The Exhaustion of Daily News Consumption

With the current political climate, it’s more important than ever to be aware of current events. However, I’m exhausted by attention-grabbing headlines, whether it’s the deployment of ICE agents in sanctuary cities — such as Chicago — or gun violence happening week after week. Staying up to date with the news is emotionally and psychologically draining.

Just this past year, everything I heard in the news had to do with the Palisades wildfires in California, the national guard being deployed in Los Angeles, Calif. or the devastating flash floods in Texas. These events were all over my feed. I hadn’t just watched one video; I watched 20. I hadn’t just read one article; I read 10. 

Being aware of day-to-day happenings often means incessant consumption of traumatic events as we scroll through social media, and due to the hypercompetitive media environment we live in, news outlets and influencers are outputting an overwhelming amount of information for us to consume. As a result, it’s up to us, the consumer, to sift through it. 

For better or for worse, most of the news I hear about is presented to me via Instagram or TikTok. I know it’s usually frowned upon when people use these apps as consistently reliable sources, but American society has become more reliant upon social media, and consequently it’s being used more often for news consumption. 

The Pew Research Center provided data explaining how 53% of U.S. adults at least sometimes — if not always — receive their news through social media. 

Within the provided data, about 55% of TikTok users and 41% of Instagram users are viewing news related information, Pew Research Center shared in a data sheet.

This isn’t necessarily negative as reliable institutions, such as the Associated Press and CNN, have created TikTok accounts to reach a broader audience. 

When it comes to consuming news from influencers, it’s up to the receivers to dig deeper and double check the credibility of the information they’re receiving.

Because of the convenience these apps provide us in getting quick information, I inevitably consume more than what my mental health can handle.

If I open Instagram right now, I predict I would see at least one headline regarding President Donald Trump or ICE deportations, and whether I read the entirety of the article or not, simply viewing a headline has the ability to impact my mood. 

“The key, psychologists say, is the emotional weight of those headlines’ content — especially for people who find what’s happening in the U.S. today to be genuinely frightening,” according to the Scientific American.

Even though engaging with what’s happening around the world is critical in day-to-day life, due to the sensationalizing of stories, it’s more likely to see negative news coverage. 

Dr. Allison Holman studied the after effects of news coverage on the bombing of the Boston Marathon in 2013. Holman found that people who were exposed to six or more hours of the tragedy through graphic image content but weren’t directly impacted nor present at the time of the bombing had displayed higher acute stress levels than some of those who were affected firsthand. 

Within this research, authors Dana Rose, Roxane Cohen Silver and Holman found media based exposures can lead to potentially cumulative negative psychological consequences when large-scale violence, such as the Boston marathon bombing, is associated. 

Long-term exposure to negative news coverage not only heightens anxiety in readers, but also harms the public as people are less likely to continue reading about current events if it causes such emotional turmoil.

A close friend of mine texted me following the death of far-right political activist Charlie Kirk. She told me she was considering deleting all of her social media apps due to the sheer number of negativity she was seeing, not just surrounding Kirk’s death but in the general news she was consuming on a daily basis. 

As an aspiring journalist, I know how important the news is and I’ll always advocate for it, but I also know from firsthand experience how draining it can be. 

I see videos on TikTok where people provide an anecdote of one of their loved ones being taken by ICE, and it devastates me. I read headlines about media censorship, and it angers me. Everyday there’s a new headline which frightens me, so I understand how anxiety inducing the media can be. 

Unregulated exposure to the news can lead to feelings of hopelessness and uncertainty, and having access to thousands of comments of people sharing their emotionally charged opinions doesn’t necessarily help either. 

Staying up to date with the ongoing events of the world is important, but so is taking care of one’s mental health. At least for me, while remaining up to date by reading from credible institutions, limiting my exposure to how much content I’m receiving through social media apps and influencers helps as a healthy coping method in limiting such feelings of anxiety. 

So, while I don’t have the answers for how to avoid these feelings of stress other than regulating your usage of media, all I can say is I urge people to not fear the press. Staying up to date is paramount in today’s climate and despite the negativity of it all, it’s important to remember its reality for some people.