@Beckdawrek, this OP isn’t structured as a P&E discussion, so I’m closing it. If you meant it for a different forum (seems like MPSIMS), PM me, and I’ll move and re-open it.
ETA - after reviewing with our OP, moved to MPSIMS which was the original intent, the thread is now open.
My 43-year-old daughter is completely apolitical. She doesn’t watch national news, and she’s never voted in her life. I can’t talk politics with her because she has no opinion on anything. She knows nothing about Trump and doesn’t care who’s president.
She lives in complete political ignorance, and as a result, she never stresses about anything happening in Washington, D.C., or even her state capital. I don’t know how common this attitude is, but she apparently has friends who share her views. She focuses on her job and her 12-year-old son. She’s not married.
When I inadvertently brought up the Kirk assassination one day, she had no idea who he was or what I was talking about. In all fairness, I had never heard of him until he was shot, but I try to watch the national news every day. I can’t imagine living in her world myself, but she seems happy being ignorant about what is going on in the world, and probably sleeps better than I do as a result.
Me: I completely swore off of the 24 hour newscycle on Nov.7th, 2024.
This included avoiding facebook and most sections here.
(thank you mods for keeping certain sections free from political stuff - it’s greatly appreciated)
I do happen to hear or see things from some places but it’s usually kept at a minimum. The last couple of weeks or so it’s harder and and I do see the temptation to peek and see what’s going on.
There can be doom-scrolly stuff on YouTube too, especially if you inadvertently click on one wrong video and trigger it in your algorithm. Then good luck ever getting away from it.
It’s just when someone spends a lot of time online reading through negative news, usually political, by scrolling through one headline after another.
It doesn’t really matter whether it’s on TikTok or YouTube or CNN or Fox or whatever. They’re all platforms designed to capture your attention through sensationalism and outrage.
The end result is that you spend time reading / watching something that somebody else wants you to watch, and you lose agency over your time and emotions. It’s not healthy.
If someone recommends a YouTube. If I see it looks interesting and safe-ish(I always assume Dopers are careful to warn ahead) that’s it, I don’t go past it.
I’m brutal about what I won’t look at. I’m determined not to be brainwashed by people I’m not sure I know what their motives may be. Or if it’s a real person at all.
I’d like to cut off the news cycle, but my fear is that I won’t be able to understand next months news if I’m not keeping up with this month’s news. And/or it will be too overwhelming to make sense of.
That might not be a good reason, but it’s my reason. I probably should unplug for a while.
Maybe that’s a good thing? It often boils down to someone you’ve never heard of being pissed at somebody else you’d never heard of over something you never used to care about. It’s largely propaganda, marketing, and profit optimizing algorithms anyway.
Your level of knowledge of current events doesn’t materially impact anything outside your own head. Major and minor tragedies happen all the time, everywhere. That doesn’t mean you have to watch them or dwell on them.
If you want to take a break, do it. There’ll be plenty of new outrages when you return.