>> Eventually I realized that fretting about the state of the world was keeping my mind whirring and preventing me from settling down. <<
That is a common and rapidly increasing problem. When the news is depressing and nerve-wracking, it can threaten your health.
>>Then I saw a post from someone saying that they were cutting the news out of their life for a while, for the sake of their own peace of mind. <<
I gave up on mainstream news many years ago when its quality declined to the point that I no longer had anything to say about it other than "Da, eto Pravda" (literally "That's the Truth" but colloquially "bullshit") and "Panem et circenses" (bread and circuses). It just doesn't hold any value for me nowadays.
In current context, there are two more factors. 1) Wasting my time on the mainstream news drains time and energy from areas where I could be learning or doing something useful. 2) I can't fix the mess of politicians acting like little boys writing their name in pee, but I can deny them something they want very much: my attention.
I prefer to look for news in places that have information which is actually useful to me. Online, like Goodgoodgood for uplifting news. Science Daily provides a steady stream of things that are interesting punctuated by things that are actionable. EarthSky offers pretty pictures and events I might want to go outside and watch. In hardcopy, The Nation and In These Times cover current events, mostly things people are doing to try to fix them.
Conversely, when I am writing about problems, I try to provide some idea what people can do about them. This is popular with my readers. You don't have to waste your energy trying to flog an unwilling government into action; there are things you can do personally. I can't make the government treat immigrants as human beings, but I can shop at ethnic restaurants and stuff a few extra dollars in the tip jar at ethnic restaurants.
>> But the people who were cutting out this influence from their online lives were framing it more in terms of self-care. Protecting their health which was suffering because of this psychic onslaught. And that's how I'm choosing to frame this for myself: self-care. <<
Thoughts
That is a common and rapidly increasing problem. When the news is depressing and nerve-wracking, it can threaten your health.
>>Then I saw a post from someone saying that they were cutting the news out of their life for a while, for the sake of their own peace of mind. <<
I gave up on mainstream news many years ago when its quality declined to the point that I no longer had anything to say about it other than "Da, eto Pravda" (literally "That's the Truth" but colloquially "bullshit") and "Panem et circenses" (bread and circuses). It just doesn't hold any value for me nowadays.
In current context, there are two more factors. 1) Wasting my time on the mainstream news drains time and energy from areas where I could be learning or doing something useful. 2) I can't fix the mess of politicians acting like little boys writing their name in pee, but I can deny them something they want very much: my attention.
I prefer to look for news in places that have information which is actually useful to me. Online, like Goodgoodgood for uplifting news. Science Daily provides a steady stream of things that are interesting punctuated by things that are actionable. EarthSky offers pretty pictures and events I might want to go outside and watch. In hardcopy, The Nation and In These Times cover current events, mostly things people are doing to try to fix them.
Conversely, when I am writing about problems, I try to provide some idea what people can do about them. This is popular with my readers. You don't have to waste your energy trying to flog an unwilling government into action; there are things you can do personally. I can't make the government treat immigrants as human beings, but I can shop at ethnic restaurants and stuff a few extra dollars in the tip jar at ethnic restaurants.
>> But the people who were cutting out this influence from their online lives were framing it more in terms of self-care. Protecting their health which was suffering because of this psychic onslaught. And that's how I'm choosing to frame this for myself: self-care. <<
Exactly. You don't owe anyone your attention.