a report on how I managed to avoid the US elections for 12 days
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I lost on Sunday, Nov 15 at 19:30. In a game with a lot of participants but no real rivals; just against the environment. The rules were simple: I had to be the last person on Earth to find out who won the US elections. It took me a while to write this report but here you go…
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I forgot the name of the game or where I first heard of it, but I believe it's traditionally played with the Superbowl results in a group of friends. Any spectacular, unavoidable event will do though. (Why there are few such events in Czech or German culture is another topic.)
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Last time I played was in 2016. Back then I survived only until noon after the election night but enjoyed the weirdest startup stand-up meeting ever. That's the main thrill of the game — it messes up your mind so nice. Or shifts the perspective, if you will.
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This year the conditions were ideal: working from home, not much to do outside. So to make it more interesting, I set to go on with my social life as I would normally do. I was meeting people and didn't try to avoid any conversation themes. But there was plenty of dos and donts:
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First, avoid all news sites and social media, obviously. Second, hide email subjects from your email program — a newsletter that spills the secret could arrive any minute. Not messaging with people seemed like too much isolation, so I just continued chatting as usual.
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Walking outside turned out to be fine too (no news-stands thesedays), same with most of online activity: magazines, blogs, searching, music… Just watch out for "trending topics" sections. In general, I'm grateful to everyone who's not trying to shove politics down your throat 24/7.
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The first two days were the hardest: I felt as if excluded from a fun party. Also I lost a source of distraction — I realized I had been checking the news each time I needed a short break from work. But I soon found many replacement activities:
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Longform articles, exhibition leaflets, notes from 2018, German vocabulary from 2017… I was occupied with some quality stuff but also just procrastinated. You see, the point was not to become a more focused and efficient person. This said, I did learn a few things:
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For instance letting people tell you international news in person is great. At some point a friend explained me everything about the latest development in the covid vaccine research that had apparently been happening. In his own words. Super enjoyable.
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But the most important moment came when the game was over and I started going through all that I missed. Excellent fresh look on what is relevant. Surprisingly, there was only about 20 articles I ended up reading. Nothing about the election itself. Plus a pile of memes.
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Funny thing is how the emotional aspect of the news got lost. It's barely possible to see 2 weeks old social media content. And if you do find it, you just don't feel it: I guess the waiting for the results was suspenseful? Being slow really breaks the news cycle engagement game.
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Two more findings: Content curation is great — a weekly newsletter compiled by a human is an ideal news format. And then categorization — the web needs more of it. I wish it was easier to filter only content (news, social media) about let's say art and new music.
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Anyway… that was the game. I lost quite unspectacularly: A friend mentioned that she had this wish for Trump to lose and that it came true. I was like: Hm.