I’ve largely stopped paying attention to news cycles, specifically local and regional news and opt to stay informed via social media, specifically Twitter. My disgust with television news began about ten years ago when my wife and I lived in our last apartment in Chicago and literally everything reported on was death. Non-stop death and pain and I just didn’t see the point in turning on the tv to that every morning. I couldn’t even watch the local news if I wanted to since I’ve been without an active television signal for about six years now. I’ll not turn this into a rant about how much cable services suck on pretty much all levels as this is largely a rant about sensational news reporting and my extreme distaste for it.

Life is hard, people get hurt, people die, bad people get away with things that they shouldn’t get away with, I get it. To wake up every morning and have someone smilingly read you those very same points over and over again day after day is very tiring. I dared not become desensitized to it and just turned off the tv. For good.

Entertainment delivered to me via a large glowing panel of liquid crystal are now mostly fictional tales about people who run fast or have some other sort of superpower. I like it this way since the death and dismemberment news cycle is still spinning, faster and more furious than ever before.

When I do occasionally catch a glimpse of the cold world outside that feeds the mass media all I want to do is go home and hug my family until they get sick of me, which is sometimes pretty soon if I haven’t shaved in awhile or someone’s in the middle of a video game. And my wife just thinks I’m trying to get fresh so I can’t really catch a break when there are hugs to give out.