If possible at all, of course.
I used my indignation as fuel to do good around me. The more I read sad need the more I want to contribute to positive projects.
How do you reconcile staying sane while keeping yourself up-to-date with the news?
Submitted 1 month ago by nikoo@sh.itjust.works to [deleted]
Comments
oce@jlai.lu 1 month ago
TheBat@lemmy.world 1 month ago
I read that as indigestion at first and thought you were making a fart joke.
MadMadBunny@lemmy.ca 1 month ago
Sanctus@lemmy.world 1 month ago
If you’re staying sane at times like these you don’t care about much.
lemmy_outta_here@lemmy.world 1 month ago
This is crazy, but i read the news on paper. I have a couple of subscriptions to magazines with good reporting, but you could also hit up your library to read for free. For one thing, print journalism is a lot more in-depth and balanced than the outrage-mill crap i find online.
On Lemmy i read headlines only in case something happens that i stay current, but i rarely read a whole article. This contains my news consumption to a small portion of my day.
Plus, Trump says 64 stupid lthings a week. I read all 64 in 1 hour each week and get it over with, instead of poisoning myself with it several times a day.
antihumanitarian@lemmy.world 1 month ago
I find old Stoic philosophy helpful. If I can’t do anything about it, I stay informed but try to be mindful of my limitations. If I can do anything about it, even if not much, if I’m worried about the thing I use that to do what I can.
Cevilia@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 month ago
I realised long ago that the human brain is not capable of handling everything that’s happening all around the world, all the time. I’m selective about what media I consume and I make extensive use of blocklists for things that aren’t my fight.
Nikls94@lemmy.world 1 month ago
50% is recycling old garbage, 30% is things that don’t affect you in any way, 15% is nice to know but it wouldn’t change your life if you didn’t know, 3% is actually newsworthy and affects you, rest is weather.
the_q@lemmy.zip 1 month ago
What good does being in a constant state of fear, anger, shock etc do for the events causing the fear, anger, shock etc? Most of us exist in a torturous state where we have no control over the goings on of the events around us. We scroll and consume and dig ourselves deeper and deeper into despair all the while children are being killed, people are being raped, villains are running the world etc regardless of whether we as individuals keep ourselves informed. As good as we want to be or as active in a solution as we want to be, none of us are making a difference. Maybe suffering in our inaction is some kind of atonement.
VinesNFluff@pawb.social 1 month ago
There’s a lot of it you can just tune out
Not because it doesn’t matter, but because it’s not actually new.
“oh Israel is still doing its genocide. Yeah, they would, no one is bothering to stop them. Don’t give me details. Let me know if something CHANGES”
The “news” cycle has a way of always finding further details on what is actually very old information, and those details serve you, the reader, no purpose other than creating emotional distress.
Flax_vert@feddit.uk 1 month ago
I just don’t really read the news. Might listen to a bulletin here or there on the radio.
janonymous@lemmy.world 1 month ago
I listen to one weekly news podcast (Lage der Nation), that focuses on the most important topics for where I live, which includes big international events.
Getting an update on the relevant happenings once a week, feels way healthier than reading what’s going horribly wrong somewhere multiple times a day.
I had to unfollow and unsubscribe a bit on mastodon and Lemmy to reduce the amount of news I see there, but now it’s tolerable.
However, I still have to take breaks, when I feel my mental health isn’t up for it.
Pat@feddit.nu 1 month ago
For me, it’s getting my news via memes/Lemmy. It’s like filtering water through sand. Much less dirt and grime.
Nemo@slrpnk.net 1 month ago
I haven’t really been doing either, honestly.
idunnololz@lemmy.world 1 month ago
I block news from all social media. Then I chose 2 news networks I thought had decent reporting and wasn’t too bias. Every morning I read news from the 2 sources and that is ALL the news I consume for that day. That’s it.
scarabic@lemmy.world 1 month ago
I remind myself that news media have a vested interest in keeping me outraged and on the edge of my seat, addicted to consuming their every update.
There are definitely things worth getting outraged over. But on top of that we have an outrage industry harvesting our attention and fear for ad dollars.
So I remind myself not to spiral down the doomclick drain. If something is THAT important I’m going to hear about it. I don’t need to be checking a news app daily.
On top of this I do what I can to support change. We donate to Ukraine and Gaza relief efforts. We vote. We make our political views known to those around us to support right action in them as well (not talking about politics is what Trumpers want - they want cover for their fascist hate and violence - I make damn sure that everyone I know is aware that there’s no room for that shit in my life).
Conserve your strength. Do everything material that you can, and don’t spend yourself past that point.
But that first part is important: DO EVERYTHING YOU CAN.
Venus_Ziegenfalle@feddit.org 1 month ago
I gloat at the odd Epstein article but I don’t read everything. I don’t need to know all that. If you want to keep your sanity in times like these you gotta live in the moment. Enjoy every little thing like it’s the first time you’re experiencing it. Keep your worries to what you can control. And don’t try to control things you can’t. It’s actually easier to learn this while times are tough.
FlashMobOfOne@lemmy.world 1 month ago
I don’t consume a lot of content from mainstream news sites, and that helps.
Most of my news exposure is through Lemmy or Mastodon, through which I can automate the curation of my feed and I don’t see things that are going to rile me up as much; and therefore, I only see things that might rile me up when it’s my intention to do so.
JackbyDev@programming.dev 1 month ago
My sanity is more important. I can’t do anything about current events if I’m not sane. I take breaks as needed.
TheBat@lemmy.world 1 month ago
I gave up trying to keep up with local news a long time ago. That’s why you’ll rarely see me talking about India even though that’s where I am from.
I used to keep up with UK and US news as a sort of long distance view/broad strokes/whatever.
And after the US election I gave up watching John Oliver and other late night shows.
KeenFlame@feddit.nu 1 month ago
You do something, anything, about the shit you disagree with. Usa stops famine support? Fuck you, Unicef is not going to die on my watch. Etc.
Scallops@ttrpg.network 1 month ago
By becoming willingly non informed. Mixed success so far. 🙁
original_reader@lemmy.zip 1 month ago
Basically some reasonableness.
Set boundaries. Meaning you probably should choose specific times to check the news. You could for instance check once in the morning and once in the evening. Or even only on specific days.
Also curate your sources. Follow outlets that offer reasonably balanced reporting. Misinformation and sensationalism are your sanity’s worst enemies. For example, don’t get your news from social media (as is so common with many and which leads to a host of other issues…).
Try to avoid doomscrolling. If scrolling starts feeling like sinking, it’s
okaynecessary to stop. You really don’t need to absorb every detail to be informed.And just something I personally found is to balance bad with good news. Spend time with positive stuff. Even in this timeline there’s good to be had.
Sunsofold@lemmings.world 1 month ago
Insert Invincible ‘you don’t’ meme here
But seriously, you can’t. You either choose to be ignorant of 99.99% of the world or to be ignorant of 99.9% of the world and live in a perpetual scramble to absorb all the disparate information. Most news isn’t worth knowing in and of itself, only serving as data to construct deeper understanding, so unless you are going to actually connect the dots, it’s a better use of your time to let the world act as a filter and only pay attention to what hangs around long enough to get through to you.
blarghly@lemmy.world 1 month ago
Step 1: remove all news feeds from your life.
Step 2: live your life. Be happy. Have fun.
Step 3: if anything worth knowing actually happens, it will filter in through your social networks.
lemmyknow@lemmy.today 1 month ago
My news comes mainly from Lemmy, Wikipedia, sometimes Wikinews, maybe other people, and short daily podcasts. The fun radio podcasts are currently on break (though they’re less ‘news’, more current topics made funny), but I sometimes also listen to a short daily news podcast.
Lemmy is by far the worst source, because 'Murican-centrism. So much US spam. If I could easily filter out the US off Lemmy, I’d do it in a jiffy. I’d even be willing to cut off English entirely. Or leave Lemmy, touch grass. The latter seems to be the most likely option, from what I know of Lemmy.
With Wikipedia, and Wikinews, I append a relevant language code to the url, like xx.wikipedia.org, and get stuff in my language, less 'Murican. I sometimes do that in other languages I know (including English).
Podcasts are relevant by location and/or language, depending on the podcast (they sometimes bring up US stuff, but that’s far less annoying than Lemmy’s spam, and sometimes actually relevant (for the news one, at least))
prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 month ago
Alcohol
Wolf@lemmy.today 1 month ago
That’s my secret Cap.
I’ve always been insane! 🤪
Bahnd@lemmy.world 1 month ago
Sanity is over-rated, now if yall dont mind. Im going to spend the rest of my day swimming in a lake that thinks its a gin+tonic.
MuttMutt@lemmy.world 1 month ago
I remove almost everything that is considered breaking current events. Someone is going to do something stupid to someone else. Disasters are going to happen. Wars are being fought (IMHO WW3 had already begun and everyone is trying to stay out of it like the US did in WW2) just that everyone is avoiding it. I have watched a local to me longlines station have a lot of new activity and a person is living there in a travel trailer but two years ago it was basically defunct. www.youtube.com/watch?v=QfHyy-4W5X0 is an example of a different one but gives an idea of the use.
All this crap happens and there is nothing I can do about it nor does it help my daily life. I get a little bit of local news directly from their site and everything else is related to tech or science. I also block Javascript on the browser I use for news feeds, it prevents headlines from other crap being shoved into articles I choose to read on many sites and if breaks a site I just remove it from my feed.
I’m also doing a lot of repairs on a 100 year old house while I live in it, trying to work towards teaching people who have dealt with childhood trauma and others with PTSD how to SCUBA dive for free, and doing my best to stay sane with everything that has happened in my life.
thezeesystem@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 month ago
That’s the fun part I don’t. As someone who’s pretty much the exact target for this facism regime there is absolutely jack shit I can do about it besides I guess voting. So I pretty much avoid it all because there’s nothing I can do about why of it and need in Amerikkka is all about getting people angry sad or anything that boosts engagement without care of people. So I don’t play there games. I avoid it all. New depressive shit happening? Alright I’m already completely fucked so idc
zkfcfbzr@lemmy.world 1 month ago
I made filters with uBlock Origin that block out from Lemmy (and some other sites) any post containing one of the words “Trump”, “Elon”, “Musk”, “RFK Jr”, “maga”, or “nazi”.
You still stay mostly up-to-date because that shit has a way of filtering through anyways, but you cut out 90% of the redundant fluff. I originally set the filters up in November when I was feeling very similar to how I imagine you felt when you made this post.