Anyone else feel that we as humans are not meant to consume this much bad news?

[purplehearts22]

Everyday all day we we are just bombarded from all angles about the worlds news and I feel like it’s started to affect my mood, anxiety and just mental state all round.

At least twice a year I have to take long breaks from social media and I’ll delete all apps (bar fb) because I need that for my business but I log out to stop myself from the habit of just picking my phone up and automatically opening the app. The instant relief from deleting those apps and being free from the negativity is great and I’ll almost forget about it and then time will pass and I’ll feel that I can manage my usage and I’ll slip back into using Instagram and before you know it TikTok and X are back and the cycle continues.

But today I feel different and I feel like this whole year has just been amplified with violence and hatred.

I have consumed two videos of murders this week, and not by choice and seen/read the lack of compassion from people who seem so desensitised that I’m sure they can’t differentiate real murders on a video to watching a movie of actors playing a role. It’s horrifying that there’s no value to human life.

Then theres the constant battle with the left v the right, our government, the march’s and protesting, the state of the country, and people just pitting against each other and fighting and belittling about who’s beliefs are right and who’s are wrong.

It’s constant negative news and it’s coming at you from all sides and there’s no getting away from it. As human beings we are not built to take in this much horror and trauma it’s detrimental to are well being. It isn’t any wonder there are so many that suffer from mental health conditions (myself included) being made to watch all the heinous crimes happening all over the world all at once.

ps sorry if this isn’t very well typed, I’m dyslexic

I agree it’s too much, and it puts people into a spiral of negativity.

It’s too much for the human brain to cope with, being bombarded with it day in, day out.

I think people will learn to be more restricted in what content they consume.

I might go back to a paper newspaper once a day, no social media. I don’t need hourly updates on Ukraine, Gaza, murders in random countries on the other side of the planet, endless analysis of race issues, violence etc etc.

It is completely toxic.

Paleolithic brains, medieval institutions and god-like technology is not a good combo (as Edward O. Wilson said).

You need to take control of your own behaviour.

It is absolutely avoidable. You've said yourself that you avoid it for periods of time and then feel better.

Stop looking at it. Stop blaming external sources for your choices.

Have you thought about doing a neurolinguistic programming course? I did one a few years ago snd it helped massively. I have no social media accounts and my mood has improved.

I don’t even want to see a newspaper, I’m done with it all.

My 14 year old was crying iny bed last night, overwhelmed with it all. I'm going to have to watch what he's seeing more closely. We don't watch news and usually he watches gaming channels but it seems so hard to avoid.

Social media is an addiction like any other addictions. I go back to it because I feel like I can control my usage and the content I watch. But you are not in control of the algorithm and when something is trending it’ll be pushed out whether you want to see it or not. Also I live with three other adults so I can’t get away from the worlds events because they are discussing it around me.

I haven’t no. But I don’t see how that would be any use to me because I need to keep fb for my business.

I’m 41 and overwhelmed myself with it so I get how he feels. It’s so damaging

I have always enjoyed staying on top of current affairs and find it interesting. But about a year ago i decided to making an active decision to step away from all things israel/gaza related, obviously i see headlines and thread titles but otherwise i have had reasonable success at disengaging. I figure if all the worlds leaders can't reach a consenus on the ethics of the situation, let alone a solution, nothing that I think about it is remotely relevant or helpful. It's definetly the way forward, I'm adding Afghanistan to my list of 'banned' topics, I'm a proud feminist but unfourtunatly the tragic situiation for women there is enitrely out of my control.

I don't think this is very fair. It's only a very short number of years since news was confined to TV bulletins at set times and newspapers. Our behaviour hasn't had chance to adapt and a lot of internet content is designed to be addictive and to present shocking content in bite size pieces. It can also be very difficult to come off social media altogether without affecting your social life and in lots of cases your working life also.

Yes, I totally agree with you. A generation ago you'd read a newspaper in the morning then maybe listen to or watch the six o'clock news. These days its constant, news apps and channels updating every few mins, phones pinging with the bbc alert sound, there is constantly more Breaking News, people talk about the latest horrific current affairs every single day. Its not easy to tune it all out.

I don't think its a coincidence that people generally seem so fucking angry ALL the time when they're confronted with this day in day out. Look at some posters on this forum, its explicable rage. Someone recently posted that they try to be grateful for small things like having a safe home, healthy family, can feed their kids etc. Nothing offensive whatsoever. Someone else immediately came along calling her fucking pathetic for being grateful she doesn't live in a war zone and it doesn't mean her home town is a decent place to live, and then told her to get fucked.

I try to step away from it as much as I can for my own mental health, and be grateful for what I have. Its not much in the grand scheme of things but its all I can do.

I agree, OP. I stopped listening to the Today programme on the radio a few years ago, and more recently I gave up on my favourite TV news programme, Channel Four News. Just a run-through of the headlines or front pages is enough for me.

The state of the country and the world is frightening as we spiral ever further into social-media-fuelled populism, hatred and division.

I gave up Twitter around the time Musk took over, and I have never used Facebook or TikTok, but the kind of obsessive, echo-chamber, uncritical news discourse that those platforms foster has exploded onto Mumsnet, making it an increasingly disturbing and distressing place to be.

MN is getting worse at a very fast rate. Even on the more thoughtful sub-forums on MN there are an increasing number of posters ruminating on conspiracies and basking in divisive rhetoric. And the worst MN sub-forums (notably Conflict in the Middle East) seem just to be a slanging match among people whose interest in politics seems entirely generated by over-consumption of social media, like they are just automatons wound up by the algorithms and let loose on each other. We are torturing ourselves and destroying our capacity for real thought, real information gathering.

@NomoneyNoprospects "A generation ago you'd read a newspaper in the morning then maybe listen to or watch the six o'clock news."

I still more or less do that, although I read the paper online these days and not necessarily in the morning. I'm not home in time to watch the 6 o'clock news so I usually watch it at 10pm if I'm around when it's on. Sometimes I catch the news on the car radio too. I still phone people up to actually speak to them as well. I guess I'm a museum piece! But thankfully I never saw the attraction of social media (other than for work).

You have to walk away for the sake of your own mind, you can show compassion and sympathy for what’s going on in different parts of the world but at the end of the day your powerless.

yeah I’m thinking I’ll have to leave here too because lately it’s a miserable place full of angry people.

The world is a horrible place right now and it’s not going to get any better. I just don’t want it thrown down my throat 24/7.

@purplehearts22 "But you are not in control of the algorithm and when something is trending it’ll be pushed out whether you want to see it or not"

you are in control of the settings. What are you using? And what are your children using?

I try to ignore news. It has nonetheless been a very upsetting week for me personally. And I'm sure for a lot of people.

i'm mostly on here for company, but I think a lot of people have shown themselves up to be incredibly nasty this week.

I don't look at social media unless you count MN. It isn't balanced or rational. I watch one mainstream news program per day and leave it at that.

It means I know what is happening in the world without seeing all the glorying in emotive detail.

Much calmer & easier to deal with.

What am I using? My phone?

my adult children are adults, and the others don’t have social media.

@purplehearts22 but what apps are you using on your phone?

To be honest, I find it slightly worrying that your answer is "My phone".

What’s wrong with my phone?

I totally agree. I’m tempted to just buy a copy of the Sunday Times once a week and read that.

I can relate 100%. I’ve never had social media but you still cannot avoid the endless cycle of negativity. I was only thinking the other day when did I last think positively about the future ? It seems to have been so long. It grinds you down !

It is possible to avoid it. I haven’t seen any videos that get repeat views from GF to CK deaths and others. It takes some control but it is doable.

I have consumed two videos of murders this week, and not by choice

Disable auto-play on those apps. I have scrolled past the video of the murder of that poor Ukrainian woman but I have not seen it because it won't play unless I click on the play button.