What non-political sites/ apps do you visit regularly?
July 14, 2024 9:14 AM   Subscribe

Please, please please, give me some suggestions for a new information diet.

Couldn’t find any recent questions. If there are, I can delete the post. For the past several weeks, I’ve been telling myself that I have to stop following politics. There’s plenty of stress already in my life without seeking out things that upset me day after day. After the debate, and after this weekend, time to start making changes.


What do you look at daily/ weekly online that is inspiring, interesting, and intellectually fulfilling that has nothing to do with politics? My interests have been pretty narrow for a while so would love suggestions on pretty much any topic. Washington Post and other sites do have plenty more than politics. For now though, I’m not strong enough to avoid the bad stuff if I see it. Have never gotten into podcasts so suggestions there would be cool too. My goal isn’t to unplug completely but to develop different habits so that I can check out easier after checking in from time to time.

Side note: Really appreciate all the level-headedness that I’ve been seeing from so many here lately. America has been too much for too long now.
posted by blairsyprofane to Media & Arts (27 answers total) 31 users marked this as a favorite
 
Honestly, I do most of my browsing on my phone, and anytime I find myself feeling bleak I just open up an ebook reader and read a book instead. I've gotten through a whole lot of novels this year.
posted by potrzebie at 9:24 AM on July 14, 2024 [7 favorites]


Plough is the website of a magazine run by the Bruderhof, a group of Christian communities that attempt to live according to the words of Jesus in the best possible way. While they do come from a perspective of faith, the focus is really on how to live as a decent person in the world. The three most recent issues focused on tech, nature, and repair.

From their website: "Founded in 1920, Plough asks the big questions: How can we live well together, and what gives life meaning and purpose in a complex world?"

(I'm a subscriber, so I don't know how much of what they publish is available for free.)
posted by FencingGal at 9:30 AM on July 14, 2024 [2 favorites]


I'm on a couple of fairly active and well-moderated Discord servers related to my spirituality. One of them even has a 'no politics' rule.
posted by heatherlogan at 9:31 AM on July 14, 2024


Only Good News is where I go for a break. Occasionally they mention politics, but only in a positive way like a green bill being passed.
posted by Tell Me No Lies at 9:33 AM on July 14, 2024


I'd second potrzebie's suggestion of non-online content, and add a still stronger rec for material engagement with non-media, period-- like, planting sprouts and watching them grow to delicious salad material, or knitting a scarf or fixing a thing or feeding some goldfish are far more authentically and reliably "inspiring, interesting, and intellectually fulfilling" than any of the human-generated ersatz narrative dreck, political or apolitical, that clogs the web right now.

I'm not sure online spaces are capable of not being on some level political, honestly: there seems to be something about disembodied, free-form, text-based interaction that activates all our most aggressively tribal instincts. Twitter started out as an apolitical site for posting funny daily-life updates, for pete's sake.
posted by Bardolph at 9:40 AM on July 14, 2024 [3 favorites]


With a carefully curated filter list of keywords I don't want to see (eg if a post contains keywords X, Y, Z hide this post)

I spend time on Mastodon

and Tumblr.

Mastodon (again, carefully curated) has a lot of photos of birds and landscapes and cool artworks and interesting historical trivia.
posted by chariot pulled by cassowaries at 9:40 AM on July 14, 2024 [1 favorite]


Best answer: I also spend time on dreamwidth.org, where most posts are about

book
films
fannish things

and if there are political posts, people usually put them under a cut-tag.
posted by chariot pulled by cassowaries at 9:41 AM on July 14, 2024 [1 favorite]


I also spend time on a Blake's 7 Discord group, which has a strict "no real world politics" rule.
posted by chariot pulled by cassowaries at 9:43 AM on July 14, 2024


Hear me out on this one: TikTok.

The thing about TikTok is that you can pretty easily and quickly teach the algorithm what you want it to show you. When you first create an account, it lets you choose a few categories of videos you'd like to see.

From there, you can scroll through your For You page and double tap to 'like' the kinds of content you'd like to see more of, and long press and select 'not interested' for the kinds of content you'd like to see less of. Mine is now mostly music, food, pets, and travel, with some art, and educational content from reliable sources like libraries and national organizations. It is the place on the internet that I go to feel calm.

The disclaimer is that there is sponsored/paid content and it's annoying (but mostly labeled, so you can just swipe through it); the other disclaimer that probably goes without saying is that obviously their data policies are sketchy enough that it's been spun into a national security issue.
posted by capricorn at 9:50 AM on July 14, 2024 [4 favorites]


Instagram can be pretty much free of partisan/electoral politics and current events, though of course politics will inevitably impact other areas. I follow a juggler, world travelogue accounts, weavers, musicians in a really wide variety of genres, painters, naturalists, someone who makes kites, and a few accounts that post about daily life in their country.
posted by mai at 10:29 AM on July 14, 2024 [2 favorites]


Like potrzebie, I'm doing a lot more e-book reading this year. I signed up for daily emails from BookBub, which tells me about currently discounted e-books (in my favoured genres, on my favoured platform) that I might not have thought to browse for, and now I always have an e-book on the go on my phone.

I also signed up for a few email newsletters from people I used to follow on Twitter. Lev Parikian is one (if you land on an email signup screen, click "No thanks" or "Let me read it first" or whatever, and it'll let you through to take a look); I think Everything is Amazing is another; Londonist: Time Machine is a third.
posted by ManyLeggedCreature at 10:32 AM on July 14, 2024 [1 favorite]


I have a "no electronics after 8 pm" rule.

I typically read a book instead. It makes a librarian's day if you ask for recommendations!

I tend to read a lot of history and memoirs. Both genres put the challenges of today into context. I also read historical fiction novels by Monica Hesse. Those are well-researched and interesting.
posted by champers at 10:41 AM on July 14, 2024 [1 favorite]


Best answer: The New Books Network podcast collection features interviews with authors of academic books in various disciplines in the humanities. I'm currently enjoying the Southeast Asia Studies NBN podcast quite a bit.
posted by rabia.elizabeth at 10:48 AM on July 14, 2024 [2 favorites]


I follow a bunch of YouTube channels related to people Doing Stuff or Explaining Stuff. Making things, restoring a boat, running farms, talking about linguistics, cooking food, living self sufficiently off grid, explaining civil engineering, designing buildings, explaining the history and politics of agriculture...
posted by quacks like a duck at 11:11 AM on July 14, 2024 [1 favorite]


You might enjoy Ted Gioia's substack, The Honest Broker. He's sometimes preachy and cantankerous, especially about tech companies, but never focuses on partisan politics, and the rest of the time has some great stuff to say about the timeless good parts of music and culture.
posted by goingonit at 11:26 AM on July 14, 2024


Best answer: My serious suggestion is gaming.

I think that one of the needs "looking at stuff online" fills is that it's a relatively low friction activity that we can do to fill the time, and it gives us little hits of dopamine when we see something new. "Cozy" games and puzzle games can fill that need also, and give you something else to reach for when you're waiting for the bus stop or boiling pasta or whatever. It's important to avoid the scammy ones, but that still leaves a lot of options.

Having other hobbies is important too, but I understand that it's not always the right time or place to be doing something like gardening, knitting, etc.

Other than that, I watch a lot of Youtube, but I've curated my feed pretty aggressively so most of what I see suggested on my homepage are science, cooking, and video game lore. My Tumblr feed is almost exclusively fandom content. This works if you're into fandom.

I do see political things break into my feeds now and then; I think that's just the nature of the beast when you're following people who might want to say something about what's going on now and then. But you can certainly curate your feeds so that this is an occasional thing rather than the majority of what you see.
posted by Kutsuwamushi at 12:13 PM on July 14, 2024 [5 favorites]


I like the every-weekday Substack newsletter Numlock News. Yes, 'news' is in the title, but it's devoid of the politics type and instead leans into things like scientific innovation and cultural curiosities. Though it's not 100% positive stories, the tone is light and entertaining and I never come away feeling despondent as with other daily news sources.
posted by General Zubon at 12:13 PM on July 14, 2024 [1 favorite]


Best answer: I really enjoy Messy Nessy's Cabinet Of Curiosities. Nessy is an expatriate Londoner in Paris, where she runs a little curio shop on the bank of Seine and curates a rotating mess of weird and wonderful stories about arts, culture, and history. There is a paid portion of the site, but I've rarely felt a need for it. Nessy puts out newsletters twice a week (Monday and Friday) filled with links to stories on her site.
posted by lhauser at 12:20 PM on July 14, 2024 [2 favorites]


Best answer: I have been and am right where you are. I have built a few things to help me out. Like you I did not know how to stay connected without going into the doom spiral, or how to disconnect without feeling like I was retreating into fantasyland.

Re: things that are NOT related to society/politics:

- I also am very focused on a technical project of making my own record, and have been taking classes to learn and improve my skills. I joined a discord school and a couple of other discords where there are like minded people working on similar projects. I even started doing some collaborations with strangers. I have no idea what their political leanings are and I don't talk to them about it. This has me coming back to those discords to see what people have made/what people think about what I've made, or how they've answered questions I've had, much like political arguments on Facebook used to. :)

- I am really interested in gardening and cooking and so I read a lot about those pursuits. Gardening in particular is a great one because it requires patience and there is a LOT to learn for me. I subscribe to blogs, I google and read articles, etc. I research things like "how do I get the crows to stop eating my beans?!" and "when will my tomatoes turn red?" instead of "how is my preferred candidate polling today?"

- I got really into tarot cards. At some point I think I realized that I was trying to use the political news media to try to divine the future. Then I thought. Astrology and Tarot Cards are just as good at that, why not have a little fun? I learned a ton about the history of the cards and there are incredible communities of people who like to talk about the cards and their history in a more scientific way. But also - if I want to know how things are going with the election, sometimes I ask the cards. I don't think they know. But they know just as well as the internet does.

- I like to travel, so I plan little dream trips and I track good deals on airfare and lodging. I subscribe to reddit threads where people catalog their trips. I haven't booked a single one yet, but I track flights for trips to look for patterns in low airfare much like I might have done for political movement in the past.

- I also found that I like fiction that focuses on some of these cultural ideas!

HOWEVER. The more I have focused in these arenas, the more disconnected I have felt which has also brought me terrible anxiety. I've gotten pretty good at training the social sites (Insta, FB and TikTok) that I'm not there to get news. Most of what I see is related to my real hobby interests - music production, gardening, yoga, meditation, withcy stuff... That said, I do think it's important to keep true to myself, my values and what I care about, and what I learned that was when "politics" pierced that peaceful little bubble I made for myself, I was even MORE destabilized than I'd been before. Usually because this was coming to me via sources that I had formed more direct relationships with.

I am still very interested in matters of society, what's going on around me, how the people in the world see society and how they are thinking and feeling, etc. Politics, however, is more about trying to introduce your own sway on others, and react and plan for how others are trying to introduce their sway upon you. As things escalate to the crazy places they go to, this gets scarier and scarier. In response, I have stopped trying to connect my behavior in the world and on social media to having any impact on how "the world" feels and behaves. I think I am better served by talking to people in person, on the phone, and focusing on action.

To me, this is what not engaging in politics means, these days. I am not going into a cave where I can't advocate for myself or what's important to me, but I am not opening myself up to being manipulated by fear and anxiety. If I decide I need to take a strategic action (canvas for a political cause, volunteer to help my community, have a conversation with someone about their behavior, attend a protest, etc), I approach it as such. A strategic action with a specific goal in mind and not a referendum on anybody's worth as a person.

I think there are ways to do stay true to my values without following "politics".

- I picked an area of study and read books about it and then read articles about it too. Historical moments that have echoes to today have really helped. In 2020 and 2021 I got really interested in the 14th century. In 2022 and 2023 I got really into the Spanish Civil War. It helped me feel connected to what was going on around me with less day to day anxiety.

- I have a small group of trusted friends whom I talk to about my thoughts and feelings regarding what's going on in the world. My rule is that I will not engage on these subjects with anybody who:

a.) Can't tell me with kindness that they disagree with me
b.) Can't hear me or be open to my point of view when I tell them with kindness that I disagree with them

- I picked a wide smattering of news sites where I will read the headlines, but not obsessively. I try to set some time aside for it. And I make sure they are varied sources. I do a little round robin of newspapers from around the world. I look at CNN and the NYT in America. I look at the BBC. I look at Le Monde. I look at Al Jazeera. I realize these are not showing me the right wing talking points at all - but I also feel like I can start to get a somewhat balanced picture of what's really going on vs. how politics are shaping the narrative by looking at the headlines across these sources.

- I subscribed to a range of substacks. I put my glasses and dive in and read their opinions and perspectives.
posted by pazazygeek at 12:24 PM on July 14, 2024 [3 favorites]


seconding everyone who suggests books; my local library has a 'new books' section which offers exciting ideas regularly. understanding you're asking specifically about online:
ventusky, many neat weather visualizations
sometimes:
quanta
news.artnet.com
internet encyclopedia of philosophy
Stanford encyclopedia of philosophy has a 'random entry' button
metafilter...
posted by HearHere at 12:37 PM on July 14, 2024


god, I used to fall asleep to political podcasts!! but by chance I heard a mention of Stephen Merchant, the English comedian/writer/actor/director/creator of Outlaws and I decided to look up every podcast in which he was interviewed and they were great fun to listen to, even if they were several years old, so my advice is to pick a non-political person you like and listen to all their old podcast interviews.
posted by TWinbrook8 at 1:58 PM on July 14, 2024


If you like tech news, slashdot.org has plenty of it. Politics sometimes creep in, but it's definitely a minority subject.
posted by dave*p at 6:04 PM on July 14, 2024


Best answer: Newsletters
* Curious About Everything
* Read Max
* What To Read If…
* The Honest Broker
* seconding Everything is Amazing

YouTube Channels
* @SampsonBoatCo - complete rebuild of a 100+ year old sailboat, started off single-handedly but has grown over the past 7 years
* @EverydayAstronaut - guy with no background really got into spaceflight and became a science communicator
* @SpaceRocketHistoryChannel/ - podcast detailing the entire history of space exploration
* @Clickspring - Australian machinist whose main thing is rebuilding the Antikythera Mechanism using period accurate methods
* @LGR - retro computer stuff
* @TechnologyConnections - technology deep dives
* @girlflash - indie game dev
* @JeremyParish - video game retrospectives for every game on a platform
* @BaumgartnerRestoration - art restoration
* @CrimePaysButBotanyDoesnt - plant ecology + swearing. Kill your yard!
* @essentialcraftsman - has forgotten more about building trades than most will ever learn. built a spec house
* @JomboyMedia - the more interesting parts of sports
* @NileRed - chemistry shenanigans
* @numberphile - numbers and math can be interesting
* @ObjectivityVideos - objects can be interesting
* @PracticalEngineeringChannel - infrastructure can be interesting
* @SteveMould - physics and general science can be interesting
* @StuffMadeHere - over-engineering for fun
posted by hankscorpio83 at 12:42 AM on July 15, 2024


Best answer: Also, to keep up with the major news events without being sucked into a blackhole of horrible, I like the Semaphore Flagship newsletter and checking News As Facts.
posted by hankscorpio83 at 12:49 AM on July 15, 2024




Response by poster: Hot damn! I knew you all would have some great suggestions. Thank you thank you. I marked a few as best answer but really everyone gave me something wonderful to work with. Very grateful for you all.
Started making changes but still wandering back. This is going to be tough. It’s been a part of my daily routine for so long.
posted by blairsyprofane at 5:38 PM on July 16, 2024 [1 favorite]


I hope it's not too gauche to self-link: I recently launched A Tiny Bell.
posted by dobbs at 6:35 PM on August 3, 2024 [2 favorites]


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