Hi Guys, CJ here. So you’ve all still come back after yesterday’s ‘Kissing’ post, have you? Couldn’t get enough? Only Mr Exercise Scientist could reduce such a gorgeous, romantic, sensuous act to a table of sterile percentages. Although the ‘slow and gentle’ advice was on the right track … sorry… momentarily distracted. You still there? Good thing you have me to raise the tone. Or perhaps not. We’ll see.
What Will They Think of Next?
A few weeks ago, I bought a new stereo. My last one was purchased in 1996BC (Before Children) and it had finally decided to call it a day. This new one has a hard disc inside so I can save my CDs onto it and play them again without having to fiddle with CDs or an iPod. I didn’t even know that hard disc stereos had been invented. Am I the only one who didn’t know about this? I feel so old when this kind of stuff impresses me. I still think my wireless doorbell is cutting-edge technology. Sad, I know.
The Sound of Music
I’ve been so excited about the new stereo that I’ve been playing music almost constantly ever since. When I would usually switch on the television at home, I’ve been listening to music instead. I’ve also been playing CDs in the car when I would normally just turn on the radio. The unintended result of this musical renaissance has been a total media-blackout.
Pensioner FM
Normally, I like to stay quite well-informed about what is happening in the world. I would listen to ‘The World Today’ on my favourite, non-commercial, radio station. I would listen to interviews with political analysts, social commentators, economists, authors and, really, anyone who has something to say about current events. For someone like myself with self-esteem issues and an enormous fear of appearing ignorant (heaven forbid that I would have gaps in my knowledge about the impact of the Global Economic Crisis in Iceland – which, incidentally, was one of the hardest hit economies in the world) my daily dose of information from the media has become an essential part of my intellectual diet.
Until the new stereo.
No News is Good News
I’ve noticed that, almost imperceptively, I’ve become a little, well, calmer and happier. It’s been nice listening to music in the car rather than negotiating a constant barrage of news that my brain has to filter, process and react to.
Which made me think: do we really need to know all this stuff?
Before the development of the telegraph system in the 19th century, many people would receive their ‘news’ months (or sometimes up to a year) after the event. The advantage of this was that by the time they heard about a problem, it was usually solved - one way or another. There was nothing left to do. When the messenger finally arrived, his ‘news’ might have sounded something like this:
‘By the way, we had a little war. Don’t worry. We won.’
‘The King died. The new king is a complete tosser. Don’t fret, though, because he was looking a tad poorly when I left. He’s probably dead by now too.’
‘We had a bit of a Bubonic Plague thing happening a while back. About a third of the people in Europe are, well, not quite alive anymore. The upside is that it’s definitely a buyers’ market if you’re looking for a holiday house on the continent.’
Too Much Information?
Nowadays, of course, we often hear about events the very minute they happen. All the latest scientific discoveries, consumer warnings, criminal activities, economic predictions, war updates, terrorism alerts, natural disasters, ridiculous celebrity antics and environmental catastrophes are immediately transmitted into our homes or cars. If we absorb all this information, it can become a little overwhelming. Imagine if we were to believe everything that the sensationalist current affairs programs told us? What would your life look like?
Mine would probably look something like this:
- My house is about to fall down because while I have been sleeping (irresponsible and lazy, I know) it has been surreptitiously devoured by a mutant strain of ferocious termites.
- When she grows up, my daughter will become a beer-swilling pole dancer with huge breast implants because I let her play with Barbie dolls.
- In the near future my car will explode because the ‘tradesman’ who serviced it is actually a pastry chef with an unfulfilled mechanical dream.
- The guy who lives across the road (“He was a quiet man who kept mostly to himself …”) has been secretly filming my every move and diligently sifting through my rubbish – silly me for not taking it to a secure, hazardous waste facility like normal people. One day soon I’ll come home unexpectedly to find him sitting on my sofa wearing my favourite purple Calvin Klein knickers and watching a Pussycat Dolls DVD.
- Every time I buy groceries or petrol, I am being completely ripped off by an evil multi-national corporation. Evidently, I am the biggest sucker since Monica Lewinski.
- Unless I use the amazing new face cream which has just been discovered by, you guessed it, an evil multi-national corporation, my face will look like a dried apricot as soon as I turn forty. No-one will love me; I’ll be shunned by society and have to live in a cave in the Yenan province of China.
You can see how one could become a little insecure and paranoid given the ‘information’ provided by the media, can’t you?
Plastic Surgery on Their What?
It’s not only the volume and the immediacy of the information that I find overwhelming, it’s also the explicit nature of that information. A fair proportion of it could be placed in the ‘Do I Really Need to Know That?’ category. Call me a prude (actually someone did, the other day, I was offended until I realised it was partly true) but sometimes I long for the good old days when the public was shielded from the sordid, ugly reality of life – like when JFK’s treatment for an STD was explained as a ‘football injury’. Honestly, I didn’t even realise that The Village People were gay until I was in my early twenties. Yep, naivety and ignorance are definitely under-rated.
But almost impossible to maintain nowadays.
Before my media blackout, I was innocently channel surfing when I saw a snippet of a program which explained that some women are having plastic surgery to improve the appearance of their, well, I have to say it don’t I? Do you think I’m allowed to say it? I wonder if you-know-who has ever said it on him-dot-com. Hold on, I’ll have a look … Nup. I just completed a keyword search on the site (a first for that particular word?) and it said ‘Sorry, but no results were found’. Hmmm. No precedent. Oh well, I’ll close my eyes while I type the word: baginas. Oops. Sorry. Those keys are just so damn close to each other.
Yep. They’re having surgery to improve the look of their vaginas. What the hell? As if we don’t have enough to be paranoid about in terms of our appearance, now we have to worry about that? You have got to be kidding!
Honey, We Have to Talk
I wonder what originally alerted these women to the fact that the appearance of their nether regions was slightly below the national average in terms of aesthetics. Have they had complaints? From whom? I would guess that most guys would be so thrilled to find themselves within glancing distance of a vagina that providing feedback on its relative beauty would be fairly low on the list of ‘things to do’. Can you imagine? ‘Whoa! Hold on a moment Scarlett Johansson. I know you’re gorgeous, famous, rich and talented but you know what? Down there, you’re slightly asymmetrical. For me, that’s a deal-breaker. Sorry.’
Yeah, right.
Curtain Call
Ok, I’ll admit that I’ve considered having surgery to pin back my ears (they stick out like the doors on a Volkswagen) but I really think this is going too far. Can you picture it if they featured this type of surgery on one of those Extreme Makeover programs? That would be one ‘big reveal’ that the contestant’s family and friends wouldn’t be looking forward to. It could just be a little bit too much of a surprise for Great Aunt Prudence.
And me.
I really don’t need to know about this stuff. Actually, I’m starting to suspect that there might be a lot of stuff that I simply don’t need to know.
Anyway, I do still feel a little guilty about it (the media blackout, not saying ‘no’ to the undercarriage renovation). Do you think we have a responsibility to keep ourselves informed about important world events? Is it acceptable to ‘opt out’ for a little while? To have a little ‘ignorance is bliss’ holiday from all the banality and cruelty of the world.
Did You Miss Anything?
Have you ever missed out on hearing about a significant event until much later? Did it matter? What impact do you think receiving constant news updates has on your happiness? Will you let me know if either Prince William or his half-brother Harry becomes engaged? Thanks.
CJ xox
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{ 23 comments… read them below or add one }
Ummm Cj your point?
I was expecting some dark and heavy topic after that appalling kissing blog entry 
But one point of yours – yes we should opt out. If you want to go all new age there is a theory that we absorbed energies from other souls, the news etc. No wonder some of us end up thinking 2012 the movie is what human and animal kind deserve! No we should tune out it is vital as. I have had to do that more than ever now as I rebuild my life. Look at the GFC and swine flu – but hey we are here, so we need time out from this.
Loved the Monica Lewinsky line
Yes, sometimes no news is the best news ever. And too much news is a definite downer; we should all take a break occasionally from the 24 hour news cycle of gloom, doom and despair. Great column!
Hey CJ !
Thanks for making me feel so much less guilty for being somewhat uninformed of the alleged goings-on in today’s world ! I open my Herald Sun to the puzzle page (luuuurve my sudoku !!) and pretty much ignore the rest of the paper. Most of the news is so sensationalised anyway, it’s not worth trying to figure out how much of it to believe. And I agree with you, I feel so much more relaxed for not having all that crud going round in my head.
As for the renovation work, let’s just say it won’t be going on my to do list any time soon…. or later !!!
{{HUG}}
Tina
I am quite happy to be part of the ‘ignorance is bliss’ club! I stopped watching TV around 20 years ago, and don’t feel like I’m missing anything. I read a lot, but don’t read the newspaper, either.
That’s not to say I’m totally oblivious to what’s going on in the world. I spend a lot of time on my computer, and can stay up to date with anything that interests me by means of online news. Between MSN and AOL, I get a pretty good cross section of what’s going on, but I can pick and choose the stories I read. I can even get local news, though a lot of it is irrelevant drivel. Politics bores me to tears. I couldn’t care less about what’s going on on those ridiculous ‘reality’ shows, Dancing with the Stars, American Idol, Sex in the City, or any of those other TV offerings I don’t watch.
If something does come up that I might be interested in watching, by the time I figure out how to work the remote (there’s just so many buttons!), and finally find the show in the list of hundreds of channels, it’s over. No great loss. If anything really interesting happens, somebody will post it on YouTube.
I think I spend a lot less time fretting over things I can’t control than those who are glued to the 24-hour news channels. If I really want to know something, I can find out online in ‘my’ time, and then go on with my day. I can decide what’s important to me, rather than having the newscaster decide for me. And yes, there are some things I would just rather not know!
Have a great day, all!
Sandra
I live in Connecticut, USA, and in 2001 was working for a company that had offices in both CT and in New York (White Plains, north of NYC). I was traveling to the NY office on the morning September 11, 2001. I was with a coworker and we had the radio off and were chatting. We arrived at the building and met up with another coworker in the garage who looked horrible. We, in our cheerful voices said “Hi, how’s everything??” followed immediately by “Are you alright?” at which time she proceeded to tell us that the World Trade Center towers had been hit by planes. We had no idea because we were gabbing away with the radio off.
We ran into the building (our offices were on the 14th floor) and looked toward the city. We could see the billows of smoke. Work was called off for the day and we went home. I watched the television non stop and cried and cried, even though I didn’t know a soul affected. My country was affected, therefore I was. It was a sad day, and I felt somehow sadder that I did not hear about it right when it happened. It does seem to have mattered to me that I missed hearing real-time about such a significant event in our lives. I don’t dwell on it but certainly when I think about it (such as now) that sadness bubbles up a tiny bit.
Enjoying your posts, CJ – as well as Craigs. I am mostly one of those “scaredy-cat lurkers” not because I’m afraid to respond but mostly because I’m left speechless and very thoughtful by the posts.
CJ – I’m going to take a slightly different angle on the whole ‘ignorance is bliss’ thing. World events and national politics aside, what if we were to be ignorant about our self-limiting beliefs, our fears, our insecurities, about how we botched up our previous 10(thousand) weight loss/get fit/quit smoking/stop spending money on stuff we don’t need/stop drinking attempts? What would we be like then? Why do those things play so loudly in our head like a record that just wont stop? Me thinks our own world would be a much happier place.
Let’s face it, on an individual level we can’t do too much to alter the effects and progression or whatever of the Global Financial Crisis, or the carbon trading schemes (that I really don’t understand anyway), but what we can do though is make significant alterations to our own life.
So, I ask you to play ignorant about all the stuff in the past and be excited about today. If you aren’t, or can’t, then let your fingers do the walking and pop around to ‘google’ and find someone with an inspirational story (or 10). There’s millions of them out there (and here on this site too. Michelle Till – what an amazingly strong and couragous person you are despite your ongoing battles with cancer. The world needs to have more of you in it).
Hiya CJ,
Calvin Klein’s come in purple? Really? Hehe…:)
I think that sometimes I’m better off not knowing about some things {notice I use the singular here; I’m feeling a tad selfish today}.
Yup, blissfully ignorant is a grand expression; however ignorance to the point of stupidity is unbecoming and embarrassing – {“please explain”…what Australian could forget that line/moment}.
Have a great day groovers
There’s nothing like going away on holiday for a few weeks to a country where English is not their national language, and it’s impossible to find a TV or radio station that does broadcast in English. You just forget about “news”, and then you arrive home and discover that nothing happened while you were away that you really needed to know about!
On the other hand, we were in Vanuatu when 9/11 happened, and all we had was a tiny radio we’d bought at the market – we couldn’t find out whether what we’d heard was real or a joke! It wasn’t until we got home that we saw the footage that was still being continually replayed. But that is the only time I’ve felt like I missed something that was “newsworthy”.
So I’m with you, CJ – I think I’ll start leaving the TV news off more often.
We love our music, both cd, vinyl and live! We haven’t watched tv in weeks, and never felt happier and more fulfilled in actually talking with each other and ‘doing’ things. As for the newspaper, the NT News is pretty much useful for wrapping your dearly beloved items when you finally want to move away!!
This actually touches a nerve with me. i watched the twin towers fall cause i was up feeding my week old baby on my first night home alone. it was my reaction not the event – tipped me into pnd as i thought the world was going to war. of course it had very little real impact here in Aust.
second – the media does not tell the truth!!!! after the fires i was ‘interviewed’ without my knowledge by a reporter dressed up in a cfa uniform – he chatted to me cause i was hysterical – thought he was being nice and he had a microphone under his leg and a camera behind me. arseholes. they sensationalised so much of Black Saturday and still do – anything for a good heart wrenching story. i still have not seen footage/papers from 3 full weeks after the fires and dont need to.
And I worked in the media for a long time – its my passion but it can also suck you into negativity – so don’t let it or feel compelled to be ‘informed’ its actually just someone elses version of the truth.
I’ve just spent two weeks sailing off the Queensland coast. No mobile phone, no internet, no over sensationalised media beat ups. It truly was bliss being disconnected from the rest of the world. In general I don’t watch the news or read the papers, I think that if something happens in our world that qualifies as real news, i’ll hear about it sooner or later. I like to leave my mind free and unpolluted to focus on other things.
Great post CJ, had me in stitches, you have a great sense of humor & I think that is what the world has lost.
I believe we have lost our humor for a variety of reasons because we take to much of the other stuff in & believe what is reported to be true. It is really sad that we now feel like we have to know everything all the time & the reality is “do we really have to”. No I dont read the papers & I dont watch the news all the time or those current affair type shows. I keep up to date with my friends and family by the old fashion way of communication & I visit or use the phone.
Dont get me wrong technology is great, I’m sitting here typing this something I wouldn’t have dreamt of 20 or even 10 years ago, but it can & has desensitised us to the very ugly violent world….. & that can lead me off on another tangent all together.
We were on holidays the christmas the sunami hit all those countries & didn’t find out about it until a few days later, I felt sadness for everyone who was effected but the reality is there was nothing I could do, so finding out later didn’t worry me. Selfish yes but true.
Again thanks for the laugh CJ
CJ that was so funny – and so pertinent too.
I agree that this: “Evidently, I am the biggest sucker since Monica Lewinski.” has to be one of the best lines on craig dot com ever.
I think there needs to be a balance around this issue. It’s true that studies have found that people that watch the news all the time are less happy than people that don’t.
I think the news focusses on negatives because that’s what gets the reaction (and therefore the viewership and then the advertising dollars). I also have noticed a big deterioration on the quality of news. For instance, it seems de rigeur to have gossip sections throughout the news on celebrities etc. Do I really need to know the latest on Brangelina? I also don’t watch sensationalist news and I often close my eyes when there are graphic images – I’m already horrified enough by war and don’t need to see the latest sensationalist images of some poor person blown to smithereens by a bomb.
So I only watch ‘good quality’ news like ABC and SBS. I also check the ABC news website online for instant updates if I need them.
I do like to be informed, as Dodi said there are times when you really should know what is going on. That’s not always possible of course. Also I don’t think it really added anything to my life that I was in Europe at the time of 9/11 and saw the 2nd plane go into the tower as it happened. If I’d seen it an hour, or a day, or a week, later would it have made a difference to me or the events that happened? I think I would have been as horrified as I was anyway.
That said, I try not to watch any news prior to going to bed because I know it will affect my sleep, which will in turn affect my mood the next day etc.
So a balanced approach to news intake is the way to go for me.
PS And LMAO about your comments re vagina surgery – the vajayjay cosmetic surgery industry has come about due to the porn industry – all of a sudden people can see ‘up close and personal’ and realise that their vulvas don’t look like the latest plastic porn stars do….I personally don’t know a guy alive who would stop sex and say ‘sorry can’t do it because yours doesn’t look like Jenna Jamiesons’…and if they did would you really want to be having sex with someone that shallow?
Sorry had to add – I didn’t know that the Village People were gay either!!! Not that there’s anything wrong with that (as Seinfeld would say).
My kids fall about laughing when I admit that but it’s true – we were much more naive then (notice I use the word ‘naive’ rather than ‘innocent’
)
I’m a lerker, finally coming forward to have my say. I don’t read any papers, I watch very little TV and certainly not the news (I consider it for entertainment purposes only), I listen to a comercial radio station in my car (usually the one with the least talking/more music) but I usually only do short trips as my work is only 10 mins drive away. Occasionally someone at work or home will mention a current event and I won’t have a clue what they are talking about and they will have to give me the whole story, but I don’t feel I’m missing out on anything and certainly don’t feel guilty about it. I have more important things to do with my time like spending time playing with my daughter or reading a good book and I don’t have all that extra stress on my shoulders, this may seem uncaring but I think we all have enough stress in our own lives we don’t need the stresses of the world on top of this. IGNORANCE IS BLISS.
Nice work CJ and great comments – as always – guys. Enjoy your weekend everyone. I’ll be back on Monday with a hard-hitting, not-for-the-faint-hearted article about how and why our innability to commit keeps us from exploring and fulfilling our potential…
See you then… xx
Just wanted to add… in case anyone might have wondered why I bother getting the newspaper when I don’t read it… my dear hubby, since he retired earlier this year, sits and reads it cover to cover for several hours every morning. He also insists on watching the news on TV and will change the radio from my preferred music station on the hour to get “the best news broadcast”. He has high blood pressure and a bad temper and can never relax. ‘Nuff said !!
{{HUG}}
Tina
Hi Guys,
Thank you for your great comments. It’s always fascinating to read about such a wide range of experiences and opinions – that’s one of the best things about him-dot-com, isn’t it?
And a big, smoochy (with excellent salivary control) welcome kiss to our former-lurkers Dodi and Renae. Looking forward to hearing more from you guys.
Have a wonderful weekend, everyone. Whatever you have planned, make sure that you enjoy it.
CJ xox
Ps. Tania: Who is Jenna Jamieson? Actually, don’t answer that. It’s probably best that I don’t know. I have enough insecurities
Great post CJ. Very thought provoking.
I didn’t watch the news for a couple of days and I felt uninformed, like I was missing out on something. I like to know whats going on. when i did turn on the tv, what was one of the headline stories? “chris judd and rebecca twigly are engaged!” big f$#@!%g deal. that was not worthy of being on the news, let alone a leading story.
i don’t like hearing about children being hurt or killed or molested. I must say if I do hear something, it plays on my mind for the rest of the day and I feel like crap. and as for those emails…that start with “pls help her” or “too sad” or something along those lines, I always hit the delete button without even reading it.
I like to stay informed and know what could happen, like amagedon in 2012. Nostra damas has predicted that the world will never be the same after 21st of December 2012. I watched a story on it on the History Channel last night, and it terrifies me to think, that the world could end and my children could die in a few years time. He predicted the war in Iraq, the sunami, hurricane katrina, global warming and the weather and climate change and also predicted the GFC just to name a few. Lets just say, that I have become more spiritual in the las few months.
I think its important to be informed on news and current events, what if you saw a missng peson or live next door to a murder whose mug shot is shown on tv. If your unaware you might not be able to help somebody in need or you could put yor own life at risk I don’t think ignorance is bliss, ignorance is ignorance.
Anon I see your point but many have predicted the end of the world for millions of years. Hailey’s Comet visited in 1982 (I think) and the planets aligned. I remember reading doom and it’s over. 1991 the end of the world with invasion into Iraq and Desert Storm. Over and over, week by week, preachers around the world say the apocalypse is coming. One woman I worked with before desert storm said to me at the time ‘so will you scream when the nuclear fire engulfs you on your trip to an eternity in the fires of hell where there is no relief from physical torment and where suffering is so great and living with no hope of ever being happy?. Needless to say she didn’t get invited out to the pub next week LOL
First, if we put our energies towards this sort of thing it might happen. Second, 2012 is a film. One cannot doubt the physical, human and animal earth has gotten more violent and that storms etc are worse. But it is simplistic to just lay it all on Nostradamous or the Book of Revealiations. That is not to say these things and views may not be true, but even if the world ‘ended’ whatever that means, energies and life will simply go on in some other form.
And to be morbid if there was some sort of cataclysm then I would like to go quickly as I have done all I want on this earth, anything more is a bonus
I am happy. But to sit around going my children won’t live after 2012, etc A) if it where true can’t do anything about it and B) who says 100% for sure this will happen. I bet in 2020 Craig will still be on this blog or whatever it will be now forcing us oldies into bicep curls 
For my money, I spent years terrified in the 80′s of nuclear war and guess what – it is 2009 and I’m physically still here, so fear robs us of enjoyment. I feel guilty when I read of those people who are affected by war etc, but time out sometimes and being an emotional wreck isn’t going to help them.
News, just like this blog, is an escape…what am I escaping from?
I am escaping from me!
I escape looking for validation and signs that ‘out there’ is in a worse or equivalent state than me ‘in here’.
Too bad if I change the ‘me’ to match what the image the ‘out there’ deems at present to be sexy and attractive.
Too bad if I don’t feel at one with the pure image of ME ‘in here’!
Too bad a gardenia or rose cannot smell it’s own scent.
btw.. atm.. I do escape the me by sailing the World single handed….by just going to the news of 16 yr old Jessica Watson on her blog.
News of Jessica on her boat….keeps me grounded!
http://www.youngestround.blogspot.com/
You’re funny! Thank you
If I don’t read the paper for a few days I find myself calmer and happier. And it’s a direct link.
‘nuf said
Hi
I’m probably a bit late for this post but I reckon you still mite be checking for feedback due to your lack of self esteem issues
Absolutely, positively, without a doubt, damn straight that listening and watching the news is a bad thing to do!!!!!!!!! It’s bad for your soul, your heart and your mind. There is not a shred of good that comes from filling your head with that rubbish. Why? What are you going to do about that young boy who was kicked too hard in the head while at a party and has suffered so much brain damaged that his grief stricken partents decided to turn the machine off on their baby as he was destined to be a vegetable for the rest of his life? The young punk was out the following weekend pissed and partying like nothing has happened. Even writing those words I could cry. I have to protect my heart and soul from ugliness like that.
The world is a beautiful place filled with beautiful people and places. There is goodness being preformed every day and miracles happening everywhere. Why can’t we hear about that and empower our people rather than make them paranoid and scared and victimised by the other stories the Media insist on feeding us??
For example – there a hundreds of thousands of people who go out on an average weekend in Melbourne. Agreed? Tens of thousands anyway. Parties, dancing, eating, laughing, singing, fornicating, whatever.. they are people being people. Naturally drawn to each other and having fun. A couple of people do the wrong thing and for the next week we hear about ‘violence in the streets’, ‘not safe in the city area’, ‘innocent victims….’, The Media go into a tailspin with the couple of stories and blow the whole weekend out of proportion and fill everyone with dread and fear for the rest of the week. What about all the other thousands and thousands and thousands that all had a great time? The next week there will be a couple of more scumbags on the streets because it all sorta sounds ‘cool’ and the repetition of hearing stuff like this over and over and over again makes it all sound ‘nrmal’ so these dead heads go out and try to get their claim to fame by bashing someone. And the story goes on.
If you give something attention you draw more and more of the same attention to it. It’s nature. It’s law.
Did you every watch Bowling for Columbine? The TV stations in Canada showed ‘happy’ tv deliberatly to allow people to feel good. It was proven that this type of veiwing kept crime down and people naturally were happier and more confident in themselves. They even slept with doors unlocked. While accross the river in New York they are literally killing each other every couple of hours.
The Media is very powerful but it is in the wrong hands. Someone with a holistic view should head this significant part of our community rather than money hungry self serving morons.