What an odd perspective. Personally, I find hearing about awful people, injustices and atrocities, etc. to be highly de-motivating. I want to save a world less

What an odd perspective. Personally, I find hearing about awful people, injustices and atrocities, etc. to be highly de-motivating. I want to save a world less when I plunge deep into a well of knowledge about the people that don't deserve to be saved. And vice-versa, when I learn about uplifting things — selfless people doing things to help others, people striving to invent new technologies and medicines that keep our world going one more day, preventing us from tipping over into some apocalypse or another — I find myself more motivated to help others as well, because I can imagine that I am helping those good people. And also, I don't have to imagine — those people are on my side! If I have a goal for positive change related to one of these issues, news about progress with those issues tells me that I wouldn't be alone in solving these problems; that there will be people there to work with, people to ally with and collaborate with, people that massively increase the chance of changing the world! Besides the motivational angle, though: "the world is burning" news is basically information-free. For almost all adults who haven't been living in a cave, such news causes no Bayesian update. Growing up, you learn about a few of the worst atrocities ever committed — the dictators, the serial killers, etc. Once you know these, you can derive the pattern of thinking behind them, an understanding of the base impulses of humanity at its darkest. You don't need constant new examples of the pattern to remind you that it continues to happen. You can assume that it continues to happen. (If you know this and you still feel obsessively compelled to expose yourself to such information — well, there's a name for that.) Whereas, "good news" is frequently useful news. A new medicine? You or a family member might live longer taking it! Solar panels are cheaper now? Hey, maybe you can afford them yourself now! There's currently a big grassroots push to treat tuberculosis in developing nations? Sounds like something still small enough that a retweet could actually help it happen! And also sounds like you should slightly update in favor of those nations becoming more developed and being a place you should take a vacation to one day!