This whole article is full of straight gems. I could not stop highlighting. There was a point recently where I also wasn’t keeping up with the news very well. I was spending a lot of time reading esoteric literature. For about two years all my news came from as you said other people and at the time I worked outside the home. So people who did watch the news kept me up to date. I’ve pretty much always gotten my news from YouTube. I subscribe to I guess what you call independents? Who cover the stories with a slightly different “why” than what the mainstream would. It tends to be coverage that I agree with their interpretation. But honestly after about a year and a half of doing this. I don’t feel any better off or any more helpful. So I see your point quite a bit. I don’t feel any happier or any more focused. In fact, I feel overstimulated and I struggle to focus even more. I can feel my brain switching over from creator to observer. Even with the knowledge that consuming too much media can do that to you it’s still hard to stop it from happening. It’s so much easier to just sit back and let it happen.