Hello, again! Today, I am going to talk briefly about why we need to control the amount of time we spend exposing ourselves to information from the internet, television, newspapers, and other sources.
I am guilty. I spend time every day reading about the news of the day, from a variety of sources. Most days, current events are not laced with good news, and most days I don't respond to the information with a feeling of hope, optimism, or even happiness. Death and dying. Major long term illnesses after recovery. Arguments and violence over masking or not masking. Police brutality. Unnecessary deaths from altercations with law enforcement agents. Protests. Protests gone bad. To open schools or not. Unemployment benefits in America being slashed. Power out of control. COVID-19 cases and deaths rising, infecting more children.
There is a lot of very negative information very readily available to us all, and it can lead us to feel very sad, despondent, lacking hope for the future, angry, anxious, sleepless. These emotions can lead to other even more serious emotional disturbances, like depression and isolation. So, we need to make sure we are tending to our information consumption, for our own health and well-being.
My adult children have suggested I cut back on my daily consumption of information, and they have been right in suggesting that. I have done just that, but it hasn't been easy (it can be addicting). I was raised to be a regular consumer of information: to read and to know is to be a good citizen and an intelligent human being. I grew up reading the newspaper every day (yes, a newspaper that was delivered to the front step, every morning. That ages me a bit.). I watched the news on TV every night as a young adult. I was trained to be a regular consumer of news in order to be an informed citizen, and I still believe that to be true for all of us. We all need to be informed citizens of the world. But, how we become informed, and how often we chose to inform ourselves is what we need to be more aware of, and to consider be more conscious in our decisions in that area.
Today, I am going to focus on the amount of time we spend each day. Tomorrow, I will talk about being a critical thinker and consumer of information. Being a wise consumer of information is a BIG topic, but I will tackle it tomorrow! So, time. According to a Market watch poll from 2018, most Americans spend about 70 minutes per day consuming news information. There are no statistics available yet for 2020, but if I had to guess, I would say Americans, and people across the world, are consuming more information about current events, because there is so much more happening in the world right now.
How do you access information about the current events each day? Are you, like me, on your computer a lot each day? I work from home, teaching courses online, so I am sitting/standing in front of my computer a LOT each day. Because I spend so much time in front of my computer, it is very easy to open up another tab or two, with social media or news web pages, so I can periodically toggle to them to see what is happening. The problem with that is, as you can probably guess, that I am interrupting my work day a lot more than I realize, so my productivity is not what it could be, and I am accessing negative information regularly, throughout the day. Now, I share this because I am pretty sure I am not alone in this. Whether you work from home, or just have a lot of time on your hands at home, because, well, we really don't have the ability to go out and do much, either way - we need to think more about this strategy, and be more conscious about information access.
I am a firm believer in staying informed. It is crucial for citizens of the country and of the world that we are aware of what is happening around us and around the world. But. We need to be deliberate about our access to information. We need to be deliberate about the amount of time we spend each day, and the time of day in which we access this information.
Research on media consumption and well-being provides us some good tips. Here they are, summarized for your easy consumption:
Limit your exposure to 30 minutes per day.
Schedule your exposure to the same time each day, as much as possible. Make sure it is not near your bedtime.
After your consumption, spend time doing something healthy.
First, evaluate your mood and physical state after reading the news. How do I feel about this?
Next, can I take some time to meditate, to go for a walk, spend time in a nature setting to relax my response to the news, or talk to a loved one? These all help alleviate stress responses, and remind us we are not alone.
Think about how you might put the information into action. Did I learn something that I can use in my life, to be safer, or to help others? Did I learn something that is motivating me to take action for social justice? Acting on negative information often helps us, by providing a sense of control when we feel out of control, and giving us a sense of meaning.
If limiting your exposure to 30 minutes is difficult, consider a podcast or other news outlet that provides a summary of the last 24 hours, so you can get all the news in an abbreviated format. Or avoid accessing it directly, altogether by asking someone you trust to give you a news briefing.
Remind yourself that the news we consume, which is largely negative, is not a valid statistical representation of the world at large. In other words, the world is not all bad news. We just don't have a 'good news' outlet. I will say, I really enjoyed listening to John Kraskinski's "Some Good News" YouTube episodes, while they lasted. Not sure what happened to those, but they helped me and a lot of people remember that the world is not a complete shit show. There are good things, and good people everywhere. So, keep that in mind. The news is largely information about the worst things that have happened in the last 24 hours, and there are a lot of good people doing good things everywhere. More on that tomorrow.
In an effort to avoid contributing to your over consumption of media today, I am ending this blog here! Limit your exposure, don't do it before bed, as much as possible, think positive thoughts after, which include thoughts like: "Wow, today was a bad day in the news. I feel so out of control with these huge problems. I am going to take back that control by acting on it, if I can. I am going to meditate on this, talk to a friend on Zoom, or pet my dog and think about it. Then, I am going to give myself a 24 hour moratorium from news consumption."
See you tomorrow! Be safe! Take care!
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