Keeping Sane When the News Is Insane

Just as overeating can harm you, consuming too much news can cause psychological distress. The news, after all, is constructed around events that capture our attention—the graphic, the tragic, the threatening. As I used to tell my students in my media ethics classes, much of the news is guided by the aphorism: If it bleeds, it leads. Stories of kindness and generosity may be edged into the news cycle, but the headline stories are ones that are the opposite. The main stories are about crime, natural disasters, corruption, and conflicts.

Research regarding media consumption after a public trauma found that the greater the time spent with the news, the greater the negative effects on mental health. In today’s fraught political climate and increasing threats from the climate, it is fair to assume the same relationship between the consumption of news and mental health.

Keeping News in Perspective

Keeping abreast of the news is a prudent thing, but you can also get too much of it. Better to keep your focus on what truly matters to you. For most, this tends to be your mate, friends, and the pursuit of your passions. This isn’t counsel to ignore the news but rather to keep it in perspective and proportionate to the rest of your life.

Keeping your sanity requires doing those things that bring long-term happiness. Actions needn’t to be grand. A better world is made by ordinary people who do small but significant things day in and day out.

Social media is another problem in maintaining our mental health. A systematic review of the research on the impact of social media on mental health found “that using social media platforms can have a detrimental effect on the psychological health of its users.”

The takeaway from this review is to limit your time on Facebook, Tik Tok, X, and other social media platforms. Look at them as a treat, just as you would dessert. Sweets have their place, and so does social media, but both need to be consumed at the right time and small doses. Two slices of chocolate cream cake just before bed isn’t a good idea and neither is screen time just before sleep. Both are bad habits.

Using Good Judgment

Returning to the food analogy: a catchy slogan, good advertising, and attractive packaging don’t guarantee quality food. Reading the package label is advisable as is getting guidance about healthy diets from reliable sources. Similarly, we need to use good judgment in deciding what and whom to trust with the world views that are proffered to us. Some sources are better than others; they are less biased, more reliable, better researched, and willing to admit errors.

There is reason to question experts and those in power. Experts aren’t always right, and power is often abused. But it is worse to substitute the opinions of those who are simply oppositional. Remembering Ronald Reagan’s saying “Trust but verify,” put your faith in someone educated in the relevant field rather than in a Facebook meme.

The loss of trust is probably the one overriding factor that can make us crazy. Without it, we hunker down, suspecting everyone and everything. Then realizing that this is a lonely place to be, meaning is then found in groups that divide the world between good and bad, insiders and outsiders, those with “inside knowledge” from dupes. This is the home of cults, where safety is found amongst those who have lost trust in all but those people they have surrounded themselves with. Sanity is gained at a very high price.