Staying away from opinionated news outlets. News from outlets like Reuters or AP usually just deliver the news straight up.
I’ve tried and failed. No matter what, it keeps seeping in. Filters, only following certain communities and people, avoiding some platforms, it doesn’t matter. I’m considering getting a dumb phone and running off the the woods.
I follow a single news source which doesn’t just focus on US politics. They only write about it when there’s actually something to write about. Other than that, I take active steps to block it everywhere else. On Lemmy I stay out of political communities and I have set content filters to cover everything from Trump to measles and I keep adding new ones every day. In today’s world the only way to consume anything even remotely resembling an “optimal” amount of news is by avoiding them. People who have never tried this get the feeling of FOMO and think that they’re going to then be ignorant then but the truth is that you simply cannot insulate yourself from world news unless you go live alone in a forest. When something major happens you will hear about it. Anyone consuming an unfiltered Lemmy feed because they feel the responsibility to “stay informed” are just masochists doing self-harm.
Could I ask which news source it is?
Yle which is Finland’s equivalent of the BBC. I obviously use the Finnish version of the site, though which covers a lot more than the English version.
This video helped me A LOT: https://youtu.be/yxAd8Owl-7A
Reduce the amount of news and media you consume. It isn’t healthy. Check in with your own mental health on a regular basis and use that as a barometer. When you start feeling overly stressed and frustrated, it’s time to take a break.
It’s ok to be angry or upset but if you can’t do anything about it, it’s not worth it. You should remain informed and also know that if you’re feeling frozen or at a loss, the plan is working. It’s meant to keep you down, drown you, and cause you to desensitize or lose hope. Don’t fall for it. Rise up in ways that you can.
I’m from Germany. I subscribe to a decent weekly newspaper (“die Zeit”) and follow German news sites. I try to stay away from news on social media, but that’s hardly possible.
On Lemmy, I’ve mainly blocked keywords and names relating to US politics because the ridiculous bullshit from the White House is unbearable. Despite this, my feed is still full of the stupid drivel from Trump & Co. This is not news, but at best political soap opera entertainment far removed from reality.
Because this stupid stuff potentially affects me too, of course, I have subscribed to a decent monthly newspaper with an international focus (“Le Monde diplomatique”). I can’t stand US politics in particular any other way.
at best political soap opera entertainment far removed from reality.
Unfortunately for those of us living through the bullshit, it’s all too real.
Not a good proportion of the things Trump claims - most of them are either misrepresented or outright lies. But yes, of course, his disastrous decisions and policies still affect citizens and thus become reality.
We here in Germany also have such a MAGA-style Nazi bullshit party. Fortunately, they didn’t do as well as many feared in the last election. But unfortunately they still got a frightening 20% of the vote. If these people somehow manage to seize power, we’ll be in exactly the same situation.
So far, I’ve stayed in the know on every god damned thing, even going deep enough in some cases to explore the damage caused. It’s stressful, but somebody has to do it and I’m someone less impacted than the targets of this insanity (although I’ve dated a transfem for years and am trained in education policy, so obviously the news gets to me on a personal level).
One lesson about stress: you’ve got three ways to cope: (1) you address the source of the stress (or at least feel like you’re doing something, like protesting). (2) You ignore it with distractions, which is perfectly fine if it’s out of your control, (3) you reframe it, such as “this will pass” or “there’s still good in the world”, etc… All three will reduce stress.
We all do all three, and whichever one you find yourself doing is fine. For example, I feel good by trying to share my knowledge and convince my students to give a shit; I still play video games to relax; and I have told myself plenty of times that, while it’s bad (very, very bad), that as long as we survive we can build back our institutions (and believe me, the DoE is both important and deeply flawed-- as someone who survived a failed k-12 education and got a PhD in spite of it, education reform has always been my dream).
Your didn’t mention compartmentalization. 🤔
Well, those three things are what a psych teacher told me in community college like, way before I sought out my degree. Not that that should be a ding against her, she taught at pretty competitive 4 years, too.
That said, yours could just be a different framework (e.g. PTSD literature). I personally don’t think that works very well, as it represses the emotion (much like ignoring it would do). You could also argue physical exercise and deep breaths work, too, but again, that’s another framework and one that’s generally taught along with aggression literature.
Damn. You know your stuff well enough that I’m not going to waste your time doing a bit. It was probably funnier in my head anyway.
Heh, probably just needed a more extreme example, like healing crystals. But man, even that ends up tested by researches if for no other reason but to debunk it, lol.
you have to stay informed
This is a myth. You actually don’t. You can just not look at the miserable depressing horrible shit that’s going on, and that way you don’t feel as miserable and depressed. There’s no test at the end of term, so no reason to depress yourself
This is a myth. You actually don’t.
No, I think that’s what OP’s question is all about-- more than ever, many/most people DO need to stay informed to a baseline extent. That’s because laws, policy and legal interpretation are changing hard and fast in the USA for example, and citizens who aren’t informed can be critically blindsided. That may result in their jobs suddenly vanishing for no good reason, discrimination being ratcheted up against them, their rights suddenly eroding (as we saw in the wake of Roe vs. Wade being revoked), and/or they’re now facing deportation or being held in a facility ‘just because.’ Or for example, many people depend on Medicare, Medicaid, the ACA and/or SSI to stay afloat, and those are all going to be cut down, evidently. So certainly, you’d want to be as prepared as possible for stuff like the above, while still retaining a healthy mindset.
Or for example, if you were in Great Britain and weren’t paying attention to the Brexit background, you may have been part of (and directly affected by), the voting disaster enabling the plan to go through.
Here’s the thing I’ve discovered over the past two months. You can block every keyword you can think of involving politics and you will still be subject to them in memes that don’t happen to mention the keywords, comments where the blocking isn’t effective, and friends and spouses mentioning them, if not more. Politics pop up in every context. Video game YouTube, programming subjects on hacker news, pretty much every single subject at this point in time is inundated with politics.
For a long time I was the most informed person in my social circle. I can’t deal with it anymore. I blocked every mention I could think of and yet I still think I’m just as informed as everyone else in my circle, at least to a certain extent.
You can’t avoid it. So block everything and you’ll still be informed.
Before November, I did it by mainly looking at AP News. During November I was kind of a mess. After November, no news at all. My lemmy feed is comic strips, Linux, photography, and asklemmy, a few other things that are not political. If major shit happens I hear from my partner or friends, but they all know I’m not that interested. My YouTube feed is Buddhist stuff, standup comedy, and hobby rabbit holes. I even filtered out the lefty late night shows (daily show etc). I know the basics of what’s going on, but don’t feel any need to get daily updates on it and I’m feeling pretty sane compared to a few months ago! We donate to Palestinian charities, HRC, etc., are active in other ways, but this daily media crap is not healthy.
I have all major news sources and US politics tags blocked on Mastodon. I also continually block subs focused on US news here on Lemmy.
Frankly, I don’t trust news media or any kind. The purpose of those publications is to make sure they’re distributed as widely as possible to sell ads. So I don’t look at them unless I have to.
I do, however, follow some local chatter for my city, as the relevant news is there.
Personally I feel I manage to still stay informed, since anything of real importance will break through my block list anyway.
The purpose of those publications is to make sure they’re distributed as widely as possible to sell ads
Agree: For-profit journalism has screwed-up incentives. Not-for-profit journalism does tend to be different.
Personally I feel I manage to still stay informed, since anything of real importance will break through my block list anyway.
So you’re relying on those around you to keep you informed, despite blocking news on social media and not reading news yourself? Bold choice.
I suppose I still don’t trust the not-for-profit outlets either. Non-profit status, at least in the US, is a matter of taxes rather than one of morals.
And, yes, I do end up relying on people around me to hear about things for the first time, but I can and do look into things further from there.
There are pros and cons for this, of course, but I feel a lot calmer without the constant stream of doom in my life.
It’s also a matter of motivations. I’m not saying nonprofit status confers automatic trustworthiness, but they are missing the major incentives for sensationalism that for-profit outlets are.
I vaccilate between “Eh, world and my life were always a mess, we could do with a do-over” and “holy shit holy shit holy shit is that a nuke in the distance?”. Multiple times daily. Shit’s exhausting.
I ignore news that don’t concern me, my family, city or country. The rest is labeled under “societal spectacle”, drama that I cant change unless i have to stop working and dedicate a whole life to fix that problem. Its ok to admit “bugger this” and just turning off the news, if only a while.
Its good to stay informed but I can hardly point at a piece of “news” that absolutly changed my life, career, relationships etc…
It feels like you have to build a skill that sorts news into “I cant do shit about this, (because of valid reasons)” and “wait what are they gutting from my social services that I paid for most of my life through taxes?”.
Of important things you will get informed want it or not.
It’s better to just pursue news on things you like and enjoy to avoid depression.
If news stress you out I would recommend to actually avoid them. It’s what I do and I am still oversaturated with news, so there’s no risk on being missinformed.
i simply stay uninformed. all the important news will come through memes and bypass all keyword filters i set anyway
we weren’t made to receive bad news from around the globe 24/7 beamed directly into our pockets. i prefer to be happy
There is no line for me.
I’m incredibly fragile and seeing people
I care aboutbe hurt by all this hurts me incredibly much.I’m now avoiding the news and doing my best to instead be a positive influence, help where I am able, offer support, donate what I can, etc.
I refuse to let evil fucking idiots steal my joy.
Godspeed in your efforts! I am of the mindset that there is no benefit, whatsoever, to seeing an incredibly great majority of news. It’s just so depressing most of the time.
Been talking to folks more and making more friends, which has been great. Seems like many people are of a similar mindset.
You’re a good person. Please take care of yourself today I want you around later when it’s not crazy outside, okay?
