Not just Trump fatigue, but the world and local news that batters us all day, every day.
Yes, we need to be aware of the dire events that are plaguing our fellow human beings… and yet…
This morning I woke up feeling just plain bad. I felt infected somehow with the evils of the world. A first world problem, I know, and I feel a bit ashamed and humbled that I have the luxury of turning my back on everything, for a while anyway.
I’ve just gone for a long walk at the local mall, as it’s too freakin’ hot and humid to walk outside. (At 6 am, 79 degrees and 95% humidity.) I’m going to avoid the news most of the day, and I’m a little anxious about what atrocity I won’t know about til this evening. I never watch TV news, and only get news from the internet or from NPR when I’m driving. Lunch with a friend–Mexican food, yay! I’ll read, watch British murder mysteries on TV and maybe take a nap.
I stopped watching/listening to the news sometime not long after September 2001. Suddenly “news” was “entertainment,” presented and marketed as such, and I will not abide that. If it’s truly important, I’m sure the news will find me.
I skip a lot of threads here. Learning the facts through a reputable news source or two is enough. The discussion here seldom adds anything but additional heightened emotion.
Yep, it’s not so much news fatigue for me but spin fatigue. Virtually every news source now has an agenda and they spin their reporting to support it. I stick to the ones where I at least know the which way the bias runs and can adjust my reading/listening accordingly.
But overall, I read/listen to less “news” now than I used to.
Mostly avoiding American news feeds. Getting my international news from other sources instead. Way less spin and partisanship makes such a refreshing change.
I think Trump’s presidency has helped a lot of Canadians disengage, on some level, from American news, which has always unavoidably dominated our media. That’s a really good thing, I think.
I do two things that I think help, but not just because of news fatigue:
Exercise. You already do that, so good for you! Long walks are great, and I’m lucky to live where the weather is almost always agreeable for such activity. Fall is near, so take heart.
Meditation. It’s a great way to disengage and reconnect with yourself.
Mainly, I don’t spend much time on news. Most of it is not stuff I can do anything about. I need a general knowledge of the world, but I don’t need the level that is thrust upon us. There’s not really any more news than there used to be, just more coverage of it.
I get a whole lot of my news just from the websites I’m at anyways. When I’m linked to an article on Reddit, I check out what’s in the sidebar. If people are talking about some news I don’t know about, I look it up. And I do see that little sidebar on Facebook, though I have it set to Entertainment news as that’s the stuff that’s actually decent from Facebook.
Oh and I don’t watch TV. I don’t mean that in some snobbish way. I just mean we still have a CRT we don’t even use, and everything I watch is online. I definitely never check the news channels, which are just for stretching information out.
My news comes from a quick look at reuters.com in the morning. I might turn to one of the cable news shows for a minute or two if there is a story breaking but I have come to really really hate all of them and never just sit and watch the crap.
The past few months I’ve found myself thinking what this country needs is another missing pretty white woman so there would be something on TV news besides all Trump all the time.
Between this place and Facebook I get all the news I need, and I can select what to read in detail and what items to just browse the headlines.
I’ll be honest though, I’m very tired of American news. I get that you’re the elephant next door, but Trump and Nazis are bumming me out, man. My FB feed is dominated by all this shit, and I just wish it would all end.
There are even talks of white nationalist gatherings in Canada now, for fuck’s sake.
No, we don’t need to be aware of the dire events. If the events are not going to cause us to change our behavior in some way, then all they are doing is making us upset, and there is no value to us or anyone else.
I gave up on local news years ago, and I stopped watching the national news back in September 2016, when it became apparent that Trump was going to win. I learn enough about the world from this board and *the people who won’t shut up about it even when asked politely *that I don’t feel ignorant. The thing I miss most is Stephen Colbert. This morning I caved and watched a little of his show on youtube, and even with the brilliant comedy take, it just made me sad.
If you really want to feel better about the world, I recommend doing something to make it better. Volunteer, surprise someone who could use a lift, even just picking up litter can make a positive difference. Watching or listening to the news doesn’t help anything.
It’s mainly Trump fatigue that’s a problem for me. At least 90% of the news is about Trump, rehashing the same stupid things he says on a daily basis. There must be a lot more going on in the world but it’s not making the news. And with so much concentration on Trump’s twitter account I don’t know if anyone is looking behind the curtain to see what’s really going on.
Yeah, the fact that so much of the “news” is laser-focused on the ramblings, actions, non-actions, tone-deaf tweets, reactions to, opinions on, and speculation about a clueless, racist moron really isn’t making “the news” any more appealing to me.
I suggest focusing on specific things YOU can do to improve your self, others, or your community/environment. Identify some specific contribution you can make. Volunteer at a retirement home. Manage a prairie. After Trump was elected, I chose to tutor adult English language literacy. The new might suggest that things suck in many ways that I have no control over, but at least I KNOW I am helping ONE SPECIFIC individual…
I also have tried to increase my personal exercise, and my hobby of music making. Any time and mental capacity you dedicate to something else, reduces the time/effort you’ll be stewing over unpleasant developments. A group I play with has started playing at churches and retirement homes - allowing me a “two-fer” - both personal enjoyment and development AND assisting others!
I also have chosen to REALLY reduce my scope of focus. To address spin, I’ve tried to learn something about the tangible things I see and experience every day. I’ve read books and otherwise researched the soil in my community, the plants that grow in my gardens, the worms and insects I encounter… It provides me considerable comfort to have greater appreciation of things that are indisputable, and that I directly confront regularly in my daily life.
Place limits on your news consumption. If you don’t, it can swallow you up. I read the paper newspaper daily, and watch the Daily Show and Full Frontal. Other than what I pick up around here, that’s about it. When you meet with people, you can choose what you talk about. If discussing unpleasant news does not benefit you somehow, pick other things to talk about.
Life is too short, and there is too much ugliness around, to let it dominate your life.
