During the last ‘election summer’ things went haywire but ultimately nothing meaningful really happened, and not a whole lot really changed as a result of that unrest. This time things are going haywire again, and it seems like something big will happen but people thought that the last time… Would it just be better to ignore everything and go work on yourself, your skills, etc. or consume whatever thing is going on? The constant fear that’s being pushed is so emotionally exhausting… I’m finding it harder to care about these things without anything major happening, as shitty as that sounds
Try to stay informed, but also recognize that news is all going to be bad because humans engage with that more.
Learn to recognize when youve had enough bad news and then disengage and find something else to do.
Stay informed. When you feel like the news make you depressed, or even worse you start doomscrolling, take a break. There is a German word called Weltschmerz. It’s the pain you feel when the world seems to go to shit. It is a depressing form of dissatisfaction. I had this the last time when US and allies withdrew from Afghanistan and we left the people who helped us to die. The pictures of desperate people falling from planes still haunt me to this day. Then Russia invaded Ukraine and I doomscrolled for a couple of weeks.
I am not willing to sacrifice my mental health for this. So I cut news from my feed but I still read them every couple of days. Blissful ignorance can also not be accepted. I think the way I do it is a good compromise.
IMHO you always have to stay informed. Just find a news source that does not create too much FUD and you’re set. E.g: Axios, NPR, Reuters, etc
Always.
By now you probably have the gist of what’s going on - that won’t change. It’s useless to attend to it at the expense of your own actual life.
If that’s your level of understanding, I would say you don’t really need to be paying more attention. You should just understand your specific level of ignorance and recognize that you’ll need to defer to the opinions of experts on whatever topic you hear about in the future.
If you refuse to learn about current events, and more importantly the context of those events in history and so on, then you have no choice but to trust experts that know more than you. In this context, expert means people that study/work in a field their entire life and are backed by the larger community of experts - that is to say, they’re not at risk of losing their license or being removed from their employer/academic institution.
You don’t have to keep up with all the news. Your mental health is more important. The most important news will be impossibe to avoid anyways. There will be memes about it and it will be on home pages of search and email sites, etc…
Most news outlets promote the outrageous and controversial stuff to get viewers face time. Try to go with informative but reasoned news sources. Also the MSM, and social media tries so hard to capture audiences that they miss vital but less sensational topics. That said, the AP presents pretty non-inflammatory news. I get news from comedians like Jon Stewart and Emmy Award winner John Oliver to lighten things up and Beau of the Fifth Column for unique non-partisan points of view.
In my personal opinion, the largest impact you have as an individual is your vote. Once elections are over there’s no need to keep up with the news, there’s nothing you can really do after all.
Something that really changed my perspective is that one of the oldest men to have ever lived, lived and grew up in Venezuela, a horrifically mismanaged country with tons of despair. Despite everything around him and living very modestly, he lived to an extremely old age.
You don’t live that long without will to live but despite his circumstances he found personal happiness and fulfillment.
Moral of the story, despite the gloomy world out there doesn’t mean yours deserves to be too.
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Get a weekly newspaper on physical paper. All of the news, none of the day to day hype.
Media feed you don’t control, is made to steer you in a certain direction. Unless you have an active interest in improving something and trying to filter through lies, its just noise that won’t affect you much.
Focus on yourself, join powerful groups to organize. The wolf hunts the lone sheep. And we are the sheep.
Nah. Nothing good is happening and you can’t do anything about any of it.
Once you understand the major forces and their interests, there is little reason to follow day to say, it’s just poisonous.
First one, then the other. Keep semi-regular contact, but don’t spend every waking moment on the news or social media, as you aren’t gaining much additional actionable information that way.
