I’m about to say something that will either seem shocking or ridiculous. Hear me out; you owe it to yourself. It may be the most important thing you hear this year.
You’re feeding yourself poison if you attend to 99% of what goes as news.
Don’t buy the lie that you have to “stay ‘informed'” about “what’s happening.” The news is not what’s happening — it’s really not. It is comprised mostly of two things: 1. Super-selected utra-condensed contextless tragedy about which you can do nothing; and 2. trivia.
What are the effects of choosing to ingest this poison? From number 1 above, you get a) helplessness; and b) either a hardened heart (one that starts to enjoy tragedy, in a sick, voyeuristic kind of way — see “Darwin Award” types) or despair.
From number 2, you get preoccupied with things that don’t matter.
You don’t have to have it. Turn it off.*
*If you care to know more, see Neil Postsman’s Amusing Ourselves to Death.