Need a news break? | #159
"Mental health starts with ME"
I’m so sad about the Southport stabbings. My heart goes out to the families of those three little girls fatally stabbed on Monday. I can't understand why a teenage boy would do such a thing. Was he radicalised on the internet? An objection to women and power? We may never know.
The news cycle is relentless, and it's impossible not to be affected, especially when you work in media and do social media for clients. I spend a good part of my day scrolling news feeds and social platforms, and mostly, it's bad shit I can't do anything about—gun crime, knife crime, mindless violence, racism, war, abuse. Powerful images that you can’t unsee.
I was furious about Huw Edwards and his 40K pay rise last year - wtf!? That's OUR money paying for hotels in London when he lived in Dulwich. Why the fuck should I pay my licence fee when there's a history of scandals and cover-ups at the BBC? And most presenters are grossly overpaid.
It's all too much.
This week, something happened that made me realise I need to take a break and that it's impacting my health.
I'm in a WhatsApp group for journos, and someone posted a rant about some breaking news: two more journalists working in Gaza had been targeted and assassinated. She was heartbroken, worried for her own safety and angry about the political inaction in the 'free world.' Someone else added details about one of the deaths, which I won't repeat as it’s too distressing.
I read it and felt numb, nothing—a sigh of resignation: another day, another violent death. Then, I felt angry and violated. Yes, I care and want to know what's happening out there, but now I have a disturbing mental image I can’t get rid of.
How do you deal with messages that pop up in online groups with no trigger warning? At least you get that on the news. How do you hold someone who is distraught and needs help? I am an empath and I absorb other people’s energy and emotions.
There were a few more messages, and then she said she was leaving the group for a bit as she couldn't stop ranting. "I can't take this anymore. A vicious cycle of endless inhumanity."
I messaged my friend, who's a therapist, and told her what had happened. "You need to take a break from the news. I can hear in your voice that it's getting to you." She doesn't have a TV or watch the news. A friend used to give her a summary of the headlines and what she needed to know - a bloody good idea!
As someone who deals with other people's problems all day, she has to fight for number one and take care of herself. Reminds me of what Hannah Storm [Headlines Network] says, “Mental health starts with ME.”
The other day she caught the news and was shocked at the red news ticker flashing on the screen. When did that become a thing? Someone decided it would be a good idea to give us another adrenaline shot so we have two things to process simultaneously.
It's sensory overload and all this ‘Breaking News’ is breaking us. We've never had this much information bombarding us daily - and our brains haven't evolved to deal with it all, so we have to set boundaries.
I've muted the group chat for now (it feels rude and uncaring to leave a group, doesn't it?). Mostly, it's useful info for my work, but managing all this media and people’s emotions isn't easy.
I can listen to the news on the radio so it’s less stimulating. I've signed up for Positive News. What went right this week: the good news you should know about.
It's helpful to remember the serenity prayer from the AA's 12 steps. These words are used in most meetings as a path to sanity and sobriety.
God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.
Funnily enough, that quote popped up on a TV show last night, and I took a screenshot as a reminder. 🙏
Resources
Managing boundaries to prevent burnout - some practical tips from Headlines Network at #IJF2024.
A little experiment: Internet rationing
Did you hear Najat Vallaud-Belkacem, a former National Education Minister, saying people in France should be rationed to using just 3 GB of internet data per week to 'free people from their screens' and improve the environment?
She wrote in Le Figaro, "I want us to think carefully about ways to ration the internet, for example, offering a limited number of gigabytes (GB) to use per day."
Scarcity requires a certain wisdom. If we know we only have three gigabytes to use in a week, we're probably not going to spend them posting hateful comments or making fakes. Maybe we'll stop considering it "normal" to spend several hours on porn sites watching ultra HD videos.
I think she's onto something there. There is a digital emergency, just like we have a climate emergency. What would 3 GB of data be? 2-3 hours per day? It would be interesting to track it. How can I track it?
When I started working in the 90s, there was no social media, and I didn't have a mobile when I went travelling. In internet cafes, you'd get one hour of WiFi per session. You couldn't extend it as folks were waiting to get online; everybody had their heads down.
"You have five minutes left… please save your work." The time ticker would pop on the screen, and I'd scramble to save my work to a USB stick.
I found these communal, focused work sessions super productive. No procrastinating - done is better than perfect. When I moved to London, I kept it up while job hunting in internet cafes. Interestingly, now I can use the net all day, I still do it with Pomodoro timers!
I need to bring these boundaries back - especially now I work from home and use my phone for everything. So I’m going to use the net in one hour blocks this month and see how I feel. A mini digital detox, which feels doable. Blocking it completely won’t work.
If you fancy joining me, I’d love that. Let me know how you get on.
Look after yourself. It's a noisy, crazy, and complicated world out there, and it's a lot to deal with on top of everything else in life.
Nika ✨
My Internetland
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Exactly, and the TV or radio news is worse than newspapers and magazines, where at least you can choose to - after a gulp - quickly turn a page if it's just too depressing to handle. You're forced to listen to the worst news first, in detail, and it's just too much to take on a bad day.