How do you cope with the news?

[cumbriaisbest]

I feel utter despair. Really.

It’s barbaric.

By not watching any of it. The mass media is a vile and dangerous agenda pushing industry

i just watch once a day most of the time. I took new notifications off my phone.
There’s very little we can do about the majority of the headlines, I like to know what’s going on in the world but I can feel myself being drawn in to the depths of depression if I watch it more than once a day. And it’s behind my control so there’s no point in putting myself in that situation.

i know people who take no interest in the news at all and they manage!

It makes me glad that I have no children,

I haven't watched TV news since the start of the pandemic, because it's so tabloid-y and manipulative. I listen to Radio 4 news at 6pm, and read a couple of "broadsheet" newspapers (albeit online) everyday. I think that keeps me reasonably well informed, although I accept that there is always some bias.

Also think about how grim the news would have been in 1500, 1665, 1819, 1917, 1940 or 1978 (I remember that year - it was awful). The world is so much better now than just about any other time in history - we need to retain some perspective.

I don’t watch it on the tv or listen to it on the radio. I’m having a much happier life as a consequence.

Don’t watch it anymore. Doesn’t change anything seeing as I can’t influence anything in the world.

I change the channel and block media pages online. My worrying won’t alter a thing

Worrying won't change anything but you could lobby for change ...

I’m too busy coping with my own world to worry about the bigger picture to be honest. I’ve got young children, elderly ill parents and in-laws, a busy home to run, work to manage. The news barely touches the sides of my busy brain. I know that sounds ignorant, but I cant control it.

There have always been barbaric wars going on somewhere in the world. Always. The world is no worse than it's ever been. I choose to be optimistic and take comfort in the fact that in areas where there are only democracies, there is usually peace.
I don't consume much news anymore. I actually think obsessing about it adds to the misery with no benefit.
I choose to be like the Turkish man at the end of Voltaire's Candide ... and I just tend my own garden.

I don't have all that family responsibility any more. It was easier when I was getting them ready for Scout Camp or cooking up tea. You focus on them and not the other stuff.

Oldies died off,let go eventually at 97.

I gave up the news during Covid, and I felt so much better for it. I used to be very politically active but I’m so disillusioned now. I still scan the papers daily and seek out any news that I’m interested in, but the 24/7 constant bombardement of doom is too much.

On a related note, does anyone else get a wave of anxiety at the BBC Breaking News app? I uninstalled that too. It was rarely important news anyway, but that sound is so jarring!

I don’t watch any news on tv. Occasionally read sky news so I can scroll on from anything that’s too disturbing.
There’s obviously lots of horror in the world, but I can’t change or control anything, so I don’t let it haunt me.

I don't watch it on TV or listen on the radio. It's all just doom and gloom and who wants to subject themselves to that on a daily basis?

The world is never going to change it's always same old same old…

If we humans with a heart, we must feel somethign surely? I certainly don't watch hours and hours. A few minutes is more than enough.

During COVID I avidly consumed a lot of news, from early morning with my first cup of tea, through to the nightly news.
Gradually over the last few years I've lost interest in reading, listening or watching the news.
Like others have said, I could feel the low level but always running in the background anxiety creeping in, and I could see no healthy reason to continue reading of the horrors and frustrations that each day's headlines brought.
So now I am the least informed member of my family, and I don't consider it so much sticking my head in the sand as preserving my own health and sanity.

I won’t watch the news at the moment- the bat shit stuff from the US is beginning to sound like Nazi Germany- Trump is insane. Then of course we have our own Trump wannabe and his xenophobic moronic supporters. What with that and any mention of genocide in Palestine seems to be met with accusations of antisemitism I am done. I just want to stick my fingers in my ear yelling “ La la la”

I find the news terrifying. I hate that it’s 24/7 bad news.
I read it, but it’s turning me into someone who believes that people are generally bad and that bad things tend to only happen to good people.
Im trying to stop reading it online, I never felt this way back in the days when I would just buy an occasional newspaper. It’s too in our faces now.

Ignore…Ignore…Ignore🤷‍♂️

I don’t watch the news and I avoid news on the internet.

As a pp said, there have been far worse times than now and we need some perspective. The ability to report instantly from anywhere in the world has shown us more clearly what the world is really like, and that’s uncomfortable.

Even so, it is alarming that so much ancient prejudice is on display again. Antisemitism, for example, is now openly and shamelessly paraded. The wicked misuse of “genocide” about Gaza is emblematic. TBF though, that tends to be found on social media and crank online ‘news’ sites more than the mainstream media.

As for UK news, crime, particularly gory and sensational crime, has always filled the newspapers. And it’s totally unrepresentative of the state of society.

i get my news off the internet and only watch in small tolerable bite size bits.
but like others i'm suspicious of the click bait style of news, and know there is little to nothing i can do to help decades old complex issues.

Our brains aren't meant to cope with what's happening beyond our own village.

Gaza, Ukraine, Afghanistan, Sudan ... nothing you can do to help them but you might be able to help someone nearby.