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A couple weeks ago I went back home to Maine for a short vacation. After I returned, I felt great. Naturally, much of this was due to the fact that I had been visiting my family, relaxing and seeing the natural beauty of my home state.
When I go home, I generally watch very little TV and I never watch the news. After all, I am on vacation. When I got back, I had gotten out of the habit of watching the news and still felt great. Then I started watching the news again and could feel my anxiety increasing a bit. Of course, I was also going back to teaching, but that generally does not make me feel even a slight dread.Well, dealing with administrators and attending meetings does give me that feeling, but I digress.
As an experiment, I decided to stop watching the news. I did keep on watching the History Channel and kept up on world events via quick checks on the web. Interestingly, I found that I felt significantly less anxiety/dread even though I was still aware of events.
While this is hardly a scientific study/experiment, I did find it interesting that my lack of exposure to cable news made me feel better. Naturally, I do face the concern that by avoiding cable news I will be less well informed, but I suspect that I can keep up with events quite nicely without the help of CNN and Fox TV.
I suspect that the anxiety causing aspect of the cable news is the way it is presented. After all, when people are worried or feel anxious, they will want to (ironically) watch more to find out what is going on. Based on my own observations, it seems evident that the news folks generally try to create feelings of worry by the way they present the news and the way that they try to scare folks into sticking around. In some cases this can be rather obvious and extreme, like the classic “something you don’t know that can kill you…or your kids…or grandma…or your pets” approach.
I must confess to being something of a news addict-I like knowing what is going on and, of course, it gives me that vague feeling of superiority that intellectual folks are supposed to crave. However, I am not fond of those vague feelings of anxiety that the news inspires.
I am curious as to whether other folks feel the same way.
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Great observations.
I also suffer from both “tv anxiety” and “radio anxiety”. They pervade our society; they affect millions upon millions of viewers and listeners who, unfortunately, aren’t as prone to identify the phenomenon or consider the consequences as you are. At the political level, the in-your-face media’s a significant fuel source for the partisan hatred that seems to burn hotter and hotter with each passing day.
The easy solution would be to close down the stations. Fortunately, the First Amendment prevents us from doing that. Critical thinkers among us (da*n few these days, it seems) can,however,practice the best kind of censorship: turn off the power or switch the station.
But don’t forget: At the end of the semester you’ll be tested on this week’s events. 🙁
I think that the newscasters can adopt a better approach. For example, I rather like the style of the more professional sort of journalists such as Gergen, Shields and Lehrer. They seem able to present their views without resorting to anxiety mechanisms (or silliness, like I see so often on MSNBC).
I absolutely suffer from the same news tension. At times I’ve sworn off the news but I have a natural curiosity. I can usually satisfy this by reading books but sometimes the news is the easy way out–or maybe I just like drama…
I went on a two-week field training exercise and didn’t watch much news. I actually didn’t think about much other than my job and a single book–Ghost Wars. Although I was working 12 hour shifts every day without a day off, I felt pretty good. It’s amazing how much better we can feel if we simplify. I’ve had real problems for the last 4 months when I was taking college courses,working a lot, preparing for the Soldier of the Year event–and watching too much news.
I keep telling myself that I should limit my news intake to just reading the Economist, but I am weak…
Be strong. Just read my blog and you’ll be fine. 🙂
Just send me an e-mail and I’ll bring you up to date. I’ll filter out everything you don’t need to know and I will emphasize what I want you….I mean I will tell you the truth. 😉
The History Channel as an anti hypertensive? Novel if nothing else! 😀
Oddly enough, watching many of the shows is very calming. I especially like the shows about weapons, perhaps because I find firepower emotionally satisfying…
Mmmmmmmmm, firepower. If you call yourself a man it is in your nature.