Life Time fitness chain removes news channels from all TVs as constant news not healthy

Life Time fitness chain removes news channels from all TVs as constant news not healthy

Life Time fitness, a chain of gyms in the U.S. and Canada has removed all cable news channels from the televisions displayed throughout their facility, as customers complained that the constant barrage of news was not healthy.
Source: Life Time fitness chain blacks out all-news TV channels – StarTribune.com
That we need to be constantly entertained while doing something like exercise illustrates how ingrained media consumption (and manipulation!) has become.
But it is interesting to see that many others are fed up with the constant barrage of 24 x 7 “news” (I put that in quotes since most of it is now entertainment, not traditional news reporting).
Me – I go running. I do not even listen to music while running. Clearly, I am weird!

4 thoughts on “Life Time fitness chain removes news channels from all TVs as constant news not healthy

  1. When I walk, I “wear” my white ear buds. I love my walking time for my own thinking time. It’s my signal, “don’t bother me”. I’m not listening to anything but the sound of my feet and the chirp of the birds.

    1. Pretending to listen to keep other’s at bay. Not a bad idea! I am now thinking that the overwhelming presence of media in people’s lives is causing some pretty unfortunate mental health problems, nationwide. Many seem angry, scared, anxious or depressed – or all of those – that the seem to be careening out of control.

      1. I saw a statistic (very well could be fake) that 50% of the population says they are lonely. We had 6 friends over tonight to finish left over appetizers and cookies. Many topics are always discussed during evening gathers but yes, there is an uneasiness and fear in the air. In particular to how the US is now viewed globally and with fear of a nuclear war.

  2. The data point on “loneliness” appears to come from an American Osteopathic Association (AOA) survey, conducted by Harris. Their survey said that 1 in 3 self report feeling lonely at least once per week and that up to 72% express feeling lonely at some time (per day? per week, per month? per year? per lifetime? Doesn’t say). (https://www.osteopathic.org/inside-aoa/news-and-publications/media-center/2016-news-releases/Pages/10-11-survey-finds-nearly-three-quarters-of-americans-feel-lonely.aspx – the survey was done as a private client survey for AOA and no further details are available from Harris.
    I have learned that polls are mostly tools for public relations/propaganda. Did the pollster define “loneliness” for the surveyed participant or was it up to the target’s interpretation? Was it an indicator that someone felt lonely at some point (yes) but not lonely all the time? The only public information about this survey tells us little, unfortunately.
    In the past I learned a well publicized poll claiming that 1 in 7 or 1 in 6 Americans go to bed hungry every night was completely and utterly false yet it appears on posters, even highway billboards, as recently as last November. It is distributed every year in news stories. For details on this false poll, see https://socialpanic.org/2016/03/10/1-in-6-americans-do-not-go-to-bed-hungry-every-night/.
    Another widely reported survey said Denmark was the happiest country in the world. Even the survey authors said their poll does not actually measure happiness. What it did, effectively, was define happiness as living in a Scandinavian country. There after, countries that are most similar to a Scandanavian country ranked high! Duh! (See https://socialpanic.org/2016/03/17/denmark-fairy-tales-is-denmark-the-happiest-country-because-of-this-no/)
    FYI I have no fears of a nuclear war suddenly breaking out because I don’t read the propaganda stories intentionally aiming to incite fear, to use fear as a way of motivating actions.
    I do have genuine fears that non-stop propaganda messaging from so many will cause entire societies to take actions based on untrue or exaggerated assertions.

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