Really close to the stress. Checking out is giving up and it’s a super weak move. Oh no you feel bad? People are losing their livelihoods. Their citizenships, their jobs. Buck up yo. We got shit to do.
Alcohol
I log out when I start feeling helpless and high anxiety and then I go find things that I can control to feel less helpless/anxious.
I read weekly newspapers. I used to read Morgenbladet, now I read NZZ am Sonntag, and there are many others to choose from, but getting away from trying to find something engaging each day solves a lot of problems.
This video helped me A LOT: https://youtu.be/yxAd8Owl-7A
Reduce the amount of news and media you consume. It isn’t healthy. Check in with your own mental health on a regular basis and use that as a barometer. When you start feeling overly stressed and frustrated, it’s time to take a break.
It’s ok to be angry or upset but if you can’t do anything about it, it’s not worth it. You should remain informed and also know that if you’re feeling frozen or at a loss, the plan is working. It’s meant to keep you down, drown you, and cause you to desensitize or lose hope. Don’t fall for it. Rise up in ways that you can.
you really have to be a pessimist
Tried to filter out as much stuff that I find annoying as possible and block things as well. It doesn’t get everything unfortunately but it gets close. I think the only thing that could make it better would be some kind of image scanning filter that would remove things from the feed if it detected them in a posted image or a website preview.
I draw the line at whiskey/beer. I need both in order to watch the evening news. I won’t engage with socials until properly lubricated by both.
“This is fine.” (meme)
lol, what is your favorite whiskey for such an evening?
Generally start with crown royal and 7-up over ice until my 12-ounce 7-up is empty then switch to coors banquet (stupid stubby bottles) until it’s time to turn in - which is now.
Have a good night! Sounds like a good way to not take in any bad news, haha
With all those fluids, do you get up to pee like 19 times throughout the night? I would.
Good night ✋
I wish there was a way to stay informed without the rage-bait delivery methods
I’d be happy with a few less legitimately rage-inducing events too.
More than few of these rage-inducing events are people saying they or someone else is going to do something that never ends up happening and tens of millions of people got angry literally over nothing. A quite significant portion of today’s “news” are pure speculation.
Unfortunately we are in clown-world and the actual fucking news is rage-inducing, even with impeccable journalism.
I don’t feel rage when I watch the news, even when I see stories I don’t like.
Have an AI summarize it for you?
Getting news via RSS feeds helps. I also cut out what is obvious just bad and getting worse for instance Gaza and Westbank via EI news. I know its getting worse but I cannot take hearing about every death.
Also, I think realizing most doesn’t affect you individually is helpful.
Why is news via RSS better than news via Reddit? Or news via TikTok?
I’m asking why this technology solution is better for maintaining a healthy mental state.
And can you give more specific examples on how to achieve it?
Because you don’t keep doomscrolling. You subscribe to your most important sources and ignore all of the noise of short form posts. If something is truly important enough that I really must read it today, then at least one of them will have written about it. The filtering out of what you don’t care about has already been done. That means I have a reading list where everything is a 100% must read for me and I keep it manageable
A good reader will let you filter your feeds further if needed too
The algorithm is designed to enrage you
I find it better because I can choose exactly which feeds, websites, and creators I see all in one feed. Therefore there is little chance of seeing something I have deemed undesirable. I also like it because I can follow people I like on youtube without having to sign in! :) Prior to making my own lemmy instance I would follow specific coms and reddit subs too. Now I don’t do that because I just ban rude people or coms.
Also, I rarely go to new sites. Accessing them via RSS allows me to only read content without ads or trash articles not related to the feed I want.
Finally, it brings all content together. Humans are lazy. It’s hard to go to a ton of different sites to form an opinion. It’s much easier to put it all in one place! :)
I think Inoreader is a good standalone app if you don’t want to host anything
Here’s the thing I’ve discovered over the past two months. You can block every keyword you can think of involving politics and you will still be subject to them in memes that don’t happen to mention the keywords, comments where the blocking isn’t effective, and friends and spouses mentioning them, if not more. Politics pop up in every context. Video game YouTube, programming subjects on hacker news, pretty much every single subject at this point in time is inundated with politics.
For a long time I was the most informed person in my social circle. I can’t deal with it anymore. I blocked every mention I could think of and yet I still think I’m just as informed as everyone else in my circle, at least to a certain extent.
You can’t avoid it. So block everything and you’ll still be informed.
I follow a single news source which doesn’t just focus on US politics. They only write about it when there’s actually something to write about. Other than that, I take active steps to block it everywhere else. On Lemmy I stay out of political communities and I have set content filters to cover everything from Trump to measles and I keep adding new ones every day. In today’s world the only way to consume anything even remotely resembling an “optimal” amount of news is by avoiding them. People who have never tried this get the feeling of FOMO and think that they’re going to then be ignorant then but the truth is that you simply cannot insulate yourself from world news unless you go live alone in a forest. When something major happens you will hear about it. Anyone consuming an unfiltered Lemmy feed because they feel the responsibility to “stay informed” are just masochists doing self-harm.
Could I ask which news source it is?
Yle which is Finland’s equivalent of the BBC. I obviously use the Finnish version of the site, though which covers a lot more than the English version.
Thank you - I’ll check them out. I had switched from most American news to BBC World, Al Jazeera, or NHK World News years ago, but I’m thankful to have another international source of information beyond our domestic Real Housefascists of DC.
I ignore news that don’t concern me, my family, city or country. The rest is labeled under “societal spectacle”, drama that I cant change unless i have to stop working and dedicate a whole life to fix that problem. Its ok to admit “bugger this” and just turning off the news, if only a while.
Its good to stay informed but I can hardly point at a piece of “news” that absolutly changed my life, career, relationships etc…
It feels like you have to build a skill that sorts news into “I cant do shit about this, (because of valid reasons)” and “wait what are they gutting from my social services that I paid for most of my life through taxes?”.
Before November, I did it by mainly looking at AP News. During November I was kind of a mess. After November, no news at all. My lemmy feed is comic strips, Linux, photography, and asklemmy, a few other things that are not political. If major shit happens I hear from my partner or friends, but they all know I’m not that interested. My YouTube feed is Buddhist stuff, standup comedy, and hobby rabbit holes. I even filtered out the lefty late night shows (daily show etc). I know the basics of what’s going on, but don’t feel any need to get daily updates on it and I’m feeling pretty sane compared to a few months ago! We donate to Palestinian charities, HRC, etc., are active in other ways, but this daily media crap is not healthy.
I have all major news sources and US politics tags blocked on Mastodon. I also continually block subs focused on US news here on Lemmy.
Frankly, I don’t trust news media or any kind. The purpose of those publications is to make sure they’re distributed as widely as possible to sell ads. So I don’t look at them unless I have to.
I do, however, follow some local chatter for my city, as the relevant news is there.
Personally I feel I manage to still stay informed, since anything of real importance will break through my block list anyway.
The purpose of those publications is to make sure they’re distributed as widely as possible to sell ads
Agree: For-profit journalism has screwed-up incentives. Not-for-profit journalism does tend to be different.
Personally I feel I manage to still stay informed, since anything of real importance will break through my block list anyway.
So you’re relying on those around you to keep you informed, despite blocking news on social media and not reading news yourself? Bold choice.
I suppose I still don’t trust the not-for-profit outlets either. Non-profit status, at least in the US, is a matter of taxes rather than one of morals.
And, yes, I do end up relying on people around me to hear about things for the first time, but I can and do look into things further from there.
There are pros and cons for this, of course, but I feel a lot calmer without the constant stream of doom in my life.
It’s also a matter of motivations. I’m not saying nonprofit status confers automatic trustworthiness, but they are missing the major incentives for sensationalism that for-profit outlets are.
That’s true. My cynicism is pretty personal. I’ve worked for a corrupt nonprofit in the past.
