Our obsession with news

Here’s Mitchell Stephens from his classic text A History of the News:

It might be surprising to learn that more than 275 years ago the English — though they had no radio, television, satellites or computers, and though men obtained much of their news at the coffeehouse — thought their era was characterized by an obsession with news…. Nor were the English the only people before us who thirsted after news. In the middle of the fourth century B.C., for example, Demosthenes portrayed his fellow Athenians as preoccupied with the exchange of news…. Observers have often remarked on the fierce concern with news that they find in preliterate and semiliterate peoples.

As quoted in ‘The Elephant in the Brain: Hidden Motives in Everyday Life’ by Kevin Simler and Robin Hanson.

According to them, we converse and share news and information to find good allies and advertise ourselves as allies. We speak up to show off our “tools”, to obtain prestige. (pp. 157–158)