TOW #14 – “News is Bad for you – and giving up reading it will make you happier” by Rolf Dobelli (Written Text)

          First published in an essay, The Art of Thinking Clearly: Better Thinking, Better Decisions, TheGuardian uploaded an excerpt of the nonfiction by Rolf Dobelli, a Swiss author and businessman. The article explains that the obsession over news is unhealthy and unnecessary, so those who find themselves addicted to reading the news every day should cut their ties with the habit. It has become apparent that, as the internet only grows more widespread and popular among the masses, Dobelli notices a group who cannot seem to stop browsing through all the flashy headlines. He recognizes the negative outcomes of this detrimental behavior, and identifies each one while explaining why this should directly attribute to changing his audience’s mind about reading up on the news so often.

          The structure is simple and straight to the point. Dobelli makes his argument seem so as well with the way he bolds each reason as a header and compacts the effect into what can only be a single short paragraph in order to argue why consistently reading the news is unhealthy. He includes himself in the audience, implying that this pertains to everyone as well as the author with his use of “we”, “us”, and “our”, and it makes his argument more believable when he attempts to bring the target audience into it at the conclusion of each reason. The method attempts to eliminate the barrier between the argument and the reader, letting the audience know that what he says does not count them as a special exception.

          His use of examples and personal experience is what drives his arguments, and in many of these reasons he gives some sort of anecdote to emphasize his claim for less news consumption as well as put the various ideas in perspective. Although each of these anecdotes are effective in immediately making a point for his target audience, the lack of expert testimony throughout the excerpt does not boost his credibility much as someone who wants to seem like he knows what he is talking about. He does, however, personally claim to have experienced what his audience may be currently experiencing, and with that given connection, the expert testimony may not be needed so much for persuading their minds.