Is The News Getting You Down? How To Cope with World News and Events
With the current state of the world, and January being Mental Wellness Month, now is a good time to consider how news affects you and what you can do about it.
There is no shortage of bad news across the world right now and it’s understandable to feel anxious or upset by current events. Whether it’s something that has happened in your local area, or the other side of the globe, hearing about tragedy can leave us feeling stressed and helpless.
Bad news is often unavoidable, especially as most of us want to stay up to date with what’s going on in the world around us. That’s why learning how to cope with bad news can be an important part of mental wellbeing.
With the current state of the world now is a good time to consider how news affects you and what you can do about it.
Why is there so much bad news?
Sometimes bad news can feel relentless—bad thing after bad thing. It can be useful to remember that the news is designed this way. That is, negative events are reported much more than positive events on purpose.
One reason for this might be so that people can be made aware of the bad stuff and do what they can to prevent more bad things from happening—a worthy cause.
Another reason for this is because bad news sells. We naturally pay more attention to negative information than any other type of information. Consider these two headlines:
Two people recover from serious injury
Two people die from serious injury
Which one would you be more likely to read?
Research shows that, when asked, most people say that they’d prefer to read positive news over negative news. However, when they are shown a variety of news headlines, the same people actually choose to read more negative stories than positive ones.
Interestingly, there may be a logical explanation for this. Over the course of evolution, our brains have adapted to be especially attuned to negative information so that we can protect ourselves from potential threats. This is called negativity bias, and journalists often try to capitalise on it.
While there are certainly benefits to being aware of bad news, one big problem with this journalistic strategy is that it can give us a skewed view of the world.
The news can make us think that bad things happen much more than they actually do. We hear much less about all the fortunate, kind, altruistic, and positive things that happen everywhere, every day.
Nowadays, the platforms we use to get our news can contribute to this problem. The accessibility we have to a variety of news sources via the internet is a wonderous thing in many ways. But a lot of us—as much as 70% in some countries—source our news from social media and other online news outlets that use algorithms.
Algorithms are designed to show us more of the things that we pay attention to. On one hand, this can be useful for personalising our online experience. But it also means that if we are paying attention to bad news, as many of us naturally do, we will continue to see more and more negative information (not to mention a very limited range of topics and perspectives).
No wonder the state of the world seems progressively depressing.
Of course, the last two years have been particularly challenging. Times like these can make it even harder for us to see positives when we’re faced with such a torrent of bad news.
How can I cope with bad news?
Allow yourself to feel. If you become upset by something in the news—that’s completely natural and ok. It means that you are a compassionate human being! It’s ok to let yourself feel this way, and it might help to talk to others about it (they’ll probably have a similar reaction).
Put yourself first. Sometimes we can focus too much on the world around us and not enough on ourselves (for example, you may care strongly about health, but your involvement in health-related news is negatively affecting your own health). Practicing some self-care can help remind us of what really matters.
If you care deeply about a certain world issue—public health, climate change, whatever it is—it’s great to be passionate about a worthy cause! But it can help to remember to care for yourself first. It’s hard to be an effective advocate if you’re not looking after yourself!
If you notice that your passion for a cause is starting to affect your wellbeing or others around you, it might be a good idea to take a step back, at least for a while.
Certain topics might also be more likely to trigger feelings of distress for you. It can be helpful to understand your personal triggers and how to manage them.
Take a break or cut back. It can be useful to know what’s going on in the world. But, when the news starts to affect your mental wellbeing, it might be time to consider how much of your attention it’s worth.
Some ideas for cutting back might include setting limits on how long you allow yourself to look at the news (e.g., 10 minutes per day), only looking at news at certain times of the day or week (e.g., only on your lunch break or only Mondays and Thursdays), or only looking at certain sources and not others. It might also help to cut back on your social media use in general.
Focus on what you can control. By paying less attention to the news, you can explore the things that are more worthy of your attention. It often helps to focus on the things you have more control over, like improving your own life and mental wellbeing, and the ways that you can make a positive difference to the lives of others.
The news can make us feel powerless and small. Put more of your time and energy into the good that you can do, whatever that may be.
Seek out content that makes you feel good. We’re not necessarily saying to only look at positive things and ignore all the bad—bad things do happen and there is value in being aware of these things.
We are suggesting that you try to balance the bad news with more light-hearted content, like watching comedy, reading fiction, or exploring the latest developments on a topic that fascinates you.
Put things into perspective. Many news stories only present one aspect of a more complex situation. They also may not necessarily be a good representation of reality—one freak accident doesn’t mean that a particular activity is especially dangerous, for instance.
We are often drawn to stories of people’s personal experiences, and the news regularly reports these. It can be helpful to keep in mind that the reason these stories are interesting is usually because they are outside of the norm—personal stories that often don’t reflect broader trends.
Larger scale studies can be useful for gaining a more accurate understanding of a particular issue and how likely it is to affect you.
Choose your sources carefully. Although it’s convenient, social media usually isn’t the best place to find your news. This is because of the algorithm issue we talked about earlier, but also because it’s difficult to know how trustworthy the information is. Even many reputable news websites face this problem.
Some tips for finding more reliable news sources include:
- Search through university or library databases
- Get your news from television or radio (there could still be bias, but this removes the issue of algorithms and gives you more control over your news exposure)
- Cross-reference information across more than one source
- Use the CRAAP test:
- Currency—when was the information published?
- Relevancy—how relevant is the information to what you want to know?
- Authority—who is the author, and do they have the right expertise?
- Accuracy—how strong is the evidence to back-up the information?
- Purpose—could there be some alternative motivation for publishing this information (e.g., is it overly sensationalised to capture attention, or is it biased by political agenda)?
Another reason that the news can be stressful is that it can bring up a point of contention or disagreement with those around you. Let others know if you don’t want to discuss certain topics or work on other ways of managing disagreements.
Finally, there are a variety of techniques for coping with distress and improving your mental wellbeing. You can try some of these techniques on the Mind Ease app.
