Vinceland

There was a time not long ago that I became addicted to the news. The bad, Internet news. This was not long after the planes hit the country and numb-nut Bush took the helm.

The internet helped me get worse. I was so interested in daily death and the hunts for the bad guys that CNN became my home page. I feel like I am slowly coming out of the crappy news haze that dominated by back-concious over the past few years. Isn't that crazy?

I remember when I realized CNN.com had poorly affected my existence. In 2003, I realized my general level of anxiousness and mind-set were not calm or positive, even when there were calming, positive things to be aware of.

Lately, the news has been all over the damn place. Everything from 8 heads found on a roadside to men jumping out of weather balloons in space. There is no shortage of just unbelievably striking news that draws my attention and more importantly, MY TIME.

There is a glut of outlets for news, just too many, and I don't need them. There are so many outlets for so many news niches, that the competition is forcing these outlets to report things in even more unbelievable ways. Stronger, bolder stories with grittier headlines that make you stop everything else and skim the story.

Websites are written to be skimmed, no one should read every word of a website. The trick is the hook, a few bold points, a solid finish and some links to related content. Keep sucking me deeper into bad, bad things.

I don't need to read websites. I don't need to know every major story or Iraq shelling within hours of it breaking on the web. But it does make interesting conversation, and I harbor an innate desire to know more that drives me to my bookmarks. I feel like the more I know, the better perspective I may have on people and the way they think and act, which is really my job.

But it's just evil, and the fact that Drudgereport has 3 major headlines that revolve around 6/6/06 prompted me to look at these habits and assess the damage. I did read one story that made sense to me as being truly relevant to today. This was a story that made my life better.

It's the story of Peter Porter, an old man from New Hampshire who turned 66 on 06/06/06. He happens to be 6 foot, 6 inches tall. Lives in Ward 6, has 6 grandchildren, gets off the highway every day at…exit 6. It's real, it's life, it's interesting, it's an everyday person in an extraordinary situation. And best of all, this story negatively affects no one else. The story is just interesting.

Most everything else in the news seems pretty evil. This stuff won't really help me enough and there's nothing I will go and do about it. So tell me, do I remove the bookmarks?