A news diet that went too far

I'm teaching for the first time this afternoon. It makes today, at an almost two-week stutter start from the official calendar, feel like the start of the new year. Teaching isn't something I thought I'd do, but now I'm really eager to do it well. I take seriously the time, money, and optimism students are investing in my classes.

I feel the same way about the time you spend reading these newsletters. 

Over the holidays, I revisited and organized what I've written during the slightly more than a year of this newsletter. It's on the way to a more coherent body of work with easier to access tools and rubrics. I also re-committed to making these words and this space more useful going forward.

Our longer-term project here is unchanged from what I laid out in my very first post: 

• to work with you all to find news and narrative frameworks that better accompany people through tough information
• to inform ourselves in a way that makes us better equipped to meet the challenges of our complicated world together.

I have not delivered yet.

I threw up my hands

It happened when I went from helping produce local Detroit news I felt really good about to consuming truly sub-par local news here in Philly. Sorry, Philly, but it's true.

Like so many people, I got truly sick of the news and checked out. I mostly avoided thinking about my avoidance. And I didn't write about it here or at home.

Our family was pretty engaged in what was happening in Detroit. We talked about things all the time. We helped and were helped. We went to meetings in our neighborhood and further afield. It felt like we knew our place and our power—in a good way.

One thing the research about local news suggests is that it makes it easier to engage directly with local events. To actually show up. Closer to home, it's easier to identify and practice your agency. 

Then we moved. I haven't found local news sources I really use. There are some hyper-local bright spots, and I've been seriously impressed by some housing reporting. But mostly it's a letdown of crime news, syndicated stories, and never-ending updates from the suburbs.

I didn't work hard enough to find out what was happening in our new neighborhood and city. Our family talked about other things. My civic participation for the last six months was voting in one election. That's it.

Caring is not a feeling but a series of actions. I didn't want to stop caring, but that's what happened. I need to get back to a practice of caring for the place I live and the people I live around. I think caring and organizing are what it will take to push back against the state violence and authoritarianism of the Trump administration.

Our 13-year-old came to the dinner table last weekend and asked, “What is happening in Venezuela?” Her anxiety and concern were audible, and I felt completely flat-footed in the face of it. I did my best to explain what I could, but I was out of practice. I don't think it landed as informative, comforting, or useful.

I think, talk, and write about the need to accompany people through tough information, but I haven't actually been doing much of it. My own kid felt overwhelmed and powerless in the face of upsetting news.

Letting go of local news entirely distorts reality. It makes the world look more divided and ourselves less powerful. I know this. I disengaged my family from local information and feelings of overwhelm took hold in my house within half a year.

What we'll do together this year

I need to more diligently use information to put care into practice again.

These weekly posts will follow that journey. We'll focus more directly on how to navigate the news in general terms. We'll work on accompanying ourselves and others through tough information so we can use it productively. I'll try to thread the needle between ideas and tools.

I'm not giving up on devoting serious time and effort to testing and promoting frameworks for reimagining the news, like the essential functions framework. I love that stuff, and it keeps me going. But I'll structure those posts differently, and they will be less frequent.

It hope this re-focus is interesting and helpful and satisfying. I think it's needed.

We'll start next week with an exercise I designed to help us figure out which emotions are driving our information seeking. We'll measure our satisfaction with the information we take in and what we want more of.

Please tell me what you're doing to keep turning toward the world rather than away from it. I would love to hear what that looks like for you.

Since last week, my daughter is getting help from her dad drafting and sending letters to Congress. I've signed up to start volunteering at a supportive housing organization, one my oldest daughter volunteered at during her college break. I'm still helping to restart the Documenters program here in Philadelphia, too. I'm looking forward to talking about that more here, and around the dinner table.

Until next week.