Sorry I’ve haven’t written in so long. I haven’t had a lot
to say. Now something’s really bumming me out and I want to talk about it for a
bit.
I’ve noticed a growing trend on my social media feed, and I have some thoughts regarding the inverse relationship between people’s overall apparent happiness and how much they follow the news.
I “follow the news”. That is, I peruse a couple of news sites more-or-less daily, keeping an eye on the state of the world, but not investing a lot of myself into it. You might say that I get my news from the headlines. I don’t watch the news on TV.
I have friends and family who spend a LOT of time watching, reading, and listening to the news. If they are stationary, they are tuned into some news outlet. Their posts online are links to news, political, or religious articles. I’ve noticed that these people seem generally unhappier than other people that I associate with.
Admittedly, this is nowhere near being a scientific study and is purely anecdotal. I am making this connection because I used to be something of a political/news junkie myself. During that time, I was mostly miserable to be around. I spent a lot of time ingesting media that actually made me angry. Then, I’d walk around, grumbling, shaking my tiny fists at the sky, furious about all of these decisions that were being made that I MOST CERTAINLY DID NOT AGREE WITH!!!!!! GRRR!!!!!!!!! (Completely unnecessary exclamation points added for effect).
In some moment of clarity, I realized that 99.9(repeating)% of the things that I was SO angry about, truly had an infinitesimal ACTUAL effect on my life. Policies made by the fat old men in expensive suits didn’t change my home life one bit. The world, as they say, kept turning. I made the conscious decision to stop following politics. Almost overnight, I felt my blood pressure lowering, and my empathy toward my fellow man (even those of a *GASP* different political affiliation) growing. It stands as one of my better lifestyle choices.
Now, I keep seeing people that I really care about – people that I love – who are just really, really angry a lot of the time, and it’s always something from the news that they’re angry about. If you stop to think about it for a second, the “news” isn’t very new at all. It is pretty predictable. I’ve got tomorrow’s headlines all lined up for you:
1. The Middle East is a mess and, for the most part, all of them hate America. I’m trying to think of a time when this wasn’t true, and I’m coming up blank.
2. People from the political party (or parties) that you don’t belong to say things and make choices that you don’t agree with.
3.People from the political party that you align yourself with say things and make choices that you agree with.
In fact, items 2 and 3 make item 1 mostly redundant, but I think that it’s valid enough to leave in there. I contend that, if we can just take these as a given, we really don’t need to follow much of the stuff that’s in the news.
The last couple of times I’ve been somewhere where the news was playing (waiting rooms, etc.), the entire program consisted of talking head after talking head, repeating the same things over and over and over. I don’t understand how anyone can watch broadcast news coverage. It’s painfully obvious that they have nothing to say or to add to the equation, so they just say the same things on repeat, occasionally bringing out a new talking head to say the same thing again. Then, the host repeats everything the talking head just said back to them. Helpfully, there’s also a little scroll underneath to repeat it again, just in case you missed it.
Now, to the news junkie in my life: try to think of a time when ingesting the news has made you happy. Has there been a time when you truly felt better by reading the news? Has there been a time when talk radio made you happier with your life? Do any of these things happen consistently? I suspect not.
My suggestion is to take a step away from the news channels. Watch something else on TV. Read a fiction novel. Go for a walk. Whatever. Think of something that really does make you happy and do that thing instead. Then, when you post online, talk about THAT. Write a post about your passions and how good they make you feel. When you strike up a conversation, talk about what’s going right in your life. In your town. In the world.
Please, just stop adding to the negativity. There’s enough of that already. You know. You’ve seen it on the news.
I’ve noticed a growing trend on my social media feed, and I have some thoughts regarding the inverse relationship between people’s overall apparent happiness and how much they follow the news.
I “follow the news”. That is, I peruse a couple of news sites more-or-less daily, keeping an eye on the state of the world, but not investing a lot of myself into it. You might say that I get my news from the headlines. I don’t watch the news on TV.
I have friends and family who spend a LOT of time watching, reading, and listening to the news. If they are stationary, they are tuned into some news outlet. Their posts online are links to news, political, or religious articles. I’ve noticed that these people seem generally unhappier than other people that I associate with.
Admittedly, this is nowhere near being a scientific study and is purely anecdotal. I am making this connection because I used to be something of a political/news junkie myself. During that time, I was mostly miserable to be around. I spent a lot of time ingesting media that actually made me angry. Then, I’d walk around, grumbling, shaking my tiny fists at the sky, furious about all of these decisions that were being made that I MOST CERTAINLY DID NOT AGREE WITH!!!!!! GRRR!!!!!!!!! (Completely unnecessary exclamation points added for effect).
In some moment of clarity, I realized that 99.9(repeating)% of the things that I was SO angry about, truly had an infinitesimal ACTUAL effect on my life. Policies made by the fat old men in expensive suits didn’t change my home life one bit. The world, as they say, kept turning. I made the conscious decision to stop following politics. Almost overnight, I felt my blood pressure lowering, and my empathy toward my fellow man (even those of a *GASP* different political affiliation) growing. It stands as one of my better lifestyle choices.
Now, I keep seeing people that I really care about – people that I love – who are just really, really angry a lot of the time, and it’s always something from the news that they’re angry about. If you stop to think about it for a second, the “news” isn’t very new at all. It is pretty predictable. I’ve got tomorrow’s headlines all lined up for you:
1. The Middle East is a mess and, for the most part, all of them hate America. I’m trying to think of a time when this wasn’t true, and I’m coming up blank.
2. People from the political party (or parties) that you don’t belong to say things and make choices that you don’t agree with.
3.People from the political party that you align yourself with say things and make choices that you agree with.
In fact, items 2 and 3 make item 1 mostly redundant, but I think that it’s valid enough to leave in there. I contend that, if we can just take these as a given, we really don’t need to follow much of the stuff that’s in the news.
The last couple of times I’ve been somewhere where the news was playing (waiting rooms, etc.), the entire program consisted of talking head after talking head, repeating the same things over and over and over. I don’t understand how anyone can watch broadcast news coverage. It’s painfully obvious that they have nothing to say or to add to the equation, so they just say the same things on repeat, occasionally bringing out a new talking head to say the same thing again. Then, the host repeats everything the talking head just said back to them. Helpfully, there’s also a little scroll underneath to repeat it again, just in case you missed it.
Now, to the news junkie in my life: try to think of a time when ingesting the news has made you happy. Has there been a time when you truly felt better by reading the news? Has there been a time when talk radio made you happier with your life? Do any of these things happen consistently? I suspect not.
My suggestion is to take a step away from the news channels. Watch something else on TV. Read a fiction novel. Go for a walk. Whatever. Think of something that really does make you happy and do that thing instead. Then, when you post online, talk about THAT. Write a post about your passions and how good they make you feel. When you strike up a conversation, talk about what’s going right in your life. In your town. In the world.
Please, just stop adding to the negativity. There’s enough of that already. You know. You’ve seen it on the news.
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