If you've always had an interest in the news, are you now switching off?

[hollyblueivy]

I've always wanted to know what's going on in the news and not fully understood people that say they don't watch or read it.

However, since covid I've been less and less inclined to read about the latest sleaze from politicians, a man killing or raping a woman, tragic stories about children and all the bad going on in the world.

I still check in briefly but much much less than before.

Anyone else previously quite interested in the news finding themselves switching off from it?

Me too. I've disengaged.

I often get my news from BBC (for example) but on social media. I’ve got to work something else out though as on Instagram they’ve switched to reporters leaning into the camera and talking super fast - TikTok style. I feel a million years old. Like my mum getting annoyed with Radio One.

I used to watch the news every morning before work. I might watch the lunch times news a few times a week. But I much prefer the radio news. Short and only the very big stories. It makes me feel ill. So why watch it really. I can't change any of it

I listen to Alastair and Rory instead.

I still watch, but I think there is more BBC bias than previously and it’s all so negative.

i watched NW news today and it was actually just news reporting.

I want news not bias.

I never watch any more. It's just too depressing.

I go through cycles.
When I’m already anxious about stuff in my real life I find I don’t have the emotional resilience to keep up with most of that news.

I used to live for news and current affairs coverage on telly and on the radio and also print journalism. At the beginning of the pandemic I switched off all the news because all the speculation and infighting was making me anxious.

I get my news now from social media and I subscribe to an online broadsheet. The younger me would have been ashamed/ astonished by how I have turned out but I genuinely have no regrets.

Yes, I used to check it multiple times a day but I rarely visit BBC News or the Guardian anymore. It's all constant coverage of the latest political scandals, Boris, Trump and a literal blow by blow of the war in Ukraine (The Guardian has a large portion of their homepage dedicated to it). It doesn't add anything to my life and just stresses me out, so now I only check the major headlines once in a while.

I still read the news on bbc news but less often than before; it’s so repetitive. Crime, sleazy politicians, migration, trans issues.

I listen to the various podcasts released by the economist and they do really solid reporting on various global issues. I find them really interesting and I often come away feeling like I’ve learned something.

I feel like the news used to be more informative. Now it’s all constant updates to satisfy the 24hour news cycle. Few things get covered in any kind of real depth as we are so busy moving on to the next story.

I quite like to get UK news from foreign newspapers as it tends to put things in perspective. Plus I find they haven't moved to the annoying trend of reporting every news article as an opinion piece.

I used to be a news junkie but massively cut down on my news consumption during Covid. I now keep up to date online once a day, but I don’t watch the news any more. Much better for my mental health!

I started reading/listening/watching a lot less when it was dominated by Brexit - I got so utterly sick of the B word. And it seems to have been non stop depressing news ever since, so I do keep up, but much less fully than I used to.,

I used to watch news all the time but after covid I’m done with it. I wish they would just go back to the old days and just tell you the actual news. These days the reporters and commentators always have to analyse it and interpret the news, annd what they think it anll means, and it always seems to suit one agenda or another. I just want to hear the news, maybe hear from a variety of experts about a particular topic but not talking heads or political commentators.

It's very depressing and at times can affect me.

It's hard to understand why some humans behave the way they do?

Even the BBC seems to relish the disasters they’ve gone for misery porn rather than facts

Completely cut out watching the news as it depresses me so much. Particularly climate crisis stuff and horrors of wars etc - it really effects my mood, and apart from giving to charities which I already do - there's not much influence over it. A recipe for feeling upset and frustrated.

Don't watch at all and feel much better for it. Brought it home to me as dp was watching 10pm news tonight so I overheard some items, and it left me feeling quite stressed.
I do feel bad about this though. I know it comes across as sticking my fingers in my ears pretending nothing bad is happening. And I feel I will come across as ill informed if topics come up in conversation - I used to be able to chat about current affairs, but no idea what's going on currently.

I used to watch the news 24/7 but I don't watch it any more.

I am interested in politics and economics and I stopped watching after Brexit was done. The news channels were becoming increasingly political and it seemed to me that impartiality was being thrown out the window.

I now get my fix from watching the Houses of Commons/Lords and Select Committees live.

I make my own mind up. I guess I'm cured.

No way: the Trump stuff, the Boris stuff - I’m reading it with glee. I recommend The Times & The Sunday Times for the blow-by-blow. They must have a mole in 10 Downing Street.

Tragedies - I’ve never read any more than the headlines anyway. We don’t need to read in prurient detail.

Yes. I'm bored of politics, Harry and Megan etc.

I've followed the news since I was 15 but have found myself switching off for longer periods of time in the last few years. I think it's because I always seem to get it wrong. Never thought Brexit, Trump etc would happen. And the downwards spiral and polarisation we're experiencing just gets me down. So now I switch off and don't feel bad about it.

I've not watched the news on TV for some years as found it was making me more anxious and the footage used has become more graphic and disturbing since everyone can use phones/drones to capture events unfolding. The news often feels rather like clickbait, wanting us to be worried and feel the need to keep updated.
I prefer to look news sites online when I feel in mood to, where I can control which items I read and what i see more easily but I don't alway check daily and If anything major happens tend to see references on social media.

I still listen to quite a lot - Radio 4 today, The world tonight, Newscast and Midnight news, +online catchups a few times in the day.
Private Eye

I rarely bother with watching news.

I used to listen to LBC every day and watch the news but had to stop as it was seriously affecting my MH. I only really check out a news story if I read about it on here or social media these days.

I used to be a news junkie. I read everything at home and internationally.
Then covid hit and I was still reading everything but slowly it dawned on me that news that was being revealed was just not true. I remember reading in the, I think, Independent two articles, one following the other that gave 2 completely diagonally opposite reports of what was happening. Not an opinion but an actual report from scientists about what was true. Both couldn't be true but both were reported as true. In the same paper. On the same day.

Then all the headlines were: chaos, disaster, etc. That was all rubbish too. But everything is just about clicks and not about truth.

But what finished me was Depp v Heard trial in the US. Whether the outcome was correct or not is immaterial. But we could watch live what was said and how it was said. But the reports in the newspaoers bore little resemblance to what had happened in the court. I then found out that Johnny Depps lawyers had concentrated on courting influencers on YouTube. The biased, vile rubbish many of them put out about Heard was disgusting. And it didn't reflect what happened in court. But Amber Heards side had courted the newspaper press and they had reported favourably on her side. Which, again, was not representative of what happened in court.

I don't pay YTers so I have no expectations from them. But I do pay for newspapers so I expect them to report accurately and I could quite clearly see that they didn't.

So now I just don't believe the media. None of them are unbiased. They all report from their standpoint and not just the factual truth. I don't read them and I am so much happier than I've ever been. I go on trips in the UK, I enjoy where I live, I try to give back to the community and I live as close to my best life as I can.