Does anyone else feel like the news makes you feel terrible?

I was listening to a recent Tim Ferris podcast with Seth Godin, during which the interviewer commented that while discussing the state of the world today, he’d noticed more and more of his friends expressing the somewhat fatalistic view that things are almost irreversibly screwed! The Titanic has essentially already hit the iceberg and the decline is therefore inevitable.  Pretty damaging sentiment!

His point was that folk are just low these days. Post pandemic, global political shit show, nations split down the middle ‘Trump, not Trump, Brexit, not Brexit’. And now, here in the UK at least, it’s all inflation this and cost of living that! Mortgage rates are sky high, Nation States are taking over sport, there’s war in Ukraine, public services are on strike – ‘head explodes’!

Godin’s response was clever I thought and he referenced a book called The Last Policeman written by Ben Winters.

In 'The Last Policeman', the Earth is facing an imminent existential crisis: an asteroid is set to collide with the planet in six months, promising to wipe out all life. Society is spiralling into chaos as people abandon their jobs, homes, and responsibilities to live out their "bucket lists".

In the midst of this apocalyptic countdown, Detective Hank Palace, a newly promoted detective in the New Hampshire Police Department, remains committed to his duty, despite everyone else going a bit doolally.

'The Last Policeman' is a tale of persistence, duty, and the desire for truth in a world facing certain doom, exploring how people, including the detective himself, deal with the impending end of the world.

OK – Maybe we have gone down a pretty dark road a little too quickly but you get the point. It doesn't matter what the circumstances are (perceived or otherwise), there is fulfilment in continuing the worthy cause. The great news is that this hypothetical version of the matrix is in fact way off. As you will discover, there is vastly more good than bad  – it’s just that the media can sometimes appear intent on conditioning us otherwise!

If you, like me, are interested in current world affairs and you are a regular consumer of mainstream and internet media, you will no doubt be feeling a little jaded.

Take this morning as a for example. I woke as normal, and went about my usual morning routine (a meticulously constructed performance enhancing system I might add) and as I was leaving to head to the gym, I inadvertently put the TV on. Only to be greeted with a story about the impact of interest rate rises on a huge portion of our society as it affects mortgage and rent payments.

As I left the house I found myself absorbed by the story. A delightful cocktail of fear, anxiety, sadness and dread began to consume me. Not exactly the harmony that the ‘Magic of a Morning Routine’ calls for!

The dichotomy is that on the one hand I want to know about these issues - I want to be informed - but I don't want to get sucked in to a negative thought spiral. The issue seems to be that, left unchecked, an over consumption of what is 'lets face it' essentially pretty much all bad news, can become pernicious. It’s like having a ‘know it all gob-shite’ marauding around spewing its own unique torrent of terror inducing effluvium.

Last week’s news was largely dominated by the war in Ukraine, a story about a deep sea disaster involving tourists and the Titanic, mortgage rate increase, base rate increases, cost of living crisis, inflation, greedflation (a new one on me but it now turns out rather delightfully that commercial enterprise is leaning in and artificially raising prices on the basis consumers will chalk it up to cost of living increase – they are taking advantage of an already terrible situation basically) and to top it off the most awful spate of knife crimes.

How on earth are you meant to cope with all that?

All these stories are important and I am not suggesting otherwise but we need to be careful - there needs to be fact based context and balance. The absolute truth is that things are no where near as bad as the media might have us believe, in fact for the most part things are actually getting A LOT better. The Titanic has not already hit the iceberg!

For evidence that things are still generally positive, turn to news outlets that focus entirely on just that ‘positive news’. See the bottom of this article for a selection of such publications.

The Guardian Newspaper posted a very good article on the subject of exaggerated negative news written by Steven Pinker:

The media exaggerates negative news. This distortion has consequences

Steven goes on to say:

The nature of news is likely to distort people’s view of the world because of a mental bug that the psychologists Amos Tversky and Daniel Kahneman called the Availability heuristic: people estimate the probability of an event or the frequency of a kind of thing by the ease with which instances come to mind. In many walks of life this is a serviceable rule of thumb. But whenever a memory turns up high in the result list of the mind’s search engine for reasons other than frequency—because it is recent, vivid, gory, distinctive, or upsetting—people will overestimate how likely it is in the world.

Plane crashes always make the news, but car crashes, which kill far more people, almost never do. Not surprisingly, many people have a fear of flying, but almost no one has a fear of driving. People rank tornadoes (which kill about 50 Americans a year) as a more common cause of death than asthma (which kills more than 4,000 Americans a year), presumably because tornadoes make for better television.

The nature of news is likely to distort people’s view of the world

The data scientist Kalev Leetaru applied a technique called sentiment mining to every article published in the New York Times between 1945 and 2005, and to an archive of translated articles and broadcasts from 130 countries between 1979 and 2010. Sentiment mining assesses the emotional tone of a text by tallying the number and contexts of words with positive and negative connotations, like good, nice, terrible, and horrific.

Putting aside the wiggles and waves that reflect the crises of the day, we see that the impression that the news has become more negative over time is real. The New York Times got steadily more morose from the early 1960s to the early 1970s, lightened up a bit (but just a bit) in the 1980s and 1990s, and then sank into a progressively worse mood in the first decade of the new century. News outlets in the rest of the world, too, became gloomier and gloomier from the late 1970s to the present day.

The consequences of negative news are themselves negative. Far from being better informed, heavy news watchers can become mis calibrated. They worry more about crime, even when rates are falling, and sometimes they part company with reality altogether: a 2016 poll found that a large majority of Americans follow news about Isis closely, and 77% agreed that “Islamic militants operating in Syria and Iraq pose a serious threat to the existence or survival of the United States,” a belief that is nothing short of delusional.

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So how do you juggle the real need to be aware of the world around you without getting sucked into the destructive vortex that is modern media.

All the usual rules apply. Excessive exposure to negative news can have detrimental effects on your mental health, causing stress, anxiety, and feelings of sadness. Here are some strategies you can employ to avoid letting negative news get you down:

• Limit Exposure: While it's important to stay informed, try to limit your consumption of news, especially negative news. You can set specific times to check the news and avoid it at other times, especially before sleep.
• Balanced Media Consumption: Intentionally seek out positive news stories to counterbalance the negativity. Follow the sources of positive news such as those listed at the bottom of this article to stay updated with positive developments around the world.
• Digital Detox: Consider taking regular breaks from social media and the news. This can be a specific day of the week or a few hours each day. During this time, engage in activities that you enjoy and that relax you.
• Practice Mindfulness: Mindfulness can help you stay grounded in the present moment rather than getting swept up in stressful news stories. Techniques can include meditation, deep-breathing exercises, yoga, or simply taking a few minutes to focus on your surroundings.
• Stay Active: Regular physical activity can help to reduce feelings of anxiety and improve your mood. Try to incorporate some form of exercise into your daily routine, whether it's a walk, a workout, or just some stretching. My trip to the Gym this morning helped break my media induced slump!
• Connect with Others: Talk to friends or family about your feelings. You might find that they share your concerns. Social connections can be a powerful antidote to stress and can provide a different perspective on news stories.
• Take Action: Sometimes, negative news can make us feel helpless. If there's a cause that you care about, consider taking action. This could be making a donation, volunteering, or even just learning more about the issue and raising awareness among your friends and family. Taking action can help to restore a sense of control and purpose.
• Self-Care: Make sure to prioritize self-care. This includes maintaining a healthy diet, getting enough sleep, and engaging in activities that you find enjoyable and relaxing. For assistance see The Amazing Playbook

Remember, it's perfectly okay to seek professional help if you find the negative news is causing significant distress and affecting your mental health. Therapists and counsellors are trained to help you manage these feelings and develop effective coping strategies.

Below is a list of media outlets that focus on progressive and uplifting news. Interestingly in the same week the mainstream media here in the UK were focused entirely on war, recession, inflation, interest rates and knife crime, the outlets below reported on a global decline in crime, AI assisting the reduction of pollution, new breakthroughs in zero emission travel and the neurological benefits of an afternoon nap…and who doesn’t like one of those?

Positive News: As the name suggests, this is a magazine dedicated to positive journalism. Their articles focus on the good that's happening globally and how people are creating solutions to various challenges.

Good News Network: This online platform has been delivering positive news from around the world for over 20 years. Their news covers various categories including health, science, and society.

Sunny Skyz: Sunny Skyz offers positive news stories and videos to uplift and inspire their readers. They also feature feel-good stories about animals, heroes, and more.

The Optimist Daily: This platform aims to provide solutions-based news stories. They focus on positive news and aim to give their readers a more balanced view of what's happening in the world.

Good Good Good: They offer a subscription-based newspaper called "Goodnewspaper," focused on the good that's happening in the world. They also send out a weekly newsletter.

The Happy Broadcast: This is an art project where positive news is illustrated and shared on social media platforms. It's an artistic and creative approach to spreading good news.

Reddit's Uplifting News Subreddit: This subreddit is dedicated to sharing uplifting news stories from around the world.

HuffPost Good News: A section of the Huffington Post dedicated to good news

So to return to the initial question: 'Is the media fundamentally unhealthy?' I would say that for me it falls into the category of all things in moderation. We live in a word where almost every screen wants your eyes, your attention and your clicks. News can be informative and a broad appreciation of the world's events is generally important. BUT - Remember the media doesn't necessarily have your wellbeing front and centre. Bad news is provably more compelling than good news or no news and to that end make sure you limit your consumption and retain that all important context.

Keep creating, keep moving forward and finding ways to make an impact both for you and for the rest of us! The journey is still worthwhile and amazing! The world and the people in it are for the most part still incredible and so, I am going to assume because you are reading this blog, are you.

Right, I’m of for 40 winks…