Do you know adults who have no interest in whats happening in the world?

NIMAN

I'm wondering how many of them are out there, who live in their own wee bubble and just float along not knowing whats going on around them?

I ask because I have a mate, a man in his 40s with a big family, and he has zero interest in current affairs, politics, news etc. Never reads about these topics, watches news programmes or documentaries.

One big example was the time of Ryanair and their rostering problem. Its was wall to wall coverage on Irish and UK news (and I'm sure big around large parts of Europe too) and right bang in the middle of the mess he was due to fly to the UK with Ryanair in a few weeks time. When I met him I asked if he had checked if his was one of the cancelled flights?

He replied "Why, why would it be cancelled"
Me : cos of the whole mess Ryanair is in with their pilots.
Him : What mess, never heard anything about it
Me: Its been on the news for the last fortnight.
Him: Naw, never heard about it.

Now to avoid that kind of news takes serious effort.

And often when we chat and I'd say "well thats a right mess at Stormont now, what with it all collapsing and all", he'd ask "why, what happened". Totally oblivious of anything political. Zero interest (perhaps a lot of people have no interest in politics?).

Could be anything. I know if I met him now and tried to have a discussion about gun control in the US or the latest shooting, he'd not have a clue that it ever happened.

So, do we all know someone like this?

Rubberchikken

Me. Few things happening out there interest me. Probably because they're done to death. Take this possible weather for example. It'll be discussed longer than it'll occur.

whiskeyman

Lots.
The way I look at it - we all have our own worries, why compound them with knowing others?
Fine if it directly impacts you though.
Sometimes ignorance is bliss.

Are Am Eye

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tGjuPJskNRE

Bill Hicks CNN

Oldtree

Americans.....

MilesMorales1

I'd prefer not to know really. It's ****ing depressing and anxiety provoking, this constant 24 hour news cycle of gloom and doom. Prefer to know nothing.

Fann Linn

Rubberchikken wrote: »

Me. Few things happening out there interest me. Probably because they're done to death. Take this possible weather for example. It'll be discussed longer than it'll occur.

Same here. I used to buy paper on a daily basis and 2 or 3 on a Sunday. Now I don't give a toss and get my news from boards, politics, the journal and Midwest FM for the deaths!

Pretzill

I know what's going on I just refuse to announce an opinion on most things. There are too many people voicing opinions these days, too many channels on which to do it. And too many people with a skewed world view.

OldMrBrennan83

This post has been deleted.

dxhound2005

As someone once said "Isn't it amazing how there is always exactly the right amount of news to fill up the paper". One day in the 1930's the BBC newsreader announced that there was no news that day, and they played some music instead.

The Backwards Man

I know a few like that alright, but I don't think it's lack of interest, there's three categories;

1) The cute hoors, let on they know nothing to find out what everyone else knows.

2) The lazy hoors, don't want to know anything in case they might have to use that information for any reason in the future

3) The stupid hoors, self-explanatory.

mikemac2

NIMAN wrote: »

He replied "Why, why would it be cancelled"
Me : cos of the whole mess Ryanair is in with their pilots.
Him : What mess, never heard anything about it
Me: Its been on the news for the last fortnight.
Him: Naw, never heard about it.

Now to avoid that kind of news takes serious effort.

Less than 2% of flights were affected. He’s right not to be stressing

Bonzo Delaney

mikemac2 wrote: »

Less than 2% of flights were affected. He’s right not to be stressing

Is that you Mr o Leary

freshpopcorn

Most people I know skims through the news and they might read the articles that relate or a big news story other than that they don't really bother.
They'd know their was a mass shooting in the US and they'd know trump made a few statements but that would be about it.

Kuva

NIMAN wrote: »

He replied "Why, why would it be cancelled"
Me : cos of the whole mess Ryanair is in with their pilots.
Him : What mess, never heard anything about it
Me: Its been on the news for the last fortnight.
Him: Naw, never heard about it.

Lies, unfortunately that was impossible to avoid.

um7y1h83ge06nx

I like current affairs, politics and news but have found Irish media to be very one dimensional in recent years. They all scrambled to the water charges issues and now to homelessness. Like under 6's playing a field sport, they all stampede after the ball en masse.

I listen to Morning Ireland every weekday morning but switch over now if the topic turns to homelessness. The BBC news app is great for international affairs, love the in depth articles. The Irish and Sunday Times are decent enough papers too.

dxhound2005

freshpopcorn wrote: »

Most people I know skims through the news and they might read the articles that relate or a big news story other than that they don't really bother.
They'd know their was a mass shooting in the US and they'd know trump made a few statements but that would be about it.

News organisations will be going out of business wholesale, if the people you know are anyway representative of the majority.

david75

A great many. Most of my gay mates (the majority of my mates) are almost living in a different parallel universe and have zero interest in news or politics or anything like it. To such a degree I was worried about the marriage equality referendum passing, cos I was worried my mates were representative of the whole. Thankfully I was totally wrong and each and every one of them voted.
Can’t really blame them for tuning out though. It would get to you the constant barrage of sh!t and endless bad news.

MilesMorales1

Imagine if Brexit had never been a thing, even in concept. The news here and in the UK would have needed something else to prattle on about for more than 2 years, every single ****ing day.

freshpopcorn

dxhound2005 wrote: »

News organisations will be going out of business wholesale, if the people you know are anyway representative of the majority.

It's not that they don't follow the news they don't hang on it's every word.
Some of these people are in their fifties/sixties and it's how they've always followed the news. So, I wouldn't be to worried.

mfceiling

The brother.

41 years of age and hasn't a clue what's going on. As long he has a few joints and a few ciders he's happy out.
Never reads a paper, watches emmerdale on the tele, a few car shows and nothing else and listens to cd's when he's driving so he never hears a news bulletin.
It genuinely astonishes me how little current affairs he's aware of.

NIMAN

btw, to add, my mate knew nothing about the Marriage Referendum or anything about the Repeal the 8th either. Doesn't care one iota.

I do think there are some things worth getting interested in. Even if only to make an informed decision when it comes to voting (but I'd hazard a guess he won't bother voting either).

NIMAN

I think there's a happy medium.

I think most adults in Ireland should know a bit about things like water charges, homelessness, budgets, taxes, Brexit, Ryanair strikes etc.

But I would agree that a lot of the rolling news now has crap on it that even I know is filler. A train crashed in Liberia and killed 3 people. A man was swallowed by a sinkhole in Ohio....yeah these are "do we really need to know that" stories.

david75

That’s the scary thing. Massive amounts of people don’t even bother to vote. On anything. That suits the established parties in this country. Depressing.

SCOOP 64

My wife, would never watch news, never reads newspapers, shes only interested what's happening in the real world she gets this by watching ,Eastenders , Coronation street ,Fair city, Home and way.....

jobbridge4life

Plenty. Too many probably.

I do wonder what their world is like.

I don't normally really care about it, except when they decide one day that they know who and want to vote for and that everyone else has been 'taken in'. I don't play rugby, I don't watch rugby... I'm not about to rant publicly about my ideas on how we can win the FIFA World Cup.

Pac1Man

I'm one of those. I don't watch the news so I have zero idea of what's going on. If it's ridiculously important like a major catastrophy either my family will tell me or I'll see the headline somewhere.

I only fill my free time with stuff I'm interested in.

Dr_serious2

Pretzill wrote: »

I know what's going on I just refuse to announce an opinion on most things. There are too many people voicing opinions these days, too many channels on which to do it. And too many people with a skewed world view.

That sounds suspiciously like an opinion

OldMrBrennan83

This post has been deleted.

corner of hells

Her sister and brother in law , both go through life in a daze with no knowledge of current affairs either national or international .

They have sent their son into school on polling day and wondered he was back home ten minutes later as well as never voted in either elections or a referendum.

Both have been scammed more than once by con artists at their door handing over cash to chancers offering landscaping etc. resulting in a Garda relative having to have a serious conversation with them.

RhubarbCrumble

My friend's girlfriend is like this. I've met her quite a few times and find it absolutely impossible to hold a conversation with her because she has no idea whatsoever about what's going on in the world.
She literally has three topics of conversation:

1) Her father who died last year

2) Her dog

3) Reality TV.

She can rattle on about people from Big Brother etc and it's like they're personal friends, but mention Leo Varadkar for example and she'd probably think he was a Bollywood actor.

Before meeting this one, my friend was going out with a girl for about ten years. She was stunning looking and very intelligent. She broke up with him and it clearly destroyed him if her replacement is anything to go by.

dxhound2005

I know one person who often is unaware of things in the news when they are mentioned at work. But I wonder how some people know so much about the media consumption of large number of others. In another discussion on Boards someone claimed to know what letters their neighbours were getting in the post.

I suppose these are close knit communities, where everyone knows each others business.

Pretzill

Dr_serious2 wrote: »

That sounds suspiciously like an opinion

and that's exactly why I don't often voice it -

Your Face

I dislike the type of person that tries to make everything topical and
/or political.

vectorvictor

Have largely tuned out from most of whats going on. A combination of lack of interest and same old bad news. I can be pretty sure that at any given time:

A minister has done something wrong
A footballer has done something wrong
A bank has done something wrong
A plane/train/car has crashed
The weather somewhere is tragic

I just dont have the thirst to fill in the blanks for todays list when therell be another batch along tomorrow (that I will also let float right over my untroubled head)

Debtocracy

NIMAN wrote: »

And often when we chat and I'd say "well thats a right mess at Stormont now, what with it all collapsing and all", he'd ask "why, what happened".

Tommy Gorman appears, "The stalemate in Stormont continues as negotiations enter their 57th hour" - frantically search for remote, urge to kill rising...

meeeeh

RhubarbCrumble wrote: »

Before meeting this one, my friend was going out with a girl for about ten years. She was stunning looking and very intelligent. She broke up with him and it clearly destroyed him if her replacement is anything to go by.

This made me laugh.

I'm not one of those people who try to discuss current affairs in hairdresser's but I find it very hard to relate to people who know nothing about the world around them. I know a few but I wouldn't overly converse with them unless I have to.

strangel00p

Well here's the thing, I have an interest in the news.  But, I remember attending a training course years ago and the presenter made a very good point about the media.  Don't worry too much about things you have no control over and the vast majority of the news falls into that category. 
I have a close friend who is massively into politics and current affairs, every day we have a coffee break together and he works himself into a fit about some political story which he will have zero influence on.  It's a waste of time and energy devoting, I'd rather spend my energy on areas which are in my immediate circles of influence.

david75

strangel00p wrote: »

Well here's the thing, I have an interest in the news.  But, I remember attending a training course years ago and the presenter made a very good point about the media.  Don't worry too much about things you have no control over and the vast majority of the news falls into that category. 
I have a close friend who is massively into politics and current affairs, every day we have a coffee break together and he works himself into a fit about some political story which he will have zero influence on.  It's a waste of time and energy devoting, I'd rather spend my energy on areas which are in my immediate circles of influence.

Lotta good sense in that.

limnam

RhubarbCrumble wrote: »

but mention Leo Varadkar for example and she'd probably think he was a Bollywood actor.

tbh who in there right mind talks about Leo Varadkar in a social situation.

Fann Linn

limnam wrote: »

tbh who in there right mind talks about Leo Varadkar in a social situation.

Leo.

Cheerful Spring

Plenty of people but I don't try to change them if they are not interested. We are isolated in Ireland and if we are not affected by what happens most people don't care. I care more because geopolitical events can change the world at any time. Who cared about what happens with the banks pre 2008 after that every Irish person you met had an opinion.

Dakota Dan

NIMAN wrote: »

I'm wondering how many of them are out there, who live in their own wee bubble and just float along not knowing whats going on around them?

I ask because I have a mate, a man in his 40s with a big family, and he has zero interest in current affairs, politics, news etc. Never reads about these topics, watches news programmes or documentaries.

One big example was the time of Ryanair and their rostering problem. Its was wall to wall coverage on Irish and UK news (and I'm sure big around large parts of Europe too) and right bang in the middle of the mess he was due to fly to the UK with Ryanair in a few weeks time. When I met him I asked if he had checked if his was one of the cancelled flights?

He replied "Why, why would it be cancelled"
Me : cos of the whole mess Ryanair is in with their pilots.
Him : What mess, never heard anything about it
Me: Its been on the news for the last fortnight.
Him: Naw, never heard about it.

Now to avoid that kind of news takes serious effort.

And often when we chat and I'd say "well thats a right mess at Stormont now, what with it all collapsing and all", he'd ask "why, what happened". Totally oblivious of anything political. Zero interest (perhaps a lot of people have no interest in politics?).

Could be anything. I know if I met him now and tried to have a discussion about gun control in the US or the latest shooting, he'd not have a clue that it ever happened.

So, do we all know someone like this?

You sir need to get a life and stop worrying about what other people think.

freddie1970

mfceiling wrote: »

The brother.

41 years of age and hasn't a clue what's going on. As long he has a few joints and a few ciders he's happy out.
Never reads a paper, watches emmerdale on the tele, a few car shows and nothing else and listens to cd's when he's driving so he never hears a news bulletin.
It genuinely astonishes me how little current affairs he's aware of.

fair play to him seems like a happy man

RhubarbCrumble

limnam wrote: »

tbh who in there right mind talks about Leo Varadkar in a social situation.

In all fairness what grown adult (lady in question is 40) doesn't know who Leo Varadkar is?

limnam

RhubarbCrumble wrote: »

In all fairness what grown adult (lady in question is 40) doesn't know who Leo Varadkar is?

Do you think it would change her life in anyway if she did?

Apart from been able to have fascinating conversations with yourself.

limnam

meeeeh wrote: »

This made me laugh.

I'm not one of those people who try to discuss current affairs in hairdresser's but I find it very hard to relate to people who know nothing about the world around them. I know a few but I wouldn't overly converse with them unless I have to.

How would you know what they know.

If they're not interested in what you're interested in you decide not to converse with them

That's as ignorant as someone not interested in bloody Leo.

Dakota Dan

RhubarbCrumble wrote: »

In all fairness what grown adult (lady in question is 40) doesn't know who Leo Varadkar is?

I wish I never heard of him, can't explain the reasons here.

Purple Mountain

The Backwards Man wrote: »

I know a few like that alright, but I don't think it's lack of interest, there's three categories;

1) The cute hoors, let on they know nothing to find out what everyone else knows.

2) The lazy hoors, don't want to know anything in case they might have to use that information for any reason in the future

3) The stupid hoors, self-explanatory.

What category are you in so?

Laois_Man

I'm married to somebody like this

The only way she'd hear of the world ending is if I told her or if she saw someone on Facebook posting about it

Calls me an aul grandad because I am interested too!

tedpan

I have no interest in news, politics, TV advertising or other negative influences around me. If I'm in a car I'll rush to switch off the radio at the hour just in case I have to listen a second of somebody giving me sad information I don't need to hear.

Everyday I walk into the office and get asked, did you hear about that murder, tragedy or celebrity dying etc? My answer is always No.

Another thing that makes me laugh are people who discuss politics at work. Debating what happened/happens in the government as if their views and opinions will change something!

I focus on myself, family and friends around me and don't worry about things that don't affect me, it just gets you down.