It is Healthy to be Weird
I have been an avid reader of news since the ripe ole age of eight years old. Every Friday in grade 2 we had ‘current events’ where we had to choose an interesting news story from the week and present it to the class. Even back then I always looked for odd news or strange local stories.
As I grew older I started following daily news and because it was all ‘bad news’ I just gave up on it around 2 years ago. Then I stumbled onto websites that offered news of the weird and I was hooked. Since I started reading odd, strange news exclusively I have found I am a much happier person.
So it is no surprise to me that the University of Cohaina released a report that seems to prove just this. The followed the mood of 121 subjects over a period of two years. The first year they were asked to read 30 minutes of mainstream (mostly bad news) and they did a mood analysis quiz daily, with overall happiness ranked at 67%. In the second year they spent 30 minutes a day reading odd news stories (they were asked to avoid mainstream news on TV and prints) and almost immediately their scores rose to the 74% range and eventually topped out in the last three months to 76% on average.
So drop that newspaper and don’t bother reading about the financial collapse nor about the 300th murder rape in your city. Instead, head over to an alternative news site and read something that will put a smile on your face.