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

https://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/articles/c3ezej3n05qo

One of the first questions that I got asked when I went to see a doctor about my deteriorating MH issue was, "How often do you watch or read the news?" My immediate answer was, "I don't, because it's too depressing". I advised someone at work with MH issues to avoid it, because he was getting very het up about the situation in the Ukraine at the time.

I try to avoid it if I can, though it's a bit tricky sometimes, as some things get mentioned on MN or on internet browser pages. I am very fortunate in that I don't do Twitter/Instagram/Snapchat and rarely use Facebook, that I live rurally, don't watch or read the news (TBH, I don't have a TV...) , don't see many people at work, and when we do, the news rarely gets a mention! My only subscriptions are cheerier things like The Country Smallholder and Permaculture magazine. They are much more educational, especially if you're into chickens 😁

I am sometimes feeling we as humans shouldn’t exist.

That’s why I rarely watch the news, I choose when and I receive it

I stopped watching the news and deleted my BBC news app during the pandemic as I found the constant news consumption was giving me anxiety. I was watching the 10 o clock news every night then going to bed and struggling to sleep as I was so worried and anxious.

I think it is the single biggest thing I have done to help my mental health. Just disengaging from constant news consumption. I now will hear the headlines when I'm driving as I have Radio 2 on and occasionally put LBC on the radio when I'm cooking in the kitchen so I'm up to date with the high-level headlines about what is going on in the world but otherwise that's it.

I would genuinely recommend it to anyone struggling. It is within your power to step back a bit from the constant negativity.

This summer still hasn’t felt ‘extreme’ to me, The winter was exceptionally dry which was a bit odd. Do you have anything to say or is just a copy and paste of a bbc article as far as you go?

I’m sick of it. Constant bad news.

Take some self responsibility and spend less time online/be more selective about what you spend time looking at. In the olden days the bad news would be all around us, all of the time.

I agree. I gave up over 25 years of the Today programme during the pandemic because I got totally fed up with hearing a death toll each morning.

I don't really use social media other than MN and I sometimes look at FB but I just have a few private groups in my feed, no news.

I do read the Sunday Times and occasionally look at the headlines but that's about it.

I stopped looking at most foreign news in any detail years ago because I can do absolutely nothing about it.

I think we'd have experienced much worse in centuries past. Public hangings, burnings, drawing and quarterings. People flocked to see these.

People would die from things we'd never die from today. Infections, appendicitis, bad teeth. It'd be grim! I think life today is relatively soft, although I agree the media isn't good for mental health.

:)

a gif as a response. Says everything.

Bad night for me, DH said I condoned rape because I don't like Tommy Robinson even more he said, I implied I didn't believe the girls who got raped by gangs, which I obviously do, I am beyond furious. I said I have never in my life condoned rape in any way at any time .

I just don’t watch it anymore at all.

This TED talk is worth listening to on this exact topic and how to move away from the negative and focus on the positive. I came across it by chance yesterday.

https://www.ted.com/talks/catherine_price_3_elements_of_true_fun_and_how_to_have_more_of_it

This. No-one is bombarded with bad news all the time unless they choose to be. I watch the news in the evenings, have a quick look on a website first thing in the morning, and listen to the news on the radio station I listen to - which is all of a minute long each hour.

You don't have be looking for news all the time. Honestly. don't people have minds of their own any more?

Sure, but an addiction is not unavoidable. It's hard work to break, of course. It is ultimately in your control though. You know you can't control your usage so stop going back to it. There is one person in control of that and that is you. There's no point blaming the media/the algorithm/other people you live with. It's on you to stop looking at it.

I live in the same world you do, with the same access to the same information. I've never seen a video of a murder, let alone two in a week. I make the choice not to watch that sort of thing.

I catch up with major news about once a day, online or via the paper (we still get one delivered.)

Otherwise I avoid it as far as possible, not always easy in this house since dh (retired) is a news addict and will want it, via R4 or TV news, several times a day. He insists that it doesn’t depress him!

MN is social media 😄

I think you are absolutely right. We aren’t designed to deal with this much news or info, full stop. I read that humans evolved to function best in small groups of about 150 related individuals - that’s pretty much all the info our brains are designed for. Now we have the entire world beamed straight onto our phones, round the clock. It’s exhausting and disorienting.

I never did Tik Tok as I'd realised how toxic SM was by then. Never did Twitter much so have just deleted that. I recently deleted IG - I gradually un-followed everyone except for 50 friends. My feed was still full (more so) of random crap.

I just read a variety of news on Press Reader at the weekend.

I used to check BBC headlines daily for a terror attack (would never have admitted thats why but in all honesty I think yes I was just looking to see if theres been a major disaster esp on home soil.)

And well now the government can bleep my phone I don't need to do that.

Try the app One Sec. It has been a lifesaver for me you set it up to interrupt the apps you want a break from habitually opening and when you try to open them it makes you take a long deep breath then gives you the option to close instead of opening and it works for me every time. My problem was on my days off I would spend HOURS scrolling twitter and getting stressed out about wars and politics and before I knew it I was back to work and that's all I'd done! It steals your time. I thought of getting a dumb phone but then I was like...how will I check my bills? How will I do my online shops? How will I sell my stuff on vinted etc

The other big thing we did was getting our daughters off TikTok / other socials. Hopefully they're never attracted to twitter. But basically there's an evil trend lately of calling all British women and girls ugly, to the point we have been coined as "UK Beasts." Lots of memes and comments about how ugly we are and how we're the ugliest Europeans etc. She kept spending hours on the defensive online and it got to the point in holiday that's all she was doing fiercely tapping away and I was like yep told her she's done with TikTok. I bet half of them are engagement bots but it's just demonic. For my son, it's gaming and porn, but his dad handles that. He's on his phone less than the girls.