I haven’t been in the mood to write anything after what happened Tuesday. I’m referring, of course, to the death at age 74 of Elwood Edwards, who voiced the iconic “You’ve got mail!” message for AOL.
The other thing that happened Tuesday has me in a funk, as well. I’ve responded by cutting back on the information flowing into my brain, particularly post-mortems on the election.
I don’t want to read any analyses of why Trump won or what Harris did wrong.
I don’t want to hear from pundits hypothesizing how the outcome could have been different if Biden hadn’t withdrawn.
I don’t want to see details about why this demographic or that ethnic group voted the way they did.
I don’t want to listen to the Media That Covers Media arguing about how outlets should have covered Trump and his cult.
I have unsubscribed from about a half dozen Substack newsletters whose authors are obsessed with defining America’s new direction.
I no longer set my DVR to record late night talk shows because I don’t care about the hosts’ opening monologues. If they have guests I’m interested in, I can always find them on YouTube.
I couldn’t care less about business reporters opining on how CEOs will or won’t bend their knees to the new administration.
I spend almost no time doom-scrolling through my social media feeds.
I have unfollowed a large number of people whose tweets and posts I enjoyed before but now find utterly annoying.
I have stopped my subscriptions to the last two print magazines I receive.
I have unsubscribed from several podcasts that focus on current events.
Soon after I retired from my broadcasting career in 2018, I realized how beneficial the lack of pressure to come up with topics and guests to fill hours of airtime was for my mental health — as if a burden had been lifted from my brain. I’m beginning to have that same feeling regarding the information I’m no longer consuming. While I still have plenty of people to follow online and news sources of all types to scan, I’m now much choosier about what I stop to take in.
How will I fill the time I used to waste? I have a life of retirement to share with my wife (who divorced herself from the toxic news flow years ago), and we still have a list of places around the world we want to see in person. I have a list of books to read, movies to watch, crosswords and other puzzles to solve. I have friends with whom I can engage in conversation without ever touching upon politics or the state of the world.
I also make it a point to glance at the animals (ostriches, zebras, and oryxes) around a desert watering hole on the Namibia Cam every day.