Looking through my media feeds, including Lemmy, YouTube, News Outlets (Reuters, Financial Times) as well as news related to my profession, I would estimate that 85% of what I see is doom and gloom, i.e. reports about something that’s going wrong in the world or might go wrong in the future.
I try to limit what I follow to educational and unopininated sources (as far as that’s possible anyways) and some satire or a meme here and there. I don’t like suggestion algorithms and don’t use social media, because I don’t want to be trapped in a self-reinforcing bubble. On YouTube for example, I use third party apps which show me only videos from channels I explicitly follow.
Still, it’s mostly depressing information: how bad the job market and economy is, geopolitical threats, AI risks, symptoms of late stage capitalism. I am aware, thanks. But I didn’t ask to hear these things over and over and over again, and it’s negatively affecting my outlook on life. I’ve given up on reading the news entirely because I just get triggered by the enshittification of society, politics, the environment and daily life where I live. At this point I’d rather not hear about it anymore.
What I want to ask is whether you are having the same experience? Am I doing something fundamentally wrong? I don’t want to be blind to what’s happening in my/the world, but I want to have a positive and optimistic outlook on the future. How can I make that happen? How can I get away from an engagement economy constantly bombarding me with bad news without giving up on learning about the things that I am interested in?
You are 100% correct, negative news has a greater impact on people than positive: https://assets.csom.umn.edu/assets/71516.pdf
Media sites know this, and use it to drive engagement:
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41562-023-01538-4
https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/social-media-facebook-twitter-politics-b1870628.html
And so, negative headlines are getting worse: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0276367
But negative news is addictive and psychologically damaging: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/why-we-worry/202009/the-psychological-impact-negative-news
So it’s important to try and stay positive:
https://www.goodgoodgood.co/articles/benefits-of-good-news
If you want a break from the constant negativity, here are some sites that report specifically on positive news:
- https://www.goodgoodgood.co/
- https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/
- https://fixthenews.com/
- https://positivenewsfoundation.org/
- https://www.onlygoodnewsdaily.com/
And here’s 35 more: https://news.feedspot.com/good_news_websites/
Some communities on Lemmy you might be interested in:
- !goodnews@kbin.social
- !lemmybewholesome@lemmy.world
- !goodnewseveryone@sh.itjust.works
- !upliftingnews@lemmy.world
- https://lemmy.world/c/hopeposting
- https://lemmy.world/c/worldinprogress
- https://lemmy.world/c/climatehope
Remember, realistic optimism is important and, unlike what some might have you believe, is not the same as blissful ignorance or ‘burying your head in the sand’: https://www.learning-mind.com/realistic-optimism-blind-positivity/
https://www.centreforoptimism.com/realisticoptimism
And doesn’t mean you must stay uninformed on current affairs: https://www.goodgoodgood.co/articles/how-to-stop-doom-scrolling
https://goodable.co/blog/tips-for-balancing-positive-and-negative-news/
Block users, block communities, setup filters for keywords. But you will not fully escape it because there is actual doom in this world. Things aren’t good for everyone, no matter how hard people try to tell you it’s the best it’s ever been.
Its a pretty low bar to clear when you use history as your measurement. Comparing our information age civilization with feudalism is not the win people think it is. Things were worse, but that doesn’t mean things are good as is. Have higher standards.
That said, I hope things are good for you and your people. Peace.
Spend more time on media for interesting hobbies. I’ve recently gotten into looking at things for gem facetting.
Wow, I knew it’s a vice of many people but I never thought someone would call it a hobby.
cleans glasses
Oh, you mean making jewelry.
I subscribed to stuff that shows uplifting news, added art stuff and some animal content to my feed. I also follow stuff that’s related to my hobbies.
I need some animal subs recommendations 👀 😺
I can’t link to the communities right now, but I enjoy superbowl, bats, and foxes
Those are pretty good. Also plenty of cat content too
Yep, great advice. Stop subscribing or following politics and common “news,” add hobbies and things you want to learn helps a lot. You’ll find that the news media is 99% negative and, honestly, lies a lot for clicks and eyeballs.
If you have to have some news then there are services like Allsides that show how liberal or conservative (US) a news article is. That at least gives you better context. I’m sure others exist in other countries. There are certainly more US centric ones.
Do you have a recommendation for uplifting news on YT?
The Dodo - not news, but cute animal rescue stories and unlikely animal friendships
Stay away from echo chambering news sources. New Republic, HuffPost, Commondreams and the like. They’ll either go full outrage or tell you exactly what you’ve been waiting to hear.
Indy journalism can be solid, you just have to be careful.
I enjoy Heather Cox Richardson. She definitely leans left but everything is so steeped in the context of American History (she’s an American historian) it’s not doom and gloom so much as educational. Historical context adds depth and width to the present issues. Accessible. She’d be a good professor to attend classes with not a boring one.
She definitely leans left
she explicitly self-ids as a “lincoln republican” so no, that’s definitely not true
I will look into indy journalism, thanks for the recommendation! Never gave it much thought but it makes total sense. Is substack the best place to look or are there other places you can recommend?
Look into solarpunk
Wow, I am super intrigued. Thanks for the suggestion!
Just be careful, slrpnk.net can also have a lot of doomerism. I like the instance though
Echoing solarpunk! Along those same lines is “hopepunk”. I like to think of my media consumption in a similar way to my diet and consider how much I need from different areas to stay balanced. It is hard to fully escape the doomerism narratives but seeking out generative, hopeful narratives has made a difference in how much I find myself disrupted by them. Also poetry can be a great way to explore the heavier subjects and often where I head when I get overwhelmed.
It’s hopeless, you’ll never escape it!
Where do I sign up to your feed?
Also https://swg-empire.de/post/2172957
I actually have a reminder to post these each week to try and think about something positive.
Cool!! I came for gloom but found a happy bear family. And a really shitty game. But shitty in a good way.
I have no good suggestions, just wanted to say I feel the same way as you do. I want to believe the human quality of life on average is better than it’s ever been, but if I look at unfiltered media it’s all doom and gloom. I’ve now completely stopped watching/reading news because of what it does to my mental health. Even then I still end up finding out about things.
