The death of curiosity
When the "news of the world" smothers the light
Before we begin…
How have you been “consuming” the news lately? How has this changed from the past? How might it change in the future?
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What I’ve learned from going “radio-silent”
This post was to be about curiosity. I started writing it a few weeks ago after reading stories that did not have an obvious connection to anyone but me.
The first set of stories appeared in “Who is government?” a special project in the Washington Post. Spearheaded by Michael Lewis, nationally known writers and journalists took a deep dive into the work and lives of seven government workers.
The second piece was a brief essay by
about the frustration she felt when a visiting aunt who, in that time-honored way of all families everywhere, attempted to connect and failed spectacularly because she stuck to old questions rooted in assumptions about the right timeline for getting married, having kids, etc.Reading both left me wondering how much I know about the people around me and the town, state, country, world I inhabit? What am I willing to do to satisfy my curiosity and to learn? Is curiosity natural or can it be developed? Should I be exercising this curiosity muscle? Is it a use-it-or-lose-it situation?
These questions have taken on another layer of meaning over the past two weeks. Like many I know, I have withdrawn from watching, listening, or reading the news offered by traditional and nontraditional news outlets. I’ve shrunk back to pandemic mode and have focused on family and friends. I’ve let silence fall around me. My curiosity has been a casualty of my desire to retreat.
At first, this felt like heresy. I studied journalism in college in the wake of Watergate. My first jobs were with local newspapers. Every day since then has begun with a look at newspapers - national and local. The skills I honed – asking questions, translating the implications of events and decisions, explaining how things work, have served me well in every job I’ve ever had. To do each job well meant staying informed - staying curious even about things that are boring and unpleasant. And never taking any single piece of information or source in isolation. These are all skills I need to use as I consider the new questions that have risen from my exercise in abstinence:
What do I really want to know? More importantly, what do I need to know?
Living as a hermit forever is not really an option. Even if it were an option, that is not who I am. If I want to be part of this world, I will have to keep my curiosity alive. I will have to stay informed.
My abstinence from the news and lots of social media channels over the past few weeks has reinforced for me what is wrong with most of the sources I’ve come to rely upon and what I need to do to make sure I’m getting the good stuff, the stuff I can learn from, use, and act upon.
What I can’t use and don’t want: the hourly spew of commentary in print and on screens, click-bait headlines, and shouting heads grouped around tables or lined up on Zoom screens competing to be the smartest person in the room. I missed none of them over the past few weeks.
I can’t use stories with headlines like the one that I spotted when I was testing my tolerance earlier this week by glancing at the LA Times: “Trump vs. Harris: Who did your neighborhood vote for?” What is the point of knowing if my neighborhood is light pink, faded blue or purple. There is nothing in that headline or article that will help me live my life; it can only increase speculation and suspicion. This shows me that the Times, along with most of the other major newspapers and traditional broadcast outlets, are behaving a little like the aunt
describes in her essay:“The irony is that these questions often come from people who genuinely want to connect. But they’re reaching for connection through a template, missing the real person sitting right in front of them — missing the stories that make my eyes wide with wonder, the passions that keep me awake at night, the small victories and fascinating failures that make a life worth talking about.” - Caroline in Just Talking to Myself
I don’t ask that sources of information routinely widen my eyes in wonder or excite my passions but I do want them to provide reliable information I can use to make decisions. The LA Times and other news outlets want and believe they are connecting with readers or viewers but they are lazily following a tired template and missing the bigger stories. I am not a spectator seeking how I should think or feel, I am a citizen trying to participate in society.
If information comes in a wonderful or exciting package, well, great. In fact, this is exactly what the WaPo series on government workers achieved.
Yes, I thought, when I came upon it and waited for each of the stories in the series to roll out. Yes to the surprise of learning how a rebellious Ivy League graduate with father issues is behind a discovery that has saved the lives of countless coal miners. Yes to the wonder of wandering vicariously through the campus of the Jet Propulsion Lab peopled by intense, modest scientists who can explain just why they think life exists elsewhere in the universe. An ex-comic-book nerd headed for the priesthood who found his vocation in running the national cemetery system for our military and their families? Tell me more, because the more I learned about these living, breathing, fascinating humans, the more I learned about how the agencies they work for function and the more I learned about their value to me as a citizen whose taxes help pay their salaries. Now, I understand a little better what is at stake when I learn about proposals to slash the numbers of government workers. I even understand more about what the consumer price index actually means and how it is meant to be used.
That series was expensive, elaborate and an outlier in the routine offerings of papers like the Post which is not likely to rush out to do any more of these any time soon ( but there will be a book in 2025 full of these stories and I plan to get it).
So much has been said about the state of journalism and the rapidly evolving media landscape by people who have studied it and are living it now, often doing their best in a challenging environment. For us “consumers” of information, it is exhausting and difficult to be constantly sprayed with a firehose of data, opinions, shouts, and murmurs on a 24/7 basis.
What remains clear: if I want to participate in the world, I must nurture my curiosity - stay open to the world. If I want news I can use, I must decide what I am willing to do to get it. Here are a few steps that I’ve identified so far:
First and foremost, I will take
’s advice and continue to double down on reality. Turns out avoiding the news is not avoiding reality. It has become a way to embrace it more fully. In the relative quiet of the past few weeks, I’ve had time to think, to process, to do small things, to write, to read, to make plans for a family Thanksgiving.I’ve thought a lot about those scenes in Paulette Jiles’ novel, The News of the World in which the protagonist travels from remote Texas town to remote Texas town in the mid-to-late 1800s reading articles from newspapers to those who pay a few coins to listen. The “news of the world” arrives at irregular intervals but those who come to listen must continue to eke out their livings in a hard country. Their most immediate concerns remain the survival of their families, their homes, their livelihoods, and towns they inhabit together. People like them understood that, often, living means moving ahead without knowledge. As Burkeman puts it:
“...this radical uncertainty is where you’ve always lived, whether you realized it or not, and the only place from which you’ve ever accomplished anything. You don’t need hope. You can move forward in the dark. You just need to do “with conviction the next and most necessary thing” – which is all you’ve ever been able to do anyway.” - Oliver Burkeman The Imperfectionist, How not to freak out, part two
When I’m ready, I will seek out and subscribe to a mix of not-for-profit news sources who have demonstrated their commitment and credentials and decrease my dependence on flagship sources such as the Washington Post and LA Times which are owned by billionaires for whom they are a sideline that they will quickly compromise for the safety of their other investments. Examples of some of the sources I will use: The Guardian, The Voice of San Diego, Propublica, NPR/PBS, BBC. I will never rely on a single source for the full picture.
It may be a long time before I spend much time watching CNN or any of the other news channels. I am going to prioritize local and state news and seek national and international stories that break down the implications/ consequences of an event, policy, or action by businesses, organizations, or elected officials in terms of what it means to my community. I will prioritize the following:
Nuts and bolts stories describing concrete events over commentary and analysis. If there is a debate or an event, watch it myself or read the transcript and form my own opinion before letting anyone else’s voice intrude.
Sources and stories that teach me something I didn’t know
Depth over breadth combined with taking in the news on my schedule, not the “24/7” frenzy that drives news organizations. They don’t get to tap into my dopamine levels anymore. I will seek out other and more satisfying ways to light up my brain.
Study at least one or two issues that are important to me – housing policy and healthcare – and use the information to do something useful whether it is to lobby my elected representatives or help a friend or family member navigate the medical insurance system.
Finally, I will continue to seek out stories – at least a few a week – that open the world for me and help me respond better to the current moment. The Washington Post series was one example. This one by
woke my imagination. It’s a simple account of her decision to visit every public library in her home city of Austin, TX. I loved the idea and, as I read, I wondered what was keeping me from doing this in my city? We have 35 branch libraries and a gorgeous central library. If I travel to a few a month, I will have not only seen and appreciated the library system that I rely on – I’ll be seeing parts of my community that I’ve never spent time in. I could connect with new people along the way, gain a clearer perspective on what is important to people with whom I share this city. I will be doubling down on reality and learning new things. Good food indeed.My plan will inevitably evolve and I may retreat more than once before I make much forward progress but I can live with this. In fact, I may thrive.
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Links
If you’d like to check out the whole series in the “Who is government series,” these links will make it easy for you. They should, with the exception of “The Number,” be gift links that allow you past the paywall. Let me know if it doesn’t work.
The Canary: Michael Lewis on the Department of Labor
The Sentinel: Casey Cep on the Department of Veterans Affairs
The Searchers: Dave Eggers on NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab
The Number: John Lanchester on the Bureau of Labor Statistics
The Cyber Sleuth: Geraldine Brooks on the Internal Revenue Service
The Equalizer: Sarah Vowell on the National Archives
The Rookie: W. Kamau Bell on the Department of Justice
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Gratefully yours,
Betsy
P.S. And now, your moment of Zen…birth, flight, life going on
This video arrived from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. I clicked. I did not press fast forward. I watched a small part of life play out in a family of owls and felt my pulse slow and my breath flow in and out of me a little easier.
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To add to your excellent list:
Substack now has several news aggregators that are independent. Drop Site News and The Bulwark come quickly to mind. Remember that independent doesn't mean *neutral*. I know of no news source that is neutral. The BBC, NPR, Guardian, etc. all have a very observable lens, as does Drop Site and even Bulwark, which has an explicit non partisan mission. Even nonprofits have their click bait issues, but they are still better than the corporates. Local TV news stations in the US are now often owned by a single corporate conglomerate--look for independent, local newspapers, if possible. There is a new national print newspaper (a broadsheet, no less!) that focuses on regional, mostly rural reporting, called County Highway--the author Walter Kirn is one of the founders. There are also aggregator sites like "Naked Capitalism", which has been curating thoughtful, independent writing on economics since the oughts.
To repeat, all of these are sources of excellent writing, and they all do have a political--in the general sense--lens through which they interpret the world. But to me, it's fine that publications have a lens, especially when we read widely. What's problematic is when we read uncritically--when we read only to confirm what we already think. The trick is to read with curiosity.
I think X has gotten a bad name as a source, undeservedly. Its owner is clear about his lens, but tens of thousands of independent writers and journalists still post their links there and despite the rumors to the contrary, I find their work easily every day. I use the app's "lists" feature and avoid almost all of the scourges that others suffer. I don't know why this is not a better known feature as no other social media channel has it. It works much like my beloved Google reader used to work. By making my own lists on X, I choose what I see in my feed. Imagine what this means for a moment! I highly recommend learning how to use the "lists" function on X as a way to aggregate your favorite writing.
Above all, don't let the algorithm choose what you read. Instagram, Facebook, and Threads are all perfectly engineered to show you anything that makes you scroll and in general this means anything that makes you upset or insecure. They should never, ever be a source of information other than photos of your friends or new TV shows or things to buy.
For years now, I always look for a second and third source on anything I read that seems to have "clear" ramifications, because almost nothing is ever that simple.There is always more detail needed. There is always a verb or a phrase that shows what has been elided. Reading critically, as a reflex, even when I agree--especially when I agree-- has stood me in good stead, including all through COVID.
I love the reminder about seeking out long form writing! This bring us back to Substack, too, as a great source. I have also returned to reading proper, printed books when I wake up in the morning. I had lost the habit and am getting it back now, in part because I switched back to a dumb phone. But that's another story!
Thanks for shining the light, as always, Elizabeth!!.
Wow!! I love this!! And I’m so grateful for the shoutout.
A few weeks ago I saw Conclave. I’ve had a line stuck in my brain ever since: “certainty is the enemy of unity.” I kept hearing that as I read this. If we’re so focused on “templates” or on how things “should be” you’re going to miss so much. And probably miss out on some peace.