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Why more and more people are tuning the news out: ‘Now I don’t have that anxiety’

Emotional toll of constant negative news and unlimited access to ‘doomscrolling’ has led to record-high news avoidance

Illustration: Angelica Alzona/The Guardian

Illustration: Angelica Alzona/The Guardian

News has never been more accessible – but for some, that’s exactly the problem. Flooded with information and relentless updates, more and more people around the world are tuning out.

The reasons vary: for some it’s the sheer volume of news, for others the emotional toll of negative headlines or a distrust of the media itself. In online forums devoted to mindfulness and mental health, people discuss how to step back, from setting limits to cutting the news out entirely.

“Now that I don’t watch the news, I just don’t have that anxiety. I don’t have dread,” said Mardette Burr, an Arizona retiree who says she stopped watching the news about eight years ago. “There were times that I’d be up at two or three o’clock in the morning upset about something that was going on in the world that I just didn’t have a lot of control over.”

She’s not alone. Globally, news avoidance is at a record high, according to an annual survey by the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism published in June. This year, 40% of respondents, surveyed across nearly 50 countries, said they sometimes or often avoid the news, up from 29% in 2017 and the joint highest figure recorded.

The number was even higher in the US, at 42%, and in the UK, at 46%. Across markets, the top reason people gave for actively trying to avoid the news was that it negatively impacted their mood. Respondents also said they were worn out by the amount of news, that there is too much coverage of war and conflict, and that there’s nothing they can do with the information.

Julian Burrett, a British marketing professional, said he’s intentionally unplugged from the news since the pandemic, after feeling almost addicted to constant negative updates. He’s deleted most media apps from his phone and avoids TV bulletins. Last year, he even started a small Reddit community, r/newsavoidance, to “consider the pros and cons, tips and tricks, and tools of avoiding news”.

Others who spoke to the Guardian described varied approaches. One said he checks in on the news once a week to stay informed without being overwhelmed. Another said he has shunned the news for years, citing its effect on his mood and a broader distrust in the press. A Maryland man described feeling “enraged” by recent political developments, and tries to set boundaries by scanning headlines only.

Studies suggest that increased exposure to news – particularly via television and social media, and especially coverage of tragic or distressing events – can take a toll on mental health.

For decades, Roxane Cohen Silver has examined the consequences of consuming media about crises, from 9/11 and the Covid-19 pandemic to climate-related disasters and mass shootings.

“With greater exposure, we see greater distress in people’s reports of their mental health. Greater anxiety, greater depression, greater post traumatic stress symptoms, acute stress symptoms,” said Silver, professor of psychology, medicine and public health at the University of California, Irvine.

In recent years, her research has found political polarization to be a major stressor for people in the US. Similarly, political concerns topped the list last year in the American Psychological Association’s Stress in America poll, with the economy and spread of false news also ranking prominently.

With the rise of smartphones and social media, opportunities for contact with distressing content have exploded, Silver noted.

There’s just ample opportunity to be exposed to news all the time, through either push notifications on people’s phones, or people can be consuming news across many different modes simultaneously,” she said.

Viewing graphic imagery, in particular, is associated with psychological distress – a concern in an era when disturbing images of tragedies circulate freely beyond newsrooms’ control.

A growing body of advice online promotes healthier ways to consume news. Much of it focuses on creating guardrails so people can be deliberate about finding information when they’re ready for it, instead of letting it reach them in a constant stream. This might include signing up for newsletters or summaries from trusted sources, turning off news alerts and limiting social media.

“People can stay informed without doomscrolling,” Silver said. Applying learnings from her research to her own life, she reads news online, but skips videos, television and social media.

“I don’t see any psychological or physical benefit from consumption of those kinds of images,” she said. “So if I’m reading a story and there is a video, I don’t click on it.”

She suggests setting specific windows of time to read the news rather than staying immersed in that environment constantly, noting that it helps if people feel a sense of control over how much they’re being exposed.

Benjamin Toff, director of the Minnesota Journalism Center at the University of Minnesota, studied the trend in his book Avoiding the News. He draws a key distinction between those who consistently avoid the news and those who simply limit their consumption – the latter, he says, is “perfectly healthy”.

“We live in a world in which you can access news 24/7 and be inundated with information at all times. But that doesn’t mean you should,” he said.

What worries him and his co-authors is when withdrawal turns into a cycle that deepens social divides, leaving some groups less likely to participate in political life.

“The more you disengage, disconnect from the news, the harder it becomes to try to make sense of what’s happening on any given story,” he explained.

The authors observed that consistent news avoidance tends to be more common among young people, women, and lower socioeconomic classes.

“If you believe as we do, that normatively, we want people to be able to have the same opportunities to engage politically, to vote, to be vocal about the political issues that matter, then we think it’s a problem that people are disengaging from news,” Toff said.

Author: Josie Harvey

Source: The Guardian

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