Simply..news fatigue....

3/4/2019

For many years I've felt I had a good balanced approach to the news - I listened once a day max and never before bed. I felt informed but I wasn't getting frustrated, depressed or anxious about any of it. I was staying sane. Well, that's the way it seems to me :-)

Today I find I am having to wean myself off it! The crazier it gets (and it seems to get crazier by the hour) the more I want to hear!

So today I distracted myself with other things -

I did some more of the financial paperwork (that emotional baggage bag trick is working for me.)

I sowed more seeds and watered the New Zealand cosmos

I took note of a Mary Berry recipe for rum and raisin ice cream (will let you know....)

I arranged some daffodils and changed the batteries in the tiny lights in the birch branches.

I caught up with the ironing, did some cooking, listened to music instead of the news, phoned a friend, sent some emails, brought in some logs and exercised for a full hour.

And I am trying to ignore my need to hear the result of the 20th vote today in the House of Commons or whether Donald Trump has remembered yet where his father was born!

In the words of the song maybe I should Let the world turn without me tonight.

15 Comments

Sheena

3/4/2019 11:54:48 pm

All good positive things to do and I do the same when the world seems to be spinning too fast. Also think it is a good antidote to a low mood. Maybe order in our own universe helps to cope with the chaos outside and it does feel truly bonkers at the moment.

Freda

4/4/2019 02:09:17 pm

Bonkers is the word - and I do agree that order in our own world helps!

Lucille link

4/4/2019 02:55:51 am

I have turned to radio 4 extra in despair. What irks me increasingly is the excited, almost hysterical reporting tone that I detect even on the BBC. Journalists have such an insatiable appetite for the drama and feed off it. What must their moods be like when off duty? Febrile must be the word for 2019.

Freda

4/4/2019 02:11:10 pm

The hype with music and people shouting in the background is getting ridiculous! I'd laugh if it wasn't so serious..

Mary

4/4/2019 03:01:28 am

Sanity isn't easy to find these days if one doesn't escape the mayhem being produced by too many of the world's politicians. Mundane tasks can sometimes settle the soul...at least for a time.

Freda

4/4/2019 02:12:07 pm

Settling the soul - that's a good phrase Mary.

Lotta link

4/4/2019 03:05:26 am

The dopamine loop? Easily done. But it sounds like you have a good built-in alert system Freda and you know when enough is enough! The simple, ordinary 'real' things are a great antidote.

Freda

4/4/2019 02:13:11 pm

Simple and real - good key words for me too Lotta.

Julia

4/4/2019 11:34:57 am

You are so right, Freda. The 24-hour news cycle has made addicts of many of us. Oh, for the old days when the 6 o’clock news was 30 minutes and then we carried on with real life. Just as software and device makers are using neuroscience to addict us to their products, most like the news producers are doing the same. Elvis had a solution..it is a bit drastic, but it could work!
https://www.google.com/search?q=elvis+shoots+tv+set&client=safari&hl=en-us&prmd=isnv&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiyjP3jibfhAhXKs1kKHfsEABYQ_AUoAXoECAwQAQ&biw=1024&bih=650#imgrc=zrEA1MeKtxu_9M

Freda

4/4/2019 02:15:32 pm

Well talk about shooting the messenger! Where on earth did you find this Julia? (well of course it wasn't on earth, was it - it was in cyber space I guess.)

Julia

4/4/2019 06:02:52 pm

Truthfully, i first saw this photo in a remarkable book of annie liebovitz’s photography called “pilgrimage”. It is work reading..it is simply fascinating!

Susan (Dorset)

5/4/2019 08:40:35 am

Oh no! You've mentioned the T-word, and implied the B-word, in the same post!

Freda

5/4/2019 02:31:16 pm

I know Susan! I've called him 'he who shall not be named' till now and I did allude to the B-word. Just shows how it was getting to me - no more, I promise! Calm will reign....

cath

5/4/2019 11:04:37 am

As I don't watch television anymore, there is no news watching either.
From time to time I miss a good British costume drama but not the news.
I love the tiny lights in the birch branches.

Freda

5/4/2019 02:32:37 pm

I still don't have a television but iPlayer on the laptop seduces me...

Simply..news fatigue....

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