Many moons ago, I trained to be a journalist. I never actually went into the industry though, feeling jaded and assured that it wasn't really for me. Old habits die hard though, and I do consider myself to be a bit of a 'news addict'. Could it be time to change my ways for better mental health?
"Every day, I awake with the news, and I wonder why my anxiety levels are quite high."
I consider myself to be quite a heavy consumer of news. When there's nothing on TV, I'll pop a news channel on. I like listening to the radio news. I frequently fall down rabbit holes on news websites too. I even use the TV in my bedroom as a bit of an extra alarm clock. There's a setting for it to come on on a particular channel at a particular time, and I set it for Sky News. Every day, I awake with the news, and I wonder why my anxiety levels are quite high.
A couple of years ago, I read Rolf Dobelli's book 'Stop Reading The News', and I did. I quit the news entirely for six whole months, only getting dragged back in by the sheer horror of the invasion of Ukraine. I lived in blissful ignorance for six whole months, and it was honestly one of the happiest periods of my adult life.
In the current climate, though, we're constantly bombarded by the message (probably from people who also have a very unhealthy relationship and lack of boundaries with current affairs) that to step back from the news is a very irresponsible, selfish, and even dangerous thing to do.
I can see where they're coming from, in a way. However, I also feel that our current relationship with current affairs is deeply unhealthy.
It's no wonder we're in a crisis with our mental health in this country. The world already feels like an unsafe place to live, we're in the midst of a cost of living crisis, we're struggling more than we thought we'd be - and yet, the news just seems to rub it all in a little more. To stress us out, to wind us up, to make us worry.
When we watch or read the news, we're letting the news organisation we're relying on for information alter our mood. Usually in a bad way. Bad news sells.
Galtung and Ruge discovered all the way back in 1965 that negativity is one of the core factors in news. It's one of the most important things you learn about when you're training to be a journalist. Drama sells too. The more dramatic you make it, the better. Ramp it right up and watch the punters come in.
So, the news probably negatively alters our mood. Ask yourself: how do you feel before and after watching a news bulletin? I doubt it'd cheer you right up? It definitely doesn't make me feel better. Quite the opposite, and yet I still watch!
Do you feel better informed too? I wonder if the answer could actually be 'no'?
Besides, the speed of news is far faster than it was in the sixties. There are more news platforms than ever before. Let's face it, there's no way that you or I could possibly keep abreast of absolutely everything that's going on in the world, and yet we fall into the illusion that being constantly connected to the news throughout the day is going to keep us well-informed. It can't possibly. There's far too much cracking off, locally, regionally, nationally, and internationally, for us to know everything. We'd never cope with knowing it all anyway.
And yet, we keep going back to it. Why? Because they've got us hooked. There's a reason that news channels have a ticker, usually in an eye-catching colour - red for danger when it's breaking news - and a constant stream of headlines to read. It's to keep our attention. There's a reason that news websites have a sidebar of more to read - it's to keep our attention. And in the attention economy, should we be letting something so mood-altering drag us in?
Granted, without journalism, I believe we'd be worse off as a society. We need journalism to hold people to account and do good work by bringing things like the Horizon scandal to light. I don't deny that, but there's plenty of news that doesn't really need to be news. It clutters up our consciousness in ways that we don't need. Celebrity news, for example. It sells well, because we're nosy, but is it really important in the grand scheme of things? Absolutely not.
Clickbait is dreadful too. It relies on playing on our emotions or curiosity to lure us in. Take this screenshot that I just took of The Independent website...
...Let's take a look at the sidebar. That's what caught my eye straight away. 'Cooking oil could be causing colon cancer surge in young people' which is an important story, but how does that make you feel when you glance at that? If you're anything like me - prone to a bit of health anxiety - it makes me feel anxious, unsurprisingly. That's what it's designed to do. To make you worry, so you click, and you read the article to try and see what it's about. The word 'surge', in particular, is emotive. In case you're worried, it does note at the end of that article - because of course I read it - that normal amounts of cooking oil aren't likely to cause cancer. So what's the point of the article then? To get you anxiously reading more and to earn The Indie a bit of ad revenue.
So, should we stop consuming the news?
While I believe that it's important to stay reasonably well informed, living as a 'news addict' isn't healthy. Moderation is key, but unfortunately, news platforms don't really encourage that. They rely on our attention to make more money and we don't come out of that as the winners - they do.
Perhaps we should all start taking the odd news detox when things get a little stressful, or limit our news intake to one platform, viewed once a day. That should be enough, right?
Maybe, just maybe, ignorance is bliss.
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