Anyone else given up watching the news since US elections and new president

[Moonshine5]

Honestly find news so depressing that I just cannot.

No

Yes, me! I love the news and usually have it on in the background. But it's so depressing at the moment. I can't see how we can go back to "normal" and it's making me anxious in a way that the news never has before.

I stopped when Hamas kicked off (more). I'm so sick of seeing male aggression everywhere. I used to really pride myself on being up to date with current affairs, but between everything that's going on and the clickbait, polarising journalism I'm just finding it's much better for my mental health to take a step back right now.

No because I want to see step by step why things turned out the way they did in future.

But I also think your view is reasonable

I've never understood why some people think it's so essential to keep up with news, when it clearly does their head in. My SIL is a news junkie and is always trying to have deep conversations about current affairs, but she's also the most miserable, paranoid and scared person I have ever met in my life.

Life's too short to worry about things you can't do much about.

Yes. I followed the election really closely and felt very invested in it, when Trump won I just thought "I can't do this to myself anymore" and have switched off from it all. I still take a passing interest, read the BBC headlines etc but I've deleted Twitter / X and feel much better for it.

I used to follow politics and try and keep myself abreast of what is going on both nationally and locally. Most of my life I started the day with the today programme.
Now with new Labour in power I honestly have given up all hope in UK politics - they have absolutely nothing to do with the origins of the Labour movement and socialism so they are a travesty. And since Nicola resigned Scottish politics is increasingly going downhill. Now we have the absolute morally bereft megalomaniac Trump coupled with the right wing ascendancy in a vast section of the world.
So yes I've largely given up listening to the news. I tune in briefly and keep my ears open just to make sure world war hasn't broken out and to pick up what the new main story is. But largely I try not to get involved with politics now, despite knowing I'm being an ostrich.

I think you sound like my sil - she told me a quarter of a century ago that she never followed the news because it was too depressing. By contrast I’m a complete news junky - can’t get enough of it - I just always really want to understand as much as possible about what’s going on in the world. Yes, it makes me anxious, but at least I am not ignorant like my sil. I find her difficult to talk to as her conversation is inane and she comes across as vacuous to me.

I'll choose peace of mind over intellectual snobbery any day. Anyway, people who don't watch the news aren't automatically "ignorant" - I have a huge curiosity about how the world works and I'm a voracious reader. I just don't see the point of freaking myself out with uncertainty I don't need. I'm more or less constantly hypervigilant at the best of times, and there's no way I'm making that worse unnecessarily.

If something really important is going on, I'll find out about it soon enough.

I agree

I'm so sick of seeing male aggression everywhere.

This is it.

Why is she ignorant just because she doesn't follow current affairs?
There are lots of other things in the world to be interested in

I used to be a total news junkie and stopped engaging during covid as I coiuldn't stand the hysterical fearmongering and lying.
My life has improved immensely.
I have avague idea what's going on in the world just from snippets of conversation and titles in places like this!

Can I ask in what way keeping abreast of the news actually enhances your life?
Your actual, real day to day life?

I haven’t stopped watching, but I physically can’t watch or listen to that orange cunt without getting stabby. I have to hear about his latest arseholery third hand.

Mostly. Anytime the Orange Turd comes on I change it or turn it off - I actually have a visceral reaction to him now. He makes me feel nauseous. Its not good for my mental (or physical apparently) health seeing his face.

It will be better for your mental health. Just focus on your real life

Same here. I avoid reading any news stories with the word T and spend much more time on Mumsnet and local news.

Before the election, I'd be reading a lot of news every day.

I'm getting there, frankly. I can't stand that stupid Trump voice.

No. I like to be informed and understand what is happening in the world.

I swing between hoovering up all the news, then realising the effect it has on me….and then taking a break.

I have to realise that there is very little I can personally DO at this point to influence things, but I do daily check the BBC news website just to check WW3 hasn’t erupted.

And to think I used to be such a newshound…

Love watching his new policies. But cannot stand Starmer wish he would step down and disappear. Vile man.

I have a quick look at the headlines on BBC news but because there is nothing I can do about it and for the sake of my mental health I put a somebody else's problem field around it and avoid it for the rest of the day.

No - total opposite here, in fact it’s sparked my interest more, but I don’t find it depressing, the world has always been somewhat bleak and I actually find the more I learn the less I worry.

Love watching his new policies. But cannot stand Starmer wish he would step down and disappear. Vile man.

It's comments like this which disengage me as well. There is no sensible conversation any more, everything is so polarised, no one actually discusses the political detail with any nuance, it's how they "feel" about someone and it colours everything, it's how we end up with people like Trump.