I've noticed that there are two facets to giving up the news. The first is the news content itself. I'm doing pretty well with that: I've been avoiding it mostly successfully, and I don't miss it as much as I thought I would. The second is the act of compulsively checking things for updates. Here, I'm faring... not so well.
Even without news, there are plenty of places to check and recheck for updated information. The websites I've allowed myself have frequent updates, so I check those a bit more often that I used to. Of course, there's always email, though that's not too much of a problem at home. It's a bit more of a problem at work. Also at work, we have a system that updates when people are adding content to our wiki, and that makes a perfect target for checking frequently. Luckily, work's been busy the last week so I don't really have too much time to fixate on the feeling of not being up-to-date with my information.
Should I give all these up? I think the answer is no, but I also need to temper that need for the quick fix that has been cultivated by instant news (and the internet culture in general). To be fair to myself, it's not the case that all my non-news-reading time has turned into compulsive checking of other things (or even of watching videos on Procatinator), but some of it has.
One thing at a time. Once the news embargo becomes a bit more normalized, I'll start working on some of the other fast-twitch bad habits the news culture has helped spawn in me. Until then, I'll cut myself a bit of slack.
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