Oct 10, 2024
We are drawn to negative news like a moth to a porch light. The porch light is brighter than ever.
My guess is we want to hear bad news so we can avoid it or plan for it. If the family in the next cave was eaten by a tiger last night, we should sharpen our spears and build a door with a handle. Or we’re next. When society consisted of small groups of people living together, bad news was usually relevant to us and thus important.
Nowadays, we hear daily about wars all over the world, natural disasters, despicable crimes. We get anxious, scared, depressed because we think the world is in a terrible state. The world was always a mixed bag, but in many ways it’s now better than ever. We hear more about the bad stuff not because there’s more of it, but because it’s easier to discover. And when all we see is flames, it’s easy to think the whole world is on fire.
Negative content comes with a high emotional cost. The more we consume, the higher the toll on our emotional and mental health. Constant exposure to bad news normalizes feelings powerless. With so much tragedy, it’s rare that we feel we can contribute meaningfully to lessening the suffering of those affected. In the same way a healthy diet leads to a healthier body, a healthy information diet leads to a healthier mind. I’m not advocating to closing our eyes to the suffering of those on other parts of the world. Rather, if you can make a change, volunteer, donate, you absolutely should. But if all you’re doing is just getting sprayed with a firehose of negative content, it might be time to turn off the tap.