Why I do not Watch the News
I think people truly don’t realize how powerful the media is, the media may be the most influential entity that the world has ever seen. Most people aren’t aware of the things that they are feeding their mind, and how that impacts them.
Your habits normally tells you the story of your life.
The biggest issue that I have with the news is that it constantly reiterates what’s wrong with the world.
I do realize that it’s important to educate yourself on your surroundings and what’s going on in the world whether that be good or bad, but yet still I feel as though the news puts too much emphasis on the negative.
If the news was 50 percent positive and 50 percent negative, then I wouldn’t have a problem with it at all.
When you’re 95 percent negative and 5 percent positive, I then start to believe that you are detrimental to society.
Pumping your mind full of all that negativity can’t be good for anybody’s psyche. That kind of consistent negativity has a chance to lead someone to a negative outlook on life, depression, and a sense of hopelessness.
According to verywellmind.com, Annie Miller, an expert on mental health mentioned that watching a lot of news can lead to more stress. She also mentioned that it can lead to fatigue, depression, anxiety, and trouble sleeping.
That same article also talked about a study that compared people that watched negative content, in comparison to people who watched more lighthearted or neutral content.
“This emotional toll and negative effect on the psyche was demonstrated in a study that found people who watched negative material, as compared to those who watched positive or neutral material, showed an increase in both anxious and sad moods only after 14-minutes of viewing television news bulletins and programs.”
It only took 14 minutes. Let that number sink in… just 14 minutes. Just imagine the negative impact that watching the news on the daily could have on you.
I find it so astonishing that some people start their day with news, end their day with the news, and then they wonder why they’re in a bad mood or having a bad day.
I’m not a rocket scientist but if you start your day with murder, rape, destruction, war and evil the odds are you’re not going to be in the greatest of moods.
Then some people are ingesting the same negative information right before they go to bed.
Knowing this it really makes you wonder why people watch the news at all.
It cannot be a coincidence that I know a lot more miserable people that watch the news than don’t.
You can probably tell that I feel really passionate about this topic. The reason being is because I have a personal gripe with the news.
My parents consistently watch the news both in the morning and at night.
While I do love the city of New York, it also has its fair share of crime. A lot of our local news depicts the city to be crime filled.
The news put such a worrisome mindset on them that they were worried about me coming home at all times.
This was so frustrating growing up, as I felt sheltered and I think that overprotectiveness had an impact on my social life and social skills.
I wouldn’t say that I grew up socially awkward, but I would say that I missed out on some very needed interaction with people my age.
I love the fact that my parents truly cared about me because I know far too many stories where the parents didn’t care enough, and being overprotective is a lot better than being underprotective.
They sometimes took it too far. I figured that one day they would start to give me some more freedom, but that never really happened.
Even in college my parents were calling me at 9 P.M. wondering where I was.
There were times as a teenager where I visited a church member’s house that lived 2 blocks away from me, and they still were calling me at 8 P.M. or earlier to find out when I would get home.
These same rules applied when I went to play basketball at my local park. Virtually anytime I left my house, no matter the distance, my parents were on my case and seemed to live in a state of constant worrying.
My grandmother has the same habit of consistently watching the news, and I’m sure that her grandmother had that same habit. Subconsciously passing on worryness for generations to come without even realizing it.
Even the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says that it is important to monitor your news intake.
“To help alleviate the mental and emotional toll this is all taking, the CDC recommends taking breaks from watching, listening, or reading news stories.”
It’s fine to stay informed, but at what cost?
Just like anything in life, balance is key.
Watch the news, but be aware of what that is doing to you. If you’re feeling a bit down, try staying away from the news for a little while and see what happens.
Don’t let the news control your mood and thoughts.
More times than not the things that the news talk about, we aren’t in a position to change anyway.
This doesn’t mean to ignore the bad things going on in the world, it just means that we should also put a healthy emphasis on some of the positive things that the world has to offer.
For instance the news has a tendency to poorly portray black people and white cops.
There are so many racist people out there, and I believe that the media plays a big role in that.
The media likes to take small instances and put a microscope on it to amplify the situation to the public, leading them to believe that this happens with regularity.
For example, I know a lot of people who think all white cops are bad, and think that they’re all purposely targeting and killing black people. I’m also certain that there are some people that believe all black people are criminals.
Why? Because that’s how the media paints the narrative.
I can say without a shadow of a doubt that not all cops seek to cause harm to minorities. And as a black person I can confidently say that not all black people are criminals.
The average person wakes up, goes to work, and comes back home. Oftentimes the news is the only real connection that some people have to the outside world.
Some of these people may not live in diverse areas, so the media is truly responsible for some people’s thought process.
If you don’t live near black people, and the media is depicting black people in a negative light, how else are they supposed to view black people?
If black people see white cops being depicted negatively in the media, what are they going to think about white cops?
The harsh reality is there are innocent people being killed of all races, but that doesn’t make the news. The harsh reality is there are bad cops of all races, and the number of good cops severely outweigh the bad, but that doesn’t make the news.
Why doesn’t that make the news? Because people feed off controversy.
If you don’t believe me, look at the world around us.
Look at reality TV, look at Tekashi 6ix9ine, look at our President and tell me that people don’t feed off of controversy.
These are prime examples of people who have said or have done a number of controversial things that have made them immensely popular.
If the news reported on things that were strictly positive, they would be out of business in no time.
If everything is going great, what is there really to talk about? If there’s nothing that needs improvement, what is there to report?
There definitely is an understandable reason as to why news stations report what they do, at least from their perspective.
My goal of my writing is to sympathize with the opposition, so I try my best to realize where someone is coming from, no matter how much I disagree with them.
So I can understand why the news dishes out the stories the way that they do because another harsh reality is that those news stations have bills to pay too. Those happy go lucky stories won’t get the same ratings.
For me personally not watching the news keeps me in high spirits for the most part. I am well aware that there is a lot of evil going on in the world, but I am also well aware that for every evil there is a miracle.
Me not watching the news doesn’t mean that I am avoiding the tragedies of this world, it means that I rather focus on the things that I can change, and continually work towards a position where I can turn some of those evils into something positive.
Besides the fact that most of us aren’t in a position to change those negative news stories, if the news is big enough it’ll find a way to you anyway.
If we never looked at the news, whoever the next president elect was would have gotten back to us eventually.
When major news occurs it will find you, you don’t have to look for it.
If you watch the news consistently, all I ask is that you stop for a week and see if your mood changes. See if your outlook on life changes, see if you’re happier, the media controls so many people don’t let you be one of them.
Here’s a very helpful article that goes in depth on the negative effects that the news can have on you, and some helpful tips on how to combat those effects:
https://www.verywellmind.com/is-watching-the-news-bad-for-mental-health-4802320
