The Harm of Too Much News

If you’ve been paying attention to the news lately, things have been pretty hectic in the world lately. With so many major events happening it’s hard not to pay attention. Being informed is a good thing, but like all good things there can be too much of it. Between 24/7 news networks, social media, and daily conversations, chances are you spend a lot of time on the news. Especially the most distressing stories. While it’s not bad to discuss or seek out disturbing news, it can quickly get to the point that it’s not helpful as it starts to give us more stress than answers. If you find yourself getting over stressed by the news during hard times, here’s some tips so you can stay informed without having it impact you more than it needs to:

Limit Your News Intake

While it may seem like you’ll be less informed, reducing your intake can have a big effect. The majority of news is updates to other stories or different angles, unless something is of particular interest to you it probably won’t help you get more informed. In big developing situations as we have seen in politics over this last weekend, looking into it more can actually harm your knowledge. It’s not uncommon for speculation, opinions, and guesses to be presented as news at these times, even though it likely hasn’t been verified. In order to stay informed but not get stuck, the general recommendation is 20 minutes a day.

Choose a Time to Find News

If you spread your 20 minutes throughout the day it’s easy to go over and fall into rabbit holes you didn’t intend to. If you choose a time of day to get your updates and stick with that, you’ll be greeted with the most relevant headlines for the day with far less speculation thrown in. If there’s a breaking headline you need to hear before that time, it will find you. We’re all so interconnected that there’s usually no need to seek out breaking news. Letting it come to us allows us to let ourselves off of high alert.

Allow Yourself to Take a Break

While it’s good to be informed, you’re not going to be able to respond well or help anyone else with hard news if you’re burnt out. Even during historic moments as we have seen lately, it’s okay to turn the news off and catch up when you’re ready to take it in. If social media makes the news unavoidable for you, it may help to take a break from that as well. Be kind and understanding with yourself, it’s okay to have a reaction to hard news and it’s okay to take a break to reset.

If you find yourself consistently overwhelmed and would like help finding strategies to give yourself a meaningful break, you can schedule an appointment with us at burnoutpreventiontherapy.com today.