The pros of reading the news can outweigh the cons if you choose good sources. For example, a friend who is Chinese has become a lot more alert when going outdo

The pros of reading the news can outweigh the cons if you choose good sources. For example, a friend who is Chinese has become a lot more alert when going outdoors and taking public transit due to spikes in anti-Asian racism in many cities, which could help her avoid physical assault. Quality newspapers have also been a relatively better source for information than social media (e.g. when newspapers identified a viral Tweet about supposed combat footage in Ukraine as a clip from a video game flight simulator). I suppose one could completely cut out both social media and news entirely, but then it's hard to receive useful information (e.g. that gas prices and wheat prices are expected to go up, and so many people should plan accordingly).