Preferred Source of Noise

Different people have their own preferred source of background noise. Some people like nature sounds, like crickets or thunderstorms. Other people like to work with music in the background. Plenty of people can only focus in complete silence. You might say silence doesn’t count as background noise. I say the lack of noise is a type of noise itself.

My preferred source of background noise is television. I particularly like to not-listen to people talking on television. Call me crazy, but I don’t believe I am alone in this. Talking heads on TV are something I can easily tune in and out as needed, as long as I am at least mildly interested in what they are talking about.

In 2016, my preferred source of background noise has brought more stress than productivity.

I wish I cared at all about sports. Then I could set ESPN for my background noise. There are always people talking about stuff on that channel. But they are talking about things I am completely not interested in.

I wish I cared about money. If I cared about money, I could watch CNBC or Bloomburg. Hearing people talk about stocks and hedge funds and other financial witchcraft like hearing people talk about yachts. It sure it is interesting to some, but I will never own a yacht, so what do I care?

I don’t care about sports, and I don’t care about finance. I do care about politics, which is ironically sort of like the combination of sports and finance. Because of this, I am relegated to the land of CNN, Fox News, and MSNBC.

Each of these networks has their own tone, but they are really all the same. And in 2016 they were all terrible! I don’t mean terrible the way most talk about the terrible news media. I don’t care that it is biased or anything like that. Cable news was terrible in 2016 mostly because it was boring.

There was nothing but speculation about what was going to happen. Speculation is fine when it is about space colonies and artificial intelligence, but there is only so much you can speculate on Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. Who will win? How will they win? Is one of them really going to win? I haven’t heart this many questions about 70-year-old people since I worked in a nursing home.

Many people are happy with how 2016 turned out. Others are, to say the least, disappointed. I for one am just glad its over.

2016 ruined cable news, my preferred source of background noise. Maybe without a contentious election, news ratings will decline and my precious cable news will return to its previous state. Somehow, I don’t think that is going to happen, though. I guess, if I have too, I can learn to listen to the Weather Channel.