How the News Took Over Our Lives
Some people live their lives in the news. They spend an inordinate amount of time consuming news and allow themselves to be emotionally manipulated. As a result, they are always mad and upset about negative things in the world.
For some, this has become so all-consuming that the news has become their focal point in life, more real than their lives, to the point where, “the news was somehow realer to them than the concrete world of their work, family and friends.” The News ≠ Your Life, Oliver Burkeman.
When the Headlines Take Over: Stories from Real Life
I know several people who have suffered from an obsession with and emotional response to the news.
I have a friend of over twenty years who was a very gentle, kind, and caring soul. Now, her continual emotional reactions to the news have turned her into a negative, anxious, depressed, and hateful person. Her personality has completely changed. She’s not a happy person anymore.
Another friend is suffering from depression as a result of his emotional responses to and obsession with the news. Fortunately, he realizes the cause of the problem and is seeking a way out. He was raised to be focused on the news, and it became a part of his identity. When the nature of news changed from simple reporting of facts to emotional manipulation and spin, what was a positive became a negative.
We Were Taught Good Citizens Stay Informed of Current Events in the News
When I was growing up I was taught that “good citizens” regularly watch the news and stay abreast of current events.
When I was an airman in the U.S. Air Force in the late 1970s, my unit nominated me for Airman of the Quarter for the base. I studied and was drilled on current events to prepare me to meet a board of Non-Commissioned Officers. It was assumed that any Airman of the Quarter must be current on all the latest events.
Why the News Feels Different Now
But something has gone wrong over the years. The news has changed.
Although many of us grew up with the civic duty to watch the news, it’s not the same news that we started out with when we were younger. It’s very different from the objective reporting of facts we grew up with:
• There is literally an arms race for our attention. With an overwhelming number of news sources to choose from, sources will do anything to gain our attention.
• It’s all based on keeping us locked into the news as long as possible to increase advertising revenue. The more they can manipulate our emotions and make everything ‘horrible terrible,’ the longer we’ll continue to watch or read.
• The consequences of news events are regularly exaggerated. Every news item becomes a crisis of world-threatening proportions.
• Headlines are designed to be clickbait, and the content is designed to make you angry and emotionally hook you.
Taking Back Your Life from the Headlines
If you recognize yourself as ‘living in the news,’ what can you do to take back your life?
• Wean yourself from your news obsession. Limit your consumption of the news. As Buddhist monk Haemin Sunim writes, “Remember, we have a choice not to be aware of every piece of negative news in the world at all times.” When Things Don’t Go Your Way: Zen Wisdom for Difficult Times, Haemin Sunim and Charles La Shure.
• Don’t watch streaming news.
• Remove news apps from your home page on your iPhone or iPad.
• Find the least politically biased and emotionally manipulative news sources. Look for sources that don’t indulge in clickbait headlines.
• Set a hard time limit for how long you will look at new sources. Set a timer on your Apple Watch or a kitchen timer. When it goes off, you stop, no excuses.
• Use the Screen Time feature on Apple devices to limit your time with news apps. For instructions on how to set it up, see A Tool to Bring Self-Discipline to Our Use of Social Media.
• Don’t allow yourself to be emotionally engaged with everything. Recognize most of what is on the news cannot be affected or controlled by you. Don’t allow yourself to immediately respond with anger to every provocation. It’s not a moral virtue to get mad about every perceived injustice or bad thing that happens in the world. You can’t be angry about everything all the time. It’s okay to pick your battles selectively.
Distinguish between the facts and the journalist’s interpretation of the facts. You don’t necessarily know a journalist’s hidden agenda, and it’s not unusual for a story to be spun to further the journalist’s personal political agenda. Also, sometimes the story you’re reacting to is, in reality, misinformation.
• Focus on your real life, not news life. Distinguish between your life and the life of news. In other words, your home, your family, your work, your relationships.
• Recognize what we have control over, what we have limited control over, and what we have no control over. We have no control over most of the things we read in the news. Many times, the news is reporting things that have already happened. They’re in the past, and there’s no way we can change them.
• Get involved in some real-life volunteering. You don’t accomplish anything by just getting angry. Instead, get practical. If there is an issue or a need you choose to become involved in, do so in a practical way. That’s where we as limited humans can make a difference in our world.
Reacting Isn’t Living
Living your life in the news isn’t living at all. It’s reacting. It’s being swept along by headlines designed to provoke and divide.
It doesn’t have to be this way. Step back, limit your exposure, and focus on what matters—your family, your work, your relationships, and the people you encounter every day.
The world will continue to spin, with or without your attention to every piece of breaking news. But your life? That’s yours to live. Make it count.
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