year reading the previous week’s newspapers.
Nassim Taleb 納西姆·塔萊布
要完全治愈對報紙的依賴，花一年的時間閱讀上一週的報紙。
News is a perspective, not truth. When you realize that news is like a cropped photo and not the full photo, it changes how you see things.
新聞是一種觀點，而不是真相。當你意識到新聞就像是一張被裁剪過的照片，而不是完整的照片時，你對事物的看法就會改變。
News doesn’t make you more informed; it just makes you more confident the information you have is all there is.
新聞不會讓你更加了解，它只會讓你更有信心你所擁有的信息就是全部。
News reinforces what we already believe. Rarely do we read things we disagree with, walking away saying, “well that was a good point, I was wrong.”
新聞強化了我們已經相信的事情。我們很少讀到我們不同意的東西，然後走開說：“嗯，那是一個好觀點，我錯了。”
News substitutes the thinking of others for thinking. Not reading the news shows you how often what you thought was your own thinking belonged to someone else. You simply regurgitate someone else’s thoughts. Real thinking is hard. It’s much easier to let someone else do it for you.
新聞取代了他人的思考，讓你不再思考。不閱讀新聞會讓你意識到，你原以為是自己的思考，實際上是別人的。你只是在重複別人的想法。真正的思考很難。讓別人替你思考要容易得多。
People in the news worry about what the news says about them. Not only does this increase their anxiety, but it changes how they think and act. Instead of getting feedback from reality, they crave validation in the printed opinion of others. Optics trump reality.
新聞中的人們擔心新聞對他們的評論。這不僅增加了他們的焦慮，還改變了他們的思考和行為方式。他們不再從現實中獲得反饋，而是渴望在他人的印刷意見中得到肯定。形象勝過現實。
When all you consume is noise, you don’t realize there is a signal. Your attention is valuable. In fact, your attention is so valuable it might be the most important thing you have. Most news expires in 24 hours. If you know your attention is valuable, why would you invest it consuming something that expires tomorrow?
當你所接觸的都是噪音時，你不會意識到其中的訊號。你的注意力是寶貴的，事實上，你的注意力可能是你最重要的東西。大部分的新聞在24小時內就會過期。如果你知道你的注意力很寶貴，為什麼要把它花在明天就會過期的事物上呢？
The problems with news are likely to get worse, not better. At some point in the future, the news will likely be tailored for you. Just as your search results differ from mine, your headline for the same article and mine will differ. The word “same” is an important one. It won’t be the same article at all. The author might have written several versions, one tailored to people who are lean left and one for people who lean right. Even the URL will be different, with each version having a unique URL so the publisher can track time on the page, headlines that drive clicks, and shareability.
新聞問題可能會變得更糟，而不是更好。在未來的某個時候，新聞可能會為你量身定制。就像你的搜索結果與我的不同，你對同一篇文章的標題和我的也會不同。這裡的「同一」是一個重要的詞。它根本不是同一篇文章。作者可能寫了幾個版本，一個針對偏左的人，一個針對偏右的人。甚至URL也會不同，每個版本都有一個獨特的URL，以便出版商可以追蹤頁面停留時間、吸引點擊的標題和可分享性。
Stepping back from the news is hard. We’re afraid of silence. We’re afraid to be alone with our thoughts. That’s why we pull out our phones while waiting in line at a coffee shop or the grocery store. We’re afraid to ask ourselves deep and meaningful questions. We’re afraid to say, “I don’t know.” We’re afraid to be bored. We’re so afraid we’ll drive ourselves crazy, consuming pointless information.
放下新聞是困難的。我們害怕寂靜。我們害怕獨處思考。這就是為什麼我們在咖啡店或雜貨店排隊時拿出手機。我們害怕向自己提出深入而有意義的問題。我們害怕說：“我不知道。”我們害怕無聊。我們如此害怕，以至於會讓自己變得瘋狂，消耗毫無意義的資訊。
What can you do differently?
你可以做些什麼不同的事情呢？
Part of the answer is to spend less time consuming information and more time thinking. You can also change your information sources by seeking out high-quality sources of information.
答案的一部分是花更少的時間消費資訊，而是花更多時間思考。你也可以改變你的資訊來源，尋找高品質的資訊來源。
What makes something a high-quality source of information is worth thinking about. Some questions I ask myself: Are they talking about a first-hand experience? Was it recent or in the past? Are there details, or is it full of abstractions? Are they giving me shortcuts or showing me why?
什麼使得一個資訊來源具有高品質值得思考。我問自己的一些問題：他們是否在談論第一手經驗？這是最近的還是過去的？有沒有細節，還是充滿抽象？他們是給我捷徑還是解釋原因？
If you must read the news, consider yourself a judge listening to an argument. As a judge, you know there are two sides to every argument, and if you are not seeing the other side, you can, at the very least, reserve judgment. Seek the facts and data irrefutably true on both sides of the argument.
如果你必須閱讀新聞，就把自己當作一個聽取辯論的法官。作為一個法官，你知道每個辯論都有兩個面向，如果你沒有看到另一個面向，至少可以保留判斷。尋找在辯論的兩個面向上無可辯駁的事實和數據。
Let’s close with this quote by Winifred Gallagher: “Few things are as important to your quality of life as your choices about how to spend the precious resource of your free time.”
讓我們以Winifred Gallagher的這句話作結: "在你的生活品質中，很少有事情比你如何選擇花費寶貴的自由時間更重要。"