Scan barcode
A review by lauralantran_
The News: A User's Manual by Alain de Botton
5.0
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Alain de Botton has done it again with this book which I believe will remain unendingly useful for people. I have been constantly made disoriented by the news and the echo chambers formed in comment sections and social media groups, and at a time I had been so disenchanted that I stopped looking and listening to reports and quit social media. People around me encouraged and applauded this decision, which prompted me to realise that the problem is not so much a deficiency of my intellect but the "news-ness" of the news.
Alain guides us through how to categorise and make sense of the news but in a **critical and introspective way**. He calmly and elegantly points out how flawed our modern news reports are to a detrimentally disorienting effect, especially when it comes to how the news never relate to the old, or old news. It is the readers' job now to piece together the fragments of facts to construct a coherent narrative, relate to their own values, and create their own conviction or conform to popularity. Now that Alain has shown this, it's ridiculous how much work we need to do that journalists are not doing. No wonder I was so sick of the news, and no wonder I wanted a long break from all these mentally taxing juggernauts.
There is so much more that Alain talks about in this book, including religion, philosophy, the reason behind our reactions to the news, why we sought them out so desperately in certain times, etc. It seems like a lot, but the book is incredibly easy to take in while not sacrificing the necessary eloquence and candour. Alain's words are always reawakening, nourishing and soothing, a reaffirmation of his gentle philosophy on interacting and teaching people for which I am eternally grateful.
Alain de Botton has done it again with this book which I believe will remain unendingly useful for people. I have been constantly made disoriented by the news and the echo chambers formed in comment sections and social media groups, and at a time I had been so disenchanted that I stopped looking and listening to reports and quit social media. People around me encouraged and applauded this decision, which prompted me to realise that the problem is not so much a deficiency of my intellect but the "news-ness" of the news.
Alain guides us through how to categorise and make sense of the news but in a **critical and introspective way**. He calmly and elegantly points out how flawed our modern news reports are to a detrimentally disorienting effect, especially when it comes to how the news never relate to the old, or old news. It is the readers' job now to piece together the fragments of facts to construct a coherent narrative, relate to their own values, and create their own conviction or conform to popularity. Now that Alain has shown this, it's ridiculous how much work we need to do that journalists are not doing. No wonder I was so sick of the news, and no wonder I wanted a long break from all these mentally taxing juggernauts.
There is so much more that Alain talks about in this book, including religion, philosophy, the reason behind our reactions to the news, why we sought them out so desperately in certain times, etc. It seems like a lot, but the book is incredibly easy to take in while not sacrificing the necessary eloquence and candour. Alain's words are always reawakening, nourishing and soothing, a reaffirmation of his gentle philosophy on interacting and teaching people for which I am eternally grateful.