When I get together with friends, I often find that one of the conclusions that we’ve arrived at independently is how much better our lives are when we don’t watch too much news.
Don’t get me wrong. Being uninformed or ignorant is no badge of honor. At one time, I considered myself a bit of a news junkie, and I still subscribe to a physical newspaper as well as reading some others regularly online. But I can decide which articles I will read and how much time I give to reading them.
In recent years, the first half in local news show is often given over to descriptions of crimes, motor vehicle crashes, building collapses, and natural disasters. National news, especially cable news, reflects the polarization in this country and the world – and typically bombards us with a news diet that is often one-sided, filled with anger at the other side, and leaves you with a general sense of pessimism about the future and whether humankind is even worth saving. Feel good stories are not the norm.
I know that the news organizations are businesses who depend on listenership and advertising dollars to exist. Thus, they are giving the public what they think it wants. Whether they have an obligation to see their role as being primarily educative, informative, and at least semi-objective is a topic for another time, but each of us has the right to determine how much time we are going to devote to the toxic environment that has largely been created by TV news.
I have found that there are several benefits to at least partially detoxing from TV news. The most obvious is that you gain more time in your life to do productive and/or fun things. There is also a stress management benefit. Since there is very little you can do to immediately act upon the anger at the criminals or politicians (and sometimes they are both the same) that is triggered by the news, you will likely feel much less stressed if the negative news is not constantly put in front of you. Also, you will sleep better – particularly if you don’t watch the news before bedtime. You should actually have a winding down routine before bedtime that doesn’t include screen time of any type. I’m sure that there are some additional benefits that you can suggest – but this is a start.
If TV is your primary source of getting news, I encourage you to do it in a way that doesn’t drain you. Unless there is a world crisis, an election, or a major weather event, don’t spend hours watching TV news. Pick out selective limited times during the day. You don’t have to give up your partisanship if a particular cable channel appears to you, but mix in some objective reporting and analysis too. And appreciate and make positive use of the gift that you are giving yourself by adding free time during the day.