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Dealing With All That News Out There - Editor's Desk

Added 2020-03-19 16:02:58 +0000 UTC

Tom's five tips for keeping yourself WELL informed not MISinformed.

1. Take breaks from the news -- don't overexpose yourself. The more often you see a thing mentioned there important you think it is. So limit your exposures.

2. Don't watch TV News. Video is great at giving you a better idea of what's going on, but budget it. Get it on demand. TV News is dedicated to hype and repetition so that thing about the more you see something the more important you think it is? TV is like crack for that cycle. You don't need it.

3. Put your source attention on high alert. Do not trust any source you haven't heard of before. Just don't. If you're too intrigued to resist, dig into who's behind the publication. Look it up on Wikipedia or find its publisher and look up the publisher on Wikipedia. But assume any source you don't know is unreliable.

4. Cultivate good sources. Seek them out. These tips may feel like they're telling you to be less informed. So you need to balance that out. Whether it's a twitter list, some bookmarks, a couple apps or RSS, cultivate a list of sources that you know are reliable and go to them to find your info. And don't be afraid to prune those lists if you find a source is abusing the privilege.

5. Don't spread the bad info. That tweet from a really smart engineer that did some calculations about virus spread? Don't spread it. Only pass along really hardened secure advice. ALSO don't spread along bad info in an attempt to debunk it. Retweeting the bad info with a critical comment speeds the bad info. Just don't.