Note. “Zombie” in this context is the repeated repetition of false and / or inaccurate information.

Among all the cognitive distortions of a person, there is a large group associated with an excess of information . Recall that these distortions are divided into five main subgroups:

1. People notice things that are already fixed in memory or often repeated.
2. People tend to notice and memorize rather special, bizarre and funny images than uncanny or unfunny.
3. People tend to notice changes.
4. People are attracted by information that confirms their beliefs.
5. People tend to better notice the mistakes of others than at home.
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Read this list carefully and think about who exactly can exploit these cognitive distortions (that is, peculiar "vulnerabilities" of the protective system of the brain) for their own purposes. What is the easiest way to create the illusion of truth and the illusion of frequency ? Obviously, these effects are easiest to create if systematically and daily bring the same messages to the person. In other words, we need a stable, controlled channel for broadcasting messages to a mass audience.

This is television.

News on TV inspire the illusion that the viewer must be constantly “in the know”, that everything that happens is extremely important. Live broadcasts, 24-hour broadcasts during "important" events like elections. It is assumed that people watch TV around the clock, watching every new piece of information.

If a plane crash or other accident occurs, then the viewer is kept on hold for several days, feeding piece of new and new pieces of information, interrupting the program with emergency releases, launching the running line with hot news. When interest in that topic subsides, something else “exceptionally important” happens, and intense excitement is preserved. This intense excitement persists constantly .

"Hot news" attract everyone's attention, and analytical reports with comprehensive objective information are of interest only to rare specialists.

Not just television

Due to the above-mentioned features of perception, some information attracts the particular attention of the audience. This is the "hot news", compiled taking into account the peculiarities of human thinking. They do not need to be broadcast on television. You can use other channels. The Internet is even more favorable environment for the distribution of so-called "memes", the source of which is often the same hot news.

Hot news and memes for maximum efficiency should exploit the same cognitive distortions, that is, the “vulnerabilities” of the human brain, which are well known:

• attention bias ;
• the effect of the illusion of truth ;
• the effect of familiarity with the object ;
• forgetting without context ;
• frequency illusion ;
• picture superiority effect ;
• self-referential effect ;
• bias towards negativity ;
• propensity to confirm his point of view ;
• distortion in the perception of the choice made ;
• conservatism ;
• ostrich effect .

In simplified form, for the maximum effect of zombies "hot news" must meet several requirements. It should be:

familiar topic, corresponding to the person’s beliefs, repeated, confirming the choice made, of a negative nature, preferably with a picture

On the Internet, you can also distribute such information. With prolonged use, “zombies” become more effective due to the effect of the illusion of truth and the repeated repetition of lies.

How will life change if you stop watching the news

First of all, I want to say "no way", because the news on TV does not give an objective picture of the world, does not give the important and valuable information necessary for making life decisions. But in reality, if you stop watching news on TV, a person's life will really change a lot, and for the better .

You will have more free time.

Recall how useful things you have done or finished while watching the news. Most likely, the answer is: "None." While watching the news, people can only passively consume food or do simple manual work. Creative energy-intensive processes are not very compatible with viewing news, they are too distracting due to the deliberate exploitation of cognitive distortions (“vulnerabilities”) of the brain. Actually, the news is specially designed in such a way as to most effectively attract the attention of a person and feed him certain information. In the post-truth era, this can be deliberately false information, since the impact is on an emotional level with the programming of a subsequent effect, which will not change after the refutation of the thesis (post-truth).

Each information can be perceived with the condition: how important is it for you to be in a week, in a year, in 10 years? In this sense, “hot news” is often completely useless - it is a waste of time. Effective reception can be reading news with a delay of a day or more. After this period, it becomes clearer what is important and what is momentary.

By refusing to view and read all the hot news, you will free up a lot of time for more important tasks in your life.

Someone says that he is watching the news in order to be “in the know”, because “one cannot ignore current problems”. In fact, such a person himself certainly understands that this is not true. It is very easy to check: if a person for a week or a month refuses to watch the news every day, then he will definitely not miss any of the important current events.

Calculate how much time a person spends on this absolutely useless exercise. Daily hours add up to months. This time can be spent on something really useful. For example, if a person, instead of watching the news every night, taught a foreign language, he would have absolutely missed nothing of the “current events”, but in a few years he would have known several new foreign languages ​​at a very good level.

Almost all talk shows and discussions of current events on television are absolutely useless chatter with close to zero informational content. People love to express their opinions on all matters that are at least a little understood (the key word is “a little”). Do I need to take the time and listen to the hourly debates of such people?

In the end, there are more effective ways to get information. Television does not exactly apply to such. For example, if you read a couple of books on any particular topic, then you will understand this topic better than 99% of the world's population. Even if you spend years watching television, you will never achieve that level of knowledge. All knowledge will be superficial, blurry and in many ways false. In fact, recalling the desire of viewers to “stay informed” and “to be informed,” there is practically no difference between “being informed” and “being misinformed.”

Another interesting phenomenon is the constant viewing of news on TV - the illusion of participation . The viewer is not indifferent, he is experiencing, sympathizes with the victims, is experiencing a sincere indignation of injustice. It seems to him that one cannot ignore such things, one must be aware of and follow the events. He seems to be involved in them, but this is not so. In fact, he is completely not involved in what is happening. His experiences facilitate his own sense of guilt, but do not benefit anyone.

It is possible that there is some kind of replacement effect. And if a person did not empathize with abstract victims on TV, he would show more sympathy for the real people around him.

The main reason why people watch news on TV is concern for their neighbors, anxiety, anxiety about what is happening around - in fact, it turns into its opposite. Most TV viewers in reality do not provide any assistance to the victims they see on TV. This is a kind of "sublimation of sympathy," from which, probably, only those who suffer are affected.

It turns out that the main reason why people watch the news is at the same time the main reason why they should not watch it.

You will feel better

A common symptom of refusing to view news is a general improvement in mood. It is difficult to say what is causing this effect. Apparently, the zombie news and the constant exploitation of cognitive impairment ("vulnerabilities") of the brain does not very well affect a person's well-being. Freeing the head from the garbage, the person begins to think more clearly, and the general state of health improves.

Indeed, after all, the rule of effective zombing involves the selection of the most vivid, extraordinary scenes with a negative bias. They best attract attention and affect people. Roughly speaking, it is a trade of fear. The challenge is to scare a person. The flow of horrible, terrible events related to the violence and exploitation of various fears - fear of the future (fear of change), technology, corporations, foreigners, immigrants, people of other sexual orientations or any different people (the “alien” archetype) who wants to seize some of your resources, is actively exploited in the news).

If you free yourself from this stream of fear, it’s quite natural that you will feel better.

Knowing about cognitive distortions, we know the rules by which news items are selected. Now we can roughly understand why this or that plot attracts attention (what fear is exploited, what hidden message is encrypted in the subject). This is very useful knowledge. Only it should be remembered that even knowledge of cognitive distortions and recognition of their presence does not make it possible to level their effect. Conducted research has not revealed evidence that awareness of their own cognitive distortions somehow helps people avoid them.

In other words, zombing on TV will be effective in any case, even if you are familiar with the techniques used by the authors of the plots. Only one way out - do not look at all.

“Now you can not believe anything that you see in the newspapers. The truth itself becomes suspicious when it is presented on these soiled pages ... I look with sad sympathy on many of my fellow citizens who, reading newspapers, live and die in the belief that they know to some extent what is happening in this world ... Basic facts You can still get from newspapers, but you cannot rely on the details. I will add that a person who never looks into the newspapers has better knowledge than the one who reads the newspapers, because he who knows nothing is closer to the truth than the one whose mind is filled with false and erroneous information. Those who do not read newspapers still know the basic facts, and all the details in the newspapers are a lie. ”

From a letter from Thomas Jefferson to John Norwell, June 11, 1807