Summary: <br> Three days before the new year began, my wife, Tessa, and I cut our television cable subscription. We made the decision to not only save some money, but to also salvage a few brain cells at the same time.<br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <a href="https://www.jeffsanders.com/059-best-daily-habits-for-content-creators-my-talk-at-podcamp-nashville-podcast/">← Previous Episode</a><br> <a href="https://www.jeffsanders.com/how-many-1s-are-on-your-to-do-list/">Next Episode →</a><br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <a href="selective-ignorance-how-to-choose-what-not-to-watch" title="Selective Ignorance" target="_blank"></a>Photo Credit: <a style="color: #808080;" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/63263107@N00/252772357/" target='“_blank"'>schmilblick</a> via <a style="color: #808080;" href="http://compfight.com" target='“_blank"'>Compfight</a> <a style="color: #808080;" href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/" target='“_blank"'>cc</a><br> Back in <a href="https://www.jeffsanders.com/075-more-progress-with-less-effort-podcast/" title="More Progress With Less Effort" target="_blank">episode #75</a> of <a href="https://www.jeffsanders.com/the-5-am-miracle-podcast/" title="The 5 AM Miracle Podcast" target="_blank">The 5 AM Miracle Podcast</a>, I shared a rather unusual Tip of the Week. I briefly shared my perspective on television news media. More importantly, I said that news was “hell on earth.”<br> I also shared in this previous blog post, <a href="https://www.jeffsanders.com/never-watch-the-news/" title="Never Watch the News" target="_blank">Never Watch the News: Here's Why</a>, more of my feelings around the news and its impact on your life:<br> <br> “Fear sells newspapers. Death, destruction, mayhem, and sensationalism are all wonderful marketing tools that glue your eyeballs to the tube, paper, and website. News media outlets are profitable because you can’t stop watching all of the horrors of the world flash before your eyes.”<br> <br> Today, I expand on my discussion, respond to an anonymous hater who calls himself Batman, and share how you can choose to be selectively ignorant.<br> The Joy of Selective Ignorance<br> Let's open up this can of worms with a brief definition of ignorance: lack of knowledge or information.<br> To be selectively ignorant is to intentionally choose specific facts, or sources of information, that you wish to simply not know about. In other words, you are purposely deciding that there is just some stuff in the world that you don't want on your mind, in your memory bank, or on your television.<br> Most of us believe that ignorance is a bad thing. I disagree. I have proven to myself that ignorance around specific topics, and from certain sources of information, can be enormously beneficial, productive, and profitable — not only for me, but for those I serve as well.<br> Batman54331 doesn't like my opinion. Here are his thoughts posted on iTunes a few days after my podcast episode went live:<br> <br> Normally, I never give the light of day to haters like Batman. I would typically just delete the non-constructive comment and move on. However, this comment was on iTunes where I have no control over what shows up and what doesn't.<br> Contrary to Batman's thoughts, I wasn't promoting illiteracy, gullibility, or a total lack of critical thinking. In fact, from where I sit, watching the news could actually make someone LESS of a critical thinker and MORE gullible (easily persuaded to believe something). And let's not forget that watching the nightly news has nothing to do with your ability to read.<br> To be fair to Batman, I have watched comedy news shows quite a bit in the past, which I did for the humor, not as a source of news.<br> What Does It Do For You, Really?<br> Imagine what happens to your brain when it is exposed to disgusting images, horrible announcements,
