Changing my news consumption habit
F or most of my adult life I’ve been a news junkie. I currently subscribe to numerous online newspapers and news magazines—five at last count. I get “breaking news” in my inbox, and also pore over my weekly hard copy of Time Magazine as if I were being tested on its contents.
Recently, though, I’ve found myself pulling back on news. My lifelong addiction seems to be waning. When the latest issue of Time arrived in my mailbox with its digital photo of Trump morphing into Putin, I sighed and put the issue down.
The truth is, the news has been difficult lately. It makes me anxious. I’m worried about those children and families who were separated at the border. I’m concerned about Russia, gun laws and the sharply divisive politics in our country.
I’m not alone in this, of course. My own daughter is so news averse that she is often clueless when family discussions circle around to topics that are making national headlines. And recently my mother was aghast when a relative hadn’t heard of the Thai soccer team rescue.
“How could someone not know about that?” my mother asked.
“Some people don’t pay attention to news,” I responded. And for once, I found myself sympathizing with the news avoiders.
In the past, I always felt an intense disapproval for people who tell me they can’t or don’t follow the news. I’ve prided myself on keeping up with current events. So my sudden distaste for political news has me a bit baffled. On the one hand I feel pretty overwhelmed by the news and I just want a break from it. On the other, I believe it’s essential to be knowledgeable about our government and the issues of the day.
So, what to do? Well, it turns out that I’m not so news averse that I wouldn’t go directly to news sources to help me figure out the answer. And, I found a number of articles that address the subject of news fatigue.
Several articles pointed to the value of taking a break from the news, in this era when we face a daily barrage of headlines almost everywhere we turn — social media, email alerts, TV screens in stores and at the gas pump, even. And, of course, news pops up before our eyes every time we turn on our computers.
Whereas I once felt disgusted with people who completely avoided news, I now marvel at the feat. How could someone not know about the Thai soccer team in the cave? The story was playing on screens everywhere I turned! I became an expert on cave rescue techniques without even trying. I just kept being fed a daily diet of details about water levels, oxygen tanks and monsoons.
In my search for information about news avoidance I came across several articles that advocated taking “a news diet” to increase happiness. One in particular caught my attention. Published in The Guardian way back in 2013, the article was titled “News is bad for you—and giving up reading it will make you happier.”
The author, Rolf Dobelli, makes an interesting point, highlighting the value of long-form journalism that actually informs us about issues, as opposed to quick hits of news that often make us feel helpless, passive and confused.
While I don’t agree with the idea of “breaking up” with news completely, I do think the time has come for me to be more discerning about the news I take in. Less may actually be more when it comes to news. Trying to take an in-depth look at a few topics is probably a lot better than allowing myself to be flooded with massive amounts of information on every matter imaginable.
Will absorbing less news make me happier, though? Maybe sometimes. But I was pretty happy about how that soccer team rescue worked out. In the end, there will always be good news and bad news. We just need, now more than ever, to be discriminating about the quantity and quality of the news we follow.