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

social media is addictive and needs to be controlled, but I still don't understand how you ended up watching murder content? You can't do that by accident.

Anyway use one of the news synopsis service or subscribe to the Week and curate your feed down.

Totally get you. Binning off toxic Twitter did loads for my mood and productivity. I've also now stopped watching the news, so I don't know if terrible things happen unless I happen upon them on here or while trawling the web for something else. Mood up, productivity up. My only bloody issue is needing to run social media for work (insta), though I have mostly trained the algorithm to send me cat videos.

I feel the same OP I couldn’t sleep the other night after the weeks events and just felt so despondent about humanity, it’s all become too much.

I’m not even sure if I believe or trust news anymore. But what I am sure of is living off grid on a deserted island somewhere is started to sound more appealing by the minute.

It really does.

Oh yes you can. It was on my feed

It is possible to avoid a lot of it if you stay off twitter, tiktok, Instagram and all that stuff, and turn off any autoplay settings so videos don't just appear without you choosing to watch. If you have toe on fb for your business could you just have that fb account and curate your feed carefully? I agree that we haven't evolved for this environment, our brains treat even pleasant notifications as a stimulus so we're constantly on alert, instead of what we've evolved for which is generally in neutral with short bursts of alert.
Good luck taking control, OP.

Even just switching on the tv I’m often greeted with charity adverts depicting animal abuse and neglect in graphic detail, the radio at work has a set channel that everyone has to listen to, news on repeat all day, it’s hard to get away from it all in reality.

You're showing that you don't actually understand what's on your phone

You don't know what apps are on your phone

You literally have murder videos being pushed at you and you don't even know why it's happening

Do you have a tech savvy trustworthy person who can go through your phone with you? Delete some apps and sort out some settings? I can't really suggest that you do it yourself if your answer to the first question is "My phone" - because that makes me think you don't understand your phone at all.

You need to very actively manage your settings, cut out anyone except genuine friends who aren't going to share vile crap

News is bad for you. I don't read newspapers any more: I take the view that if something massive happens in the world, I will find out one way or another. I follow one or two political commentators on Youtube, and that is all I need.

I abandoned Radio 4 completely in 2020 when I had heard "corrrrrronavirus" too many times, and I have not looked back. It was then that I noticed how biased the BBC is generally, despite "appearing" to sound balanced.

i want to just get rid of them all and just live in oblivious bliss. But I have a house full of humans so will just hear what’s going on through them and I have to keep fb for business purposes. The others are going though I’ve had enough

It will help you. Get rid of X for a start, you don’t need to watch the news and anything else. Be more selective

I’m going to look into the settings on fb and try and figure out how to manage my feed. I don’t know what’s happened with fb lately but ive started to see posts come up on my feed of people I’m not friends with and groups I’m not in. Was scrolling my feed last night and picture came up from a group called morbid something or other and the picture was a deformed kitten that had just been born. I’m guessing these are pages that are open and now they just get pushed onto people’s feeds. you don’t have go looking for nothing now it’s just there in your face. Disgusting

How are you seeing murders?
I've dicked around on twitter for 15yrs and never seen anything dodgy.
My 19yo did say he saw the Kirk murder on tik-bloody-tok while scrolling, that site is toxic IMO.

Can you permanently delete them?
They are not good for your mental health.

It was definitely easier to deal with when it wasn't in your face all day everyday. I don't watch news anymore and thankfully I've never been on social media so don't have to see it that way. I'd just do that yourself if I was you

I also need to use FB and IG for work on a daily basis so I understand that you can't just delete all social media. But I recommend deleting Twitter/X, and staying off Threads. Then try to catch yourself before you start any reels or short videos from continuously playing.

One trick is to use an alarm on your phone or a timer each time you have to access a social media app - so if you are updating something on FB for work - calculate how long it will take, set an alarm and it will act as a reminder to stop scrolling.

I do know what apps I have. The videos are on x and TikTok millions of people have seen them. People on here was saying that they were on their feed too. No searching just there as your scrolling.

I've been on for years never had anything on my feed that wasn't from an actual friend, and I delete anyone who posts stuff I don't want to see. You need to tighten up your settings massively.

Also, speak to the people you live with and tell them you're having a news detox and don't want to hear about it all. They might find they enjoy switching off too, at least while you're around.

The environment we live in can be very damaging, it's never been more important to take control. Tech companies spend literally billions of dollars trying to get you to see what they want you to. You can't be passive.

@purplehearts22 so why phrase it as if you don't know?

So on Twitter/X you should only look at the people you're following. Not their "suggested" feed. videos should be set so they don't autoplay.

Remove TikTok. Don't know about Facebook.

Twitter is bad for it but Instagram's algorithm is easy to control.
I scroll news in a morning and that's kind of it nowadays. I agree, OP.
The shite thing is that doom and gloom seems to sell (gets clicks) so news are having lots of it.

I don’t have randomers on my social media.

I record the evening news and watch it on occasion.. maybe once or twice a week. I don't have a news feed or any feed really, if I want to see the news I have to click into a newspaper website. I don't know how or why other people have something pop up, surely thats just a setting. When i occasionally click on a newspaper, i scan the headlines then decide if I'll watch it that evening. I don't feel over exposed to anything, I am in control. Dh gets a newspaper delivered and I sometimes read it. This was a decision he made so that our kids wouldn't see us scrolling on phones all the time, dh was mostly reading the news but it could have been tiktok for all they know, so we decided to set a good example re phone usage. We leave the papers open on the counter in the hope they will accidentally educate themselves but I don't think they have! So I don't really get your experience OP but I couldn't agree more that absorbing so much is bad for us.