Can watching the news be harmful?

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Mr. Ed

Mr. Ed

Be what you is not what you what you ain’t
Location
Central NY
Sit in any waiting room with the news blasting over the airways. Do negative headlines impact our health and personal wellbeing? Why hospitals and Drs offices promote anxiety?
 

Robert59 said:
I have backed off posting the news on here because I need less stress. I have been very stressful taking care of the Bi-polar girlfriend that has been in manic mood in last few weeks.
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My heart goes out to you, Robert, but please remember to take care of yourself as well, because it's all too easy to forget about our own needs when we're under extreme stress and concentrating our efforts towards someone else.

Hugs to you. 🤗
 
Mr. Ed said:
Sit in any waiting room with the news blasting over the airways. Do negative headlines impact our health and personal wellbeing? Why hospitals and Drs offices promote anxiety?
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If its on where I go, I tune it out depending on the orientation and underlying premise of that arm of the media. The only place that does that where I am is the auto repair shop.
 
Right or Wrong, I sure got some definite ideas about news on our media. First, the radio here in Canada. It's CBC for me but it's bad. It goes pretty well like this. An announcer tells us about violence in Afghanistan for 5 seconds. Then we hear shouting from Afghanistan for 5 seconds. Then the announcer speaks for another 5 seconds. Then shouting from Afghanistan again. What is the point? I speak English & I sure don't speak any of the Afghanistan languages. It's always like this & it has been this awful broadcasting now for years. I have given up on TV news now for years too. I don't mind the pictures but the running "ticker tapes" drive me crazy. There are 2 or 3 at the bottom; another 2 or so on the right side. No wonder people are so stressed out. It's not so much Covid-19 as the crazy news is driving us crazy. I'm glad I don't have cable but I do see it in waiting rooms. My favourite way for news is the Internet. Why? Well, I can scroll & I can choose what to read. I keep away from video clips. I have kept away from the # 1 media darling for the last 4 years (Donald Trump). Sometimes I find some good article on snowbirders or the economy & I like to read that. I don't like violence & I don't like awful bad photos. The noise & the speed of the news is stressing a lot of people out. They say depression is way up. HA! I'm sure not surprised. The only cure is shut off that darn TV & get a good book to read. Works for me! Life is just too short.
 
Packerjohn said:
I don't like awful bad photos.
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Oh gosh I agree, when I was younger (many decades ago) I had subscriptions to Time and Newsweek magazines and I had to stop renewing because I just couldn't take seeing the photos anymore (people being shot in the head, bodies looking like from a cartoon all flattened out after being run over by a tank, spectators being crushed to death at sports events, on and on, just horrible to see).
 
I don't have the book now because I had to check it in before finishing it by Humankind: A Hopeful History by Rutger Bregman states early on in the book that our negative view of human nature is reinforced and strengthened by listening to newscasts and reading too much news. The main reason for this according to the author is that no one really wants to read about all of the good happening in the world because we do see it daily and it isn't something that we pay attention to because it isn't different than our normal existence. He states that eliminating or reducing out news intake is a way to improve our view of other people.

When I get the book again I'll quote exactly what he had to say about it.
 

Can watching the news be harmful?​


I hardly watch the news (now just biased commentary)

Harmful?

Naw

But, I caught Lou Dobbs the other night
Been years
He still hasn't swallowed
Ever notice that?
He can talk for hours with the same mouth of saliva
I keep swallowing for him

That does bother me some
 
The news made me have occasional nightmares. I don't watch it anymore. I cancelled my TV network provider. Nightmares are gone now and I'm a more positive person. I choose what I want to watch now on Hulu, Netflix, Amazon, Youtube, or the Internet....or I choose what to read. Mostly I spend my time being a little more productive now,
 
I don't know if watching the news is harmful to everyone but it is to me. After watching it every day I tend to start getting depressed and anxious. So, then I take a break but it also seems bad news can be habit forming. It's like trying not to look at a bad car accident that just happened. I just want to see what happens next much of the time. I think I need to go to a little cozy log cabin out in the wilderness *with no tv* for awhile and detox from the news!
 
We are living in and hopefully through historic times, so it's tempting and easy to become a news junky. I confess to being a bit of one myself, and even have a news app on my tablet. It's easy to go into information overload, however, and most therapists would stress the need to make time to "disconnect" from both the news and excessive social networking concerns... 🙀
 
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