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Should we avoid the news?I made this poll on Linkedin and these were the results: Limit, 15 minutes twice daily: 42% (18 votes) No, we must stay fully informed: 33% (14 votes) Yes, cut it out completely: 26% (11 votes)
It was so close! And sparked comments: Try to balance being informed with keeping your sanity and not being totally overwhelmed. It will look different for everyone. - Jon Morgan. Constantly checking the news can really mess with you. When you’re always reading about terrible things happening, your body goes into stress mode—like you’re facing an actual threat. Over time, that keeps your stress hormones elevated, which can leave you feeling anxious, exhausted, or depressed. The weird thing is, our brains are naturally drawn to bad news because we evolved to watch out for danger. That’s why it’s so easy to get sucked into doomscrolling even when it makes us feel awful. And most of the time, you’re just reading about problems without being able to actually do anything about them, which makes the whole thing feel even worse. - Karrie-Ann Fox I think the news is total scaremongering, creating unnecessary fear. The world's a beautiful place without it… get out and enjoy it 😁 - Kyla Blackmore I think we should be discerning about the content we let into our lives. Most MSM 'news' is half-truth at best. It's there to distract and scare. We'd be better off focusing on our own lives and doing what we can to improve them and help others, and appreciating every day. - Eleanor Goold I feel it's down entirely to the individual, not a one-size-fits-all. And it's difficult for me to pick one of these because all feel like they imply a responsibility! 😅 I've had periods of my life where I've shut it out completely, and I felt like the important stuff would still reach me anyway. It did. Now I want to be immersed in it though, and I feel kind of indifferent. Like an acceptance rather than desensitisation. - James Tickett
Over on my Facebook, two seemingly opposing points of view led to an understanding consensus: Keith Blakemore-Noble came in with strong statement: Avoiding all the news is an incredibly privileged position to be able to take. It says that you have sufficient privilege that whatever happens won’t personally adversely affect you. Most of us do not have such privilege in this world. I asked: I completely understand what you're saying, but isn't it true some things in certain areas in random lives away from our own... we truly can do nothing about? Isn't it true I can't keep updated AND take action with absolutely every battle, everywhere, all the time? Keith replied: oh it's absolutely true that there is a LOT we can't do anything about. Doesn't mean we should stick our heads blissfully in the sand and do nothing about anything, though, surely? I'm not advocating that we should "take up every battle everywhere all the time". That would be futile and highly damaging. Of course, we can't devote every waking hour to studying the news, and spending too much time watching it would be rather harmful to us as individuals; equally harmful is ignoring it completely, however - harmful to us as individuals and to society as a whole. --- Vic Sol Stedje disagreed as they avoid the news precisely because it affects them so much. However, "I wouldn't advocate that everyone stick their head in the sand, either. As a society, we need to stay informed. (I do talk to other people in the world and all, but even that can lead to breakdowns over how dysfunctional and dystopian our current world is.) But that doesn't mean everyone who avoids the news is a privileged brat." Keith replied: And that's the point I am making - as a society we need to stay informed. As that society is made up of each of us, we each need to stay informed to whatever degree we are able. Alas, it is increasingly popular these days to adopt the whole head-in-the-sand "Oh I don't bother with the news" approach many others advocate, and that is to society's and our own massive detriment. I totally get that the news is often deeply unpleasant both personally for many others. But that knowledge is essential if we are to be able to have a chance of making a better world for the future. I repeat - I am not saying we should hitch ourselves to the news channels 24x7, of course not! And different people will have different bandwidth for understanding what is going on around us, of course. Vic: I agree with that. It's the same mindset as the whole "Oh I don't do politics". Politics affect every aspect of our lives, how can anyone just, like, opt out of it entirely? Personally, I don't read or watch the news myself unless I hear about something specific that I need to know more about. But big stuff does filter through to me, and I'm on some emailing lists (e.g. Mermaids, ACLU, stuff like that) where I get notified about things that are specifically relevant to me. --- I'm of the view that we're currently living in a dystopia, just a hidden-in-plain-sight one, and that's hard on my heart. And I think it's hard on a lot of people even though they may not realise how dystopian their lives really are. So they "check out" of reality to whatever extent because if you don't know something's wrong then how do you even fix it. If you think it's a personal failing instead of a societal problem then it wouldn't occur to you to fight against it. ...That got a bit deep. But I think the roots to news avoidance are that deep. Keith: I suspect our positions are probably closer than they might have first appeared, really. Completely with you on the whole "Oh I don't do politics" thing too - they go hand in hand, really. You also illustrate how getting news and keeping abreast of the news does not have to mean watching the news channels constantly (indeed they can often be the worst place to get the news, depending upon the channels, but that's another issue) - you get your news via newsletters, mailing lists, etc, so you are still keeping abreast of relevant (to you) current affairs and news - which is very different from the people who just go around in blissful and privileged ignorance of everything that's happening. |
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News agendas and economic pathways IN PAWTNERSHIP WITH WEALTH & FREEDOM IPR Wealth & Freedom Intuitive Public Radio (IPR) is run by Megan Elizabeth Morris and Kian Xie in a (free) Telegram group where people explore, discuss and discover how to create wealth that nourishes freedom for ourselves, those we love, and our global community. I asked about balancing our capacity and bandwidth against the 24/7 cycle of news (and if avoiding or curating the news is a way to take back control).
Kian Xie answered: "Institutional news, for-profit news, capitalist-driven news, government-driven news, of which corporations and governments are customers... There might be a little tug of war, a little push and pull between competing interests, such as political parties, leaders, competing corporations, there might be a little bit of that… but no matter who's pulling the string, the underlying premise is the same. And it's that they want to purchase our attention. Our attention is hugely valuable to them. The attention of the people as a whole is so valuable to these media entities. So that desire to buy our time, or even steal our time, is woven into the news stories that they curate for us and create for us." "When we take the curation power of the news back into our own hands, when we choose what news to pay attention to (and avoid), whatever that might be for us, we're taking a step towards acting in our own interests. So I don't believe there's any right or wrong way to go about consuming or not consuming news. I don't have any specific recommendations because this has to be tailored to each person's individual interests in how they want their life to go and how they want to drive all kinds of outcomes in their lives. What do we want more of in our life? How does the economic flow work in our personal life and what keeps us going, not just in the money realm; but in the health realm, in the feelings realm, in the personal relationships realm, what do we want to strengthen? The more conscious we can be of those things and then curate the media we consume and the news we pay attention to based on that, the more exciting experiences we can have in line with our own interests, the more we can steer our own ship in the direction we want to go in." Recently in the Telegram, Megan Elizabeth Morris spoke about stress-testing, which I thought was relevant to the idea of absorbing constant news stories and messages 24/7: "We might be told [Editor's note: by the news] this is positive stress to have to navigate this volatile and damaging thing… Stress testing, fire testing, resilience testing… helps us move through the difficult experience and then stabilise stronger after that experience has completed. If we allow exploitative stressors to proliferate in an environment, we are not engaging in effective pressure testing."
"...what we know is that true pressure-testing gives us an increase in stability, and an increase in knowledge of our capacity… we call this the intuitive economic because it's the most resilient and capable ecosystem of economic exchange that we can imagine to be possible."
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But what if we all did?!Why these people stopped "I stopped watching the news 5 months ago. Life got better." Lifelong news junkie (39) on Reddit in 2025: "I used to be obsessive about watching the news. All the cable networks, scrolling through Twitter/x, etc. I kept it on my TV from morning till night… I enjoyed being informed so I could engage in discussion intelligently." "But in the past few years, it became exhausting for me. The pervasive negativity got to a point where I just felt bad all the time. And then I started to shift my focus away from it to my life— and focusing more on things that make me happy and get me closer to my goals. And I have to say, this past five months has been better mentally and emotionally than any in my life." "Turning it off was probably one of the best decisions I’ve ever made. I’m calm, optimistic, and feel like I have more control over my life. I still care about what happens in the world. It’s not possible to block it out— and I wouldn’t want to. But there are better ways to get information without watching the cable news circus every day, which is engineered for entertainment, ratings and profit— not the common good." Nathaniel Drew (filmmaker, YouTuber, storyteller) made this video "Here's why I stopped watching the news" in 2019: "Since I was a little kid I've associated the news on TV with a sinking feeling there's something about it that would scare me. Not just the terrible things that I was seeing, but how there seemed to be a never-ending supply of it… Things really seemed to reach a boiling point for me personally during the 2016 presidential elections. I was glued to the news trying to understand what was going on. I'm horrified by most of what I saw." "I started to see the consequences of this. I could feel myself growing more resentful and pessimistic and also cynical. I was becoming less trustful about people and about the world." Often the first objection to avoiding the news is the obligation as a citizen to stay informed. On that, he says: "my perspective started to shift… When you watch the news you're letting someone else decide what's important and what's worth your attention… And usually it's the most extreme people and the most extreme images to get all the screen time, the bold red all caps headlines. I'm not advocating for ignorance or denial. I'm just saying that I don't buy into the sensationalization. How is the news helping me? It's a bunch of problems and no solutions." So last year, he says he started to phase out the news, uninstalled apps, switched off, and left rooms where the news was on. "The first thing that I realized once I was finally able to detox from the endless stream of news and updates was how unimportant 99% of it is. Humans did okay for thousands of years without knowing about every disaster every hour. I don't think our biological hardware is properly equipped for that deluge of information." (3:05) [Editor's note: the next Pawsitive News will explore more about the effect on our health.] "…it's very important for all of us to make an effort to take care of [our minds], to take care of what goes into our minds and how we treat ourselves." (5:17) He found not following the news frees up a lot of time and energy to apply to more practical, concrete things in life. "I feel like my outlook on things has lightened up a little bit too. The world's not ending yet. I see a lot of people trying to figure things out for themselves and it's encouraging." (3:40) Journalist and photographer Anita Chaudhuri kicked her news addiction and discovered different ways to make a difference. She writes in The Guardian in 2024: "For as long as I can remember, I have been addicted to broadcast news… It was a habit that was formed long before I became a journalist. So, being a news addict seemed normal to me – until one day, a few months ago, I burst into tears while watching a broadcast." She was taking a mindfulness-based stress reduction course by Jon Kabat-Zinn and experimented with 20 minute meditations at different times of the day, and was shocked to notice her anxieties teeming even a couple of hours after consuming news. "The discovery troubled me, but also elicited a sense of self-righteousness. “Well, OK, it has a negative effect, but we should all be caring about the suffering of others.” But, eventually, I decided to impose a blanket ban on all current affairs and radio for a week, to see if it made any difference. It wasn’t easy – especially first thing in the morning. Yet the impact was immediate: it felt as if I had finally stopped banging my head against a brick wall." She decided to set aside one hour each day to only read print media and discovered she could focus more clearly and dwell less on fear and drama. "In practice it wasn’t that easy. I realised how much I was in the habit of listening to news, reading the paper and doomscrolling at the same time. When I forced myself to focus on only one thing, I realised that I could recall details of what I had read more easily. It also felt weirdly satisfying." "Soon after my big switch-off, I started to brainstorm ways to contribute to the causes I care most about – volunteering, participating in sponsored runs, selling unwanted items then donating the proceeds to charity were just three ideas I came up with. Now that my news intake is no longer all-consuming, I feel as though I have the capacity to make a small but tangible real-world difference. And I don’t tend to burst into tears while watching TV any more, either." The usefulness of trying to care about too many things is tackled by Oliver Burkeman in his book Meditations for Mortals. In a chapter entitled “You can’t care about everything: on staying sane when the world’s a mess”, he writes that he first noticed how our relationship with current affairs had changed in 2016 after the Brexit referendum and the election of Donald Trump. “It wasn’t simply that people were addicted to doomscrolling, although they certainly were. It was that they had started living inside the news." In the VI-Control forum, senior member soundofmaw wrote in 2024: "Several months ago I turned off the news. It occurred to me that it was mostly negative, often borderline propaganda (depending on your source), and left me in a bad/depressing mood afterwards. I also found I was spending too much time consuming news." Aside from IT news (for career), VI-Control and other music forums, they avoid news sites/videos/radio. Benefits - My mood is overall more positive - Fewer bouts of depression/less severe - Less anxiety/worry - Less general fear and tend to have a more positive view of other people - I have more time to spend on music and engaging with other people in real life Negatives - I don’t know what’s going on in the world unless I hear it from others or see a headline here or there while on other sites. I don’t regret my decision so far. What would happen if everyone just stopped watching the news? (asked on Quora in 2019) Answer by Jordan Ojalehto: I LIKE this. I bet: People would spend less money People would like their neighbors more People would start to read more books People would be happier with who they are People would start to realize that they arent actually very well informed about a lot of important things People would spend more time having face to face conversations The news would start making up scarier and more threatening stories to try and force people to watch it The news would spend a LOT of money and get very creative with new ways to persuade people to watch it. This would probably involve unprecedented absurd scandals and sensationalism It would be a fascinating experiment that we would all learn a lot from. I wonder if there's any possible way to orchestrate something like this. But then again… one day in 1930, there was no news! |
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“Evening news is where they begin with 'Good evening' and then proceed to tell you why it isn't.” (oft-cited joke!) |
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What's the alternative?A more "pawsitive" balance Yes, I see the irony. I'm writing an email version of a curated newspaper, while telling you not to follow the news. :) Well, the raison d'etre of Pawsitive News was to offer an alternative. You could think of it as a form of resistance or counter-news against the feeling that we are bombarded with messages that the world is bad, that humanity is bad, and that we're all doomed. I was told I was "too nice to be a journalist". But what if that was my crucial ingredient for my journalism, and for life itself? For me, looking at the news feels like a tidal wave of despair, shock, cynicism, disaster... In the world, in the news, in economics, in politics, in my industry (marketing, content, writing). You don't need me to tell you that. My "pawsitive news" email gave me a reason to LOOK AT good things. It's made my heart a little warmer. It's given me a little joy. Regularly. "It's the news, but hopecore." Pawsitive News came from despair. Headline after headline, we hear the bad stuff. We hear the worst about groups of people. But why don't we hear the best about them? The achievements, the joy, the improvements, the compassion. On the front pages of newspapers, before the scroll of news sites, in the list of "most read", The good news, if it even makes it to the news, is overcast by despair and shock. But it's still happening! Why is a celebration of humanity overshadowed by the worst of us? It's like how we criticise ourselves far more than we allow ourselves a moment to be pleased. I wanted to change that. Studies show when you see more positive content in social media, such as images of a pink sunset, you are more likely to post uplifting messages yourself. Whereas if your feed has more negativity, such as complaints about a long queue, you are more likely to create negative posts yourself. The good news; positive emotions, such as hope, are powerful in inducing people to act to find solutions. Being aware of the close relationship between people’s emotional state and how they process information can help us frame our messages more effectively and become conscientious agents of change, says Tali Sharot, director of the Affective Brain Lab and associate professor of cognitive neuroscience at University College London. Clinical social worker and psychotherapist Chase Cassine says humans have a natural inclination to focus (and ruminate) on negativity more than positivity, which psychology calls the negativity bias. “Inadvertently, the combination of negative bias and the algorithm of social media creates the obsessive and ritualistic behaviour of constantly scrolling to view distressing and negative content, which research has stated is linked to both physical and emotional health concerns. Look for some healthier outlets to help cope with things, like journaling, exercising, guided meditation and other mindfulness practices to stay present in the moment. Also, seeking out more hopeful and inspiring stories will provide balance.” A creative renaissance The news paints a bleak picture of the world. Struthless on YouTube would like to paint a different one; the big opportunity for artists in a recession. In 2025, the president of the world's richest country implemented tariffs and "effectively threw a temper tantrum against the global economy" with "the most egregious manipulation I've ever seen. And I mean both market manipulation and psychological manipulation." In this video, Struthless (Campbell Walker) wants to offer hope for anybody watching this, particularly creative people. "In order to retain some sanity, I think it's important we look at what we do control, what the people I respect control. And this is where we get to the good news. Because when the economy goes down, it doesn't take everything with it. There is something that goes the other way. If you look at the various recessions across the world in the past 100 years, each time the economy tanks, it seems that creativity has a moment… it's not just financial recessions. If you see a crisis, historically, that is a pretty good indication that you are about to see a creative renaissance." (2:07) We'll start with the big one, the Great Depression that led to the golden age of Hollywood and arguably Disney. Even constructivism, aka the great great great great great grandfather of Photoshop that came out of the Russian Revolution. After the Second World War, in Japan you get Kiraasawa, the blossoming of Japanese cinema. After Greece suffered their financial crisis in the 2000s, they had the Greek weird wave. Take Dog Tooth by Yorgos Lentimos won so many awards. Pretty much put Greek cinema on the map. The economic turbulence of the 1970s gave us punk. Not just the music, but the ethos, the mindset. Probably the creative explosion that best exemplifies this is hip-hop. Arguably the most, popular genre of music today.
The financial crisis of 2008… and blogs. "I remember hearing a lot: "There are no jobs. There are no jobs. There are no jobs." And so, I'd sort of resigned to the fact that there were no jobs. But the thing I remember most from that era was blogs." "Blogs were so inspiring. Because they were complaining about the same things that I was going through. They were talking about the fact that they couldn't get a job and meanwhile they were getting attention on the internet and I was like wow this is incredible." "There was such an emphasis on curation……you had to find the person who gave it to you and that created an ecosystem where the currency wasn't money because money nobody had. The currency was taste and creativity and passion. And it was cool as hell." (3:51)
Good things we get from financial recession/when money stops coming to the arts, by Struthless: Commercial incentives to make slop die. Vulnerability of the individual - people are more eager to connect on a human level and seek something more important than money. People crave new ideas. People want the light in the dark.
"The people who actually win are the people who've got some freaking soul in their body, man. They were people who were making legitimate cultural capital. And that's not nothing. I know it might sound like some hopecore optimism, but it's not nothing." (6:03) "And maybe it's wishful thinking, but I don't know, if you look at history, man, I truly do believe that these are the perfect conditions for a creative renaissance." (7:42) |
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