UKC

I'm looking for recommendations on things to read instead of the news, you know - on my phone to pass the time intermittently throughout the day. But things that will enhance my knowledge and thoughts rather than send me into a pit of (likely unwarranted) despair. I occasionally read Engadget, which is alright but not that interesting... I watch CarWow reviews sometimes (again, not hugely enlightening or interesting...). What else can I read that's going to widen my knowledge and thinking rather than rot me away from the inside?! Stocks, science, technology maybe.... any good websites?

I'm asking because just before Christmas I decided I'm going to stop reading and listening to the news. I'd got into the habit of scrolling down the Google news feed several times a day. Now I've stopped doing that, I mute the radio when the news comes on and I don't click on any posts on here about COVID or tiers or politics or Brexit.

It's going well so far! My wife told me we've moved into tier 4, and someone on my Instagram re-posts these "Simple Politics" news summaries whenever something big happens and I can't help accidentally seeing when I flick through the IG Stories bit, so I will still be unavoidably kept abreast of big announcements. 

You'd be better off not scrolling through instagram rather than boycotting any decent news sites.

How about a kindle book?

Interested in popular science? https://www.quantamagazine.org/ is good.

At first i thought the Car Wow bloke was a complete knob but I've actually started to like him. 

Audiobooks - immersive and timeless, often an old familiar book can be highly restorative.

I would suggest normal books, but for me -on the phone - they are just too hard to read, so if audio doesn't appeal a paperback in the pocket might be an alternative.

As well as e-books, my local library has a huge range of magazines to borrow digitally and read on a phone app or online. It’s brilliant for dipping into interesting articles!

I prefer this:

youtube.com/watch?v=G0IBqtO1K28&

Lol 🐶 ☺️ 

How about Ted talks 

https://everwideningcircles.com/circles/our-top-10-ted-talks/?gclid=CjwKCAi...

Look up stuff to do with a hobby / interest of yours.

Like climbing for example?

Still news, but only positive: https://www.justgivemepositivenews.com/

Or, non-Covid good news: https://www.justgivemepositivenews.com/goodnews

It's not on your phone, but if you're in a position to keep a big book close by I'd recommend getting a copy of either the new hard rock or guy Robertsons sea cliffs book and having a quick flick through one of the wee essays in there when you feel your attention wandering. They're not very long, very readable, and absolutely beautiful books so by the time the news starts getting good again psyche will be sky high! 

Jeff’s beard board.

Start growing your yeard and your whole life will be consumed with all things bearded.

Apologies if you already have a beard or cannot grow one for other reasons.

Where I first found quanta was this feed: https://www.damninteresting.com/curated/
Usually all kinds of interesting things, without being too high intellectual or too low.

You could try using the app Reddit. If you aren't familiar it is a kind of social media app with an upvote/downvote feature which means posts and comments with more upvotes get to the top of the pile. But where it might work for you is it is split into subreddits which are essentially forums or a subject area where people post articles, links, pictures, videos or whatever with comments and discussion beneath. You can configure your personal Reddit to only show subreddits you are interested in and filter out those you aren't interested in, and there is a subreddit on pretty much anything. For example I have subreddits such as cats, askscience, astronomy, cycling, earthporn, photography, cricket, psychology and many more on mine and you can add or change what you see anytime so as time goes by you can tailor it to your interests as and when you find new subreddits or subjects you are interested in.

The level of debate, amount of contributers and expertise depends on the subject matter but some have bona fide experts in the discussions so are interesting and current. Askscience is good for example, but of course there many which are full of people talking shite as there really is a subreddit for everything and anything.