It’s not vanity, it’s a desire to understand my world and my place within it.
What IS vanity is imagining that one’s own tastes are the only tastes that matter in the world.
I'm confused by how differently some otherwise smart people view the world than I do. My wife and family, by some definitions, are worthless. They have no economic value. But I look at them and feel that we lead lives of meaning and purpose every day. We know why we are alive and we are living up to it. If that's unproductive, then productivity itself is, I declare, vanity.
For instance, I think there is a difference between reading some news daily and consuming only news. My father was in the latter category growing up -- I never really saw him read a book, but he was always reading a paper or listening to/watching a news program. Personally I find that I get more from reading books as they're afforded the space to go into depth on a topic. I think the author is trying to point out that that surface level news consumption is fine but probably not as beneficial as we might want to tell ourselves.
The one thing I've found most helpful news-wise, though, is that I find that it's one of the better ways to learn a foreign language to an upper-intermediate or advanced level. I relied heavily on RFI and other news outlets when learning French, with the added benefit that you're often getting international news the media doesn't report on here in the US.
> In business, a “vanity metric” is a statistic that sounds good but is not very useful.
It's not about you being "vain" for reading the newspaper, it's just a parallel to another widely used term the author co-opted.
“Recreation” is perhaps a good word.
But I also use “vanity” for doing serious things, for a non-serious purpose in a similar way. I.e. one day I would like to be able to afford to have some “vanity businesses”, regardless of profitability, like bar I have designed, a winery, etc.
Pretty common hobbies for the wealthy.
Those are not things that drive me, and not for appearance sake (I.e. not that kind of vanity). But if I had enough to throw in this direction without any risk to myself, I would enjoy that.
And then he suggests that reading the news is a vanity activity.
My comment is perfectly on point. I think he is engaging in a vanity activity, by his own definition, when he suggests that reading the news is a vanity activity.
It's fine to have an opinion and a way of looking at the world. My objection is when a person claims that opinion is something more rational than it is-- while pissing on the choices other people make.
You in particular getting as much value out of the activity as you think you do doesn't negate the point of the article. Exceptions make rules, and the author said "most people".