Is it good to avoid the news all together ?

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When the pandemic started and the UK was on the verge of locking down I stopped watching the news because of hearing of people dying and the virus appearing here, there and everywhere and for stopped watching it for 2 or 3 months as it was just fueling the anxiety to point where at times I was tearful about it. I stopped watching it several times after that whenever a variant was emerging and didn't want to keep hearing rhetoric that it ''lethal'' and that ''everyone will die''. Now, there is a war going on in the Ukraine, I've now stopped watching the news about that because of the over-reacting and apocalyptic, cold war rhetoric about nuclear war, and World War 3 and that its putting me on edge about it. I seem to think how much crisis in this world do we need to take ? the next thing to be worried about will of a asteroid hurtling in the direction of planet Earth. Did Nostradamus predict that 2020-2022 were the years of apocalypse ?

There's probably no real harm in it, aside from it making small talk difficult since you wouldn't be able to talk about current events, but if you don't do small talk anyway, then I guess it's no harm done?

I usually avoid the news as much as possible, which is very very difficult when everywhere I go people won't stop talking about it. Sometimes I have gotten fed up with overhearing people talking about it in public and said to them, "Some of us like to go for five minutes without hearing why the whole world is doomed, you know!".

I have always hated the news, but it got especially awful during the 1990s when the American media wouldn't shut up about OJ Simpson, the Clinton/Lewinsky scandal, and other garbage that had virtually no effect on Canada and the rest of the world whatsoever, But now I kind of wish that's all they'd talk about instead of all the things and people trying to kill us.

I have a really bad case of "Mean World Syndrome". But I think it's because the world really is mean and not just because of all the horrible things you see in the media. And now it's just meaner than ever.

From time to time I do.
I keep the mute or off button handy.
It is simply the rational thing to do when it becomes overwhelming.
No one is *forced* to watch the news.

I avoid virtually all people.
Problem solved.

Whether it is good to totally avoid news kinda depends.

I do not watch TV at all since my set of the effects of autism and a few other neurological things make television itself, let alone what is being presented on it, too intense and hyper in its sounds and lights.

And I do not listen to news radio.

So ...

If/when I want news I'll go looking for it online.

And sometimes I'll go without looking for weeks at a time.

Usually I'll go look for space, science, and railroad and other transportation news, and avoid the remainder of it.

And I live in a region where severe weather can happen at the drop of a hat, so regularly checking in on the weather news is smart for me; I don't go to shows for that, but rather to a National Weather Service data-only web page, no hype, just facts.

Yes, when you realize a thing is causing you stress, anxiety, and you take action to cut back on that thing, you have made a wise choice.

As for me and the Ukraine thing, the 2/3 of my nephews who are still in the Army are currently in Poland.
That makes that news topic kinda personal.
Along with the several people I have online acquaintance with in hobby forums, and here, who are themselves Polish, Ukrainian, have relative in Ukraine, have friends/business associates, in Ukraine.

Even with that, there is only so much chaos my mind and spirit can take before needing a break.

In the end, you do what you find best for your spirit and be-ing. And say to yourself, "Ya know, taking care of myself as best I can figure how is not a thing to feel guilty for doing; it is, in fact, healthy and wise."

Well, mostly.

I get torn...between the urge to hear the latest...and the urge to not hear the latest... at times like these.

Sometimes you just gotta switch the dial to music, or to whatever, and recharge your batteries.

I did just see sumpin about Nostradamus, and 22, but I forget what. But folks shoehorn any and all current events into his cryptic "prophecies" so take anything you hear about Nostradamus with a pillar of salt.

I hear ya.

I don't know about fear and anxiety, but nothing will change in almost all instances if you don't bother tuning into the news.

If something affects me, I'll see it before the news. Storms? I don't need the news to tell me that one. Fires? I see them with my own eyes because I have to look for them, as relying on the news is a bad idea for that. SARS-CoV-2? It didn't exist where I live, even if it's going around; I would have heard via word of mouth if something bad was going around. The local cop tells people about things that may be an issue to locals, and word of mouth again spreads that one (the news won't). If there was war or some other serious event that would affect me, again, I'd be well aware of it. It doesn't really matter in the end. The news is functionally entertainment most of the time, but also propaganda.

Government services will provide better information for storms, fires and so on, and it'll be a simple website with just factual information (as much as I dislike government, they do a good job here with some of these things).

I watched the Covid-19 news for a while, and honestly, I just ended up disagreeing with everything the news was putting out about the issue really, and ended up getting so angry I attended a protest.

My granddad fought in world war two. He fought for freedom & human rights, not for mandatory Covid-19 vaccines that would make going to the local pub a farce of "papers please" upon entry.

Add to that the fact that mandatory vaccines are widely opposed in the ethnic minority community - my figurative blood was boiling.

So eventually I just stopped watching the coverage altogether.

^ I shall add to that. Forced vaccination is medical rape.

Sorry, we're not allowed to read newspapers, they angry up the blood.

Yep.

I personally just prefer to watch important bits of news, and apply political theory to it and then critically analyse that theory mixed with the actual news, to make sense of it. Reading a whole media outlet narrative has become infuriating for me personally, on many different issues.

The news is really just someone saying "good evening", and then telling you all the reasons why it's the polar opposite of a good evening.

It is very negative. All of it.