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Is It Okay Not to Read the News?
Or am I burying my head in the sand?
I first began keeping up with the news in late high school, around the time of the 2016 US presidential election (and boy was there a lot of news to keep up with). In college I got busier and my news-reading waned somewhat, but then during the pandemic, I — like many other people — once again became an avid follower of the news. I began checking my Google news feed every day, a habit that continued even after lockdowns ceased.
In recent months, however, I was starting to notice that reading the news was often triggering anxiety and sometimes even full-fledged panic attacks. At first I brushed it off as a coincidence, but it was hard to ignore the fact that in general I was having significantly less anxiety on the days when I had less time to read the news. I finally decided that for the sake of my mental health, I was going to temporarily delete the Google news app on my phone.
However, what began as a short break eventually became a long break and then something permanent. I still haven’t reinstalled the app, and I rarely search out news from other sources either. I do sometimes hear about major events from friends and family — I know about the balloons that were shot down and the train derailment in Ohio — but I’m no longer reading about them moments after they happen.
