Detachment: A Virtue?

I have been thinking a lot about how attached one should be to the world outside of the immediate family, friends, neighbors, and community. It is a difficult balance because it seems like my natural tendency is to attach myself to the virtual world, via the internet and other media, and find out about the world outside my own. For example, anytime I have some free time, my first reaction is to check the news--I go on RealClearPolitics.com and check national and international news. I spend 1-2 hours a day doing this, sometimes more. Much of what I read in a given day is a predictable re-analysis of events that I have already read about and of which I have already heard most of the opinions. To be honest, most of it isn't even news gathering, it is instead finding out what people I've never met think about things that they will probably never influence. I chalk up this practice to being "well-informed".

Recently, I have wondered about the irony of being "well-informed". It has a connotation of being expansive and cosmopolitan, never limited and local. It places the events of nation as superior to the events of the neighborhood. Is that justified?

I have also wondered about the idea of being well-informed in the context of the Gospel. We are told to "read from the best books" and understand "the perplexities of nations" (See D&C 88:118 and 79, respectively) but I have a hard time believing that this means following the minutia of the 24-hour news cycle. Surely, "well-read" must be different that "well-informed".

Any thoughts on this topic?

Thanks. (I hope Paigey returns to the blog soon. I miss her posts as much as you do I'm sure.)