#16 The benefits of limiting our news consumption
The News with a capital N is all around us and never more than a glance away.
Our phones are portals to unlimited news coverage and every year billions of pounds are invested in capturing our most valuable resource: our attention.
But we pay a price for overexposure to the news.
We worry about events beyond our control. We ride a rollercoaster of emotions tied to the news cycle. The media outlets we both love and loathe push our buttons and it is easy to find ourselves swept up in the latest coverage.
The problem is we feel obliged to stay up to date and society attributes value to being informed.
I get it: I worked as a journalist and editor for a large newspaper publisher for five years. To clarify, I’m not anti-news or anti-media – quite the opposite. But I am against consumption for consumption’s sake.
Yes, some people might find genuine value in omnipresent news.
But there are several benefits to stepping back from news coverage.
- Time: Reducing the minutes or hours we spend absorbed by the news frees up precious time for other endeavours.
- Control: We concentrate more on what we can control around us rather than dim and distant events that we have no ability to alter.
- Mental health: limiting the constant barrage of news might lower our stress and anxiety levels.
- Focus: we humans are easily distracted creatures – if we check the news less, we improve our chances of staying focused on more important priorities.
- Reflection: Limiting our news consumption gives us space to assess what we are truly interested in. Say we take a break from general news websites but realise we are still interested in specific subjects, we can return but with more intentionality.
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Benjamin Craske
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