Goodnight, and Good News.

I’m a pretty avid news reader.  I like to be informed about what’s going on in the world and in my community.  With my iPhone I’m able to receive a ton of information.  Here’s a “short” list of what’s on my phone: CNN, Time, The Washington Post, Newsweek, Fox, Huffington Post, Fast Company, TechCrunch, Mashable, Endgadget, WOAI (local San Antonio news), NPR, Al Jazeera, and Dilbert.  That last one is just to cheer me up after reading all that news.

The reason I look at so many different outlets is because I want to get an array of interpretations of worldly events.  I know too many people that stick to just the news service that suits their political stance, and that’s a shame because both sides skew their stories, and unfortunately it seems that most of the stories aren’t news that makes people smile either.  Actually, I find that most of the time I’m agitated after reading the news because it’s frustrating to read about the political rancor in our country that permeates just about everything we do, and the deplorable way humans treat each other all over the world.

I’ve thought about not reading the news, but I’m afraid of becoming an uninformed oaf with no idea what’s going on in the world.  But now that we’ve reached the season of Lent, I’ve decided to unplug.  I don’t normally participate in Lent because I feel it’s an empty ritual that doesn’t really prove anything.  If you want to impress me then give up that vice for life, not just 40 days.

Anyway, the only reason I’m doing this now is because a short term experiment is really what I need, and all of the stories I’ve read about Lent today gave me the idea to do it now.  So, for the next 40 days I’m going to avoid the news.  I’ve deleted all of the news apps from my phone, removed the news feeds from Twitter, and installed the Charlie Sheen filter on my home computer that is available for FireFox now.  I’m going to avoid all talk radio, and only listen to Christ-centered music, and the only book I’m going to read is my Bible.

It’ll be interesting to see the results.  Will I be able to glean all of the news I need from friendly conversations with people around me, or will I become a social black hole?  We’ll see.