5 ms·

I have cut out the vast majority of news and social media since the beginning of 2025. My mental health is noticeably better, and I would readily attribute thi

by j_bum 1y ago

I have cut out the vast majority of news and social media since the beginning of 2025. My mental health is noticeably better, and I would readily attribute this to not being tuned in to the ongoings of the globe that I have zero control over. Instead, I have been more focused on my local life and community. But I regularly feel guilty about not being keyed in to the flirtations with/forays into authoritarianism in my country.

zeta0134 1y ago
This is my strategy as well. There are some issues I care about enough to follow, mostly related to lgbtq+ topics and technical regulations affecting my industry. But for the larger political sphere and what I hesitantly refer to as "headlines that belong in tabloids" I actively do not care. It'll take me about a day or two (per candidate) to get back up to speed when elections come around, so I can do my civic duty and vote. Beyond that I don't let it consume my life. I've got stuff to do, and not very much time left to do it.
- ChrisMarshallNY 1y ago
  That's kind of my attitude. I have a number of friends that are addicted to Outrage Pron (almost all media -mainstream or fringe- qualifies). They -literally- spend almost every waking hour, doomscrolling. One of them occasionally forwards videos to me, that are clearly edited for angst, but he takes as gospel. AI will make that kind of stuff much, much worse. I had a friend tell me "If you're not outraged, you're not paying attention!" He thought it was a clever, brand new saying (Spoiler: It's not —I first heard it, in the 1970s). I've found that I can get a lot done, when I pay attention to the things over which I have direct control.
  - 0points 1y ago
    > "If you're not outraged, you're not paying attention!" Yea.. that outrage won't lead to any change. On the contrary, being in this state of distress eventually makes you unable to cope, breaking you down.
    - ModernMech 1y ago
      Being complacent also won't lead to any change. People need to be outraged but they also have to do something about it. You have to pick a lane -- if you're going to not do anything about it, then commit to not doing anything and bury your head. If you're going to get outraged, you can't just go into work every day like everything is normal, the cognitive dissonance will get you. Outrage needs an outlet.
      - quantummagic 1y ago
        > Outrage needs an outlet. You've really let yourself off the hook there; that's way too easy to say. What exactly do you suggest, that would make an actually useful contribution to improving the situation?
        JKCalhoun 1y ago
        You're right that optimism has a difficult job of looking for tangible, actionable things while nihilism can stretch out in a hammock and watch the world burn. Historical situations like our own might be a good place to start to look for solutions.
        quantummagic 1y ago
        > Historical situations like our own might be a good place to start to look for solutions. If you have a suggestion about something practical, that can actually help, please speak up. Offering more platitudes is just way too easy; it feels good, maybe, but it's really just an admission that we don't have a good outlet for our outrage. Which is why so many of us spend our days venting online, because apparently (judging from the lack of concrete ideas offered) it's about as effective as anything else we could do.
        cindyllm 1y ago
        [dead]
        1y ago
- waltbosz 1y ago
  > I'll take me about a day or two (per candidate) ... I have so much trouble deciding on primary elections. There are often 5 primary candidates, and 10 seats to decide upon. And I've found no good tool to help evaluate their policy and record. I want some sort of score board website that tracks their political and public behaviors towards various policies.
  - Esophagus4 1y ago
    I’ve found sites like Balletopedia to be good starting points when I do my research. Then I generally go to the candidates individual websites or see what their main talking points are. You don’t always get a sense for everything, but you kind of figure out who they are in general. From an actual example of a candidate’s official Facebook page in my state, if you see them post something like “how come the MAINSTREAM media isn’t covering the BLACK on WHITE crime?!” you generally don’t need to do much research on them after that.
    - waltbosz 1y ago
      That's my standard process too, ballotpedia > candidate website. But campaign websites often feel like general bland taking points repeated by all the primary candidates.
emchammer 1y ago
Apple’s Screen Time has been pretty good by me. I set Safari to an hour and News/Stocks to 15 minutes per day, only allowed after noon, and blocked on the weekend. I still click Give Me Another 15 Minutes but it’s annoying enough that it reminds me why it’s there.
ModernMech 1y ago
> But I regularly feel guilty about not being keyed in to the flirtations with/forays into authoritarianism in my country. This really highlights that the threat of authoritarianism is really only a threat to certain people, which frankly is why authoritarianism happens. Because if authoritarianism were an issue for you, you'd be reading the news. If POTUS were threatening to send troops into your streets to arrest people who look like you, that'd be something you'd want to be aware of yes? If he had a policy to detain people who look like you, and if he doesn't like your tattoos he'll send you to a foreign torture prison, you'd probably be very keen on paying attention to that kind of thing. But since he's not threating you and yours specifically, you have the luxury of tuning out for your mental health while all that goes on. Until of course he comes for your ethnicity/religion/politics/profession. Although, I guess you won't know until that happens because you won't be reading the news. Yeah, you know what I think I would have better mental health too if I could just tune out the daily missives from the abyss, but I need to stay on top of what words I'm not allowed to say at my job or else the government will target us for research defunding. Words like "equity" and anything that starts with the prefix "trans".
- delfinom 1y ago
  Consuming a 24/7 feed of doomerism media does nothing for fighting authoritarianism. It simply just gives ad revenue to oligarchs. If you want to do something, get involved in local politics and groups, stay off social media where Facebook like activism does nothing.
  - deleted 1y ago
    [deleted]
- techpineapple 1y ago
  Yes, some people benefit more from watching the news than others and therefore choose to.
  - AlecSchueler 1y ago
    Meanwhile some of aren't badly affected but care about the wellbeing of others so choose not to tune out to their detriment.

by j_bum 1y ago

zeta0134 1y ago

This is my strategy as well. There are some issues I care about enough to follow, mostly related to lgbtq+ topics and technical regulations affecting my industry. But for the larger political sphere and what I hesitantly refer to as "headlines that belong in tabloids" I actively do not care. It'll take me about a day or two (per candidate) to get back up to speed when elections come around, so I can do my civic duty and vote. Beyond that I don't let it consume my life. I've got stuff to do, and not very much time left to do it.

ChrisMarshallNY 1y ago
That's kind of my attitude. I have a number of friends that are addicted to Outrage Pron (almost all media -mainstream or fringe- qualifies). They -literally- spend almost every waking hour, doomscrolling. One of them occasionally forwards videos to me, that are clearly edited for angst, but he takes as gospel. AI will make that kind of stuff much, much worse. I had a friend tell me "If you're not outraged, you're not paying attention!" He thought it was a clever, brand new saying (Spoiler: It's not —I first heard it, in the 1970s). I've found that I can get a lot done, when I pay attention to the things over which I have direct control.
- 0points 1y ago
  > "If you're not outraged, you're not paying attention!" Yea.. that outrage won't lead to any change. On the contrary, being in this state of distress eventually makes you unable to cope, breaking you down.
  - ModernMech 1y ago
    Being complacent also won't lead to any change. People need to be outraged but they also have to do something about it. You have to pick a lane -- if you're going to not do anything about it, then commit to not doing anything and bury your head. If you're going to get outraged, you can't just go into work every day like everything is normal, the cognitive dissonance will get you. Outrage needs an outlet.
    - quantummagic 1y ago
      > Outrage needs an outlet. You've really let yourself off the hook there; that's way too easy to say. What exactly do you suggest, that would make an actually useful contribution to improving the situation?
      - JKCalhoun 1y ago
        You're right that optimism has a difficult job of looking for tangible, actionable things while nihilism can stretch out in a hammock and watch the world burn. Historical situations like our own might be a good place to start to look for solutions.
        quantummagic 1y ago
        > Historical situations like our own might be a good place to start to look for solutions. If you have a suggestion about something practical, that can actually help, please speak up. Offering more platitudes is just way too easy; it feels good, maybe, but it's really just an admission that we don't have a good outlet for our outrage. Which is why so many of us spend our days venting online, because apparently (judging from the lack of concrete ideas offered) it's about as effective as anything else we could do.
        cindyllm 1y ago
        [dead]
        1y ago
waltbosz 1y ago
> I'll take me about a day or two (per candidate) ... I have so much trouble deciding on primary elections. There are often 5 primary candidates, and 10 seats to decide upon. And I've found no good tool to help evaluate their policy and record. I want some sort of score board website that tracks their political and public behaviors towards various policies.
- Esophagus4 1y ago
  I’ve found sites like Balletopedia to be good starting points when I do my research. Then I generally go to the candidates individual websites or see what their main talking points are. You don’t always get a sense for everything, but you kind of figure out who they are in general. From an actual example of a candidate’s official Facebook page in my state, if you see them post something like “how come the MAINSTREAM media isn’t covering the BLACK on WHITE crime?!” you generally don’t need to do much research on them after that.
  - waltbosz 1y ago
    That's my standard process too, ballotpedia > candidate website. But campaign websites often feel like general bland taking points repeated by all the primary candidates.

emchammer 1y ago

Apple’s Screen Time has been pretty good by me. I set Safari to an hour and News/Stocks to 15 minutes per day, only allowed after noon, and blocked on the weekend. I still click Give Me Another 15 Minutes but it’s annoying enough that it reminds me why it’s there.

ModernMech 1y ago

> But I regularly feel guilty about not being keyed in to the flirtations with/forays into authoritarianism in my country. This really highlights that the threat of authoritarianism is really only a threat to certain people, which frankly is why authoritarianism happens. Because if authoritarianism were an issue for you, you'd be reading the news. If POTUS were threatening to send troops into your streets to arrest people who look like you, that'd be something you'd want to be aware of yes? If he had a policy to detain people who look like you, and if he doesn't like your tattoos he'll send you to a foreign torture prison, you'd probably be very keen on paying attention to that kind of thing. But since he's not threating you and yours specifically, you have the luxury of tuning out for your mental health while all that goes on. Until of course he comes for your ethnicity/religion/politics/profession. Although, I guess you won't know until that happens because you won't be reading the news. Yeah, you know what I think I would have better mental health too if I could just tune out the daily missives from the abyss, but I need to stay on top of what words I'm not allowed to say at my job or else the government will target us for research defunding. Words like "equity" and anything that starts with the prefix "trans".

delfinom 1y ago
Consuming a 24/7 feed of doomerism media does nothing for fighting authoritarianism. It simply just gives ad revenue to oligarchs. If you want to do something, get involved in local politics and groups, stay off social media where Facebook like activism does nothing.
- deleted 1y ago
  [deleted]
techpineapple 1y ago
Yes, some people benefit more from watching the news than others and therefore choose to.
- AlecSchueler 1y ago
  Meanwhile some of aren't badly affected but care about the wellbeing of others so choose not to tune out to their detriment.