From The Editor’s Desk: Stepping Off the Poll-ercoaster

If you’re anything like me, the election’s rapid approach means one thing — neurotically overreacting to and overanalyzing every perceptible change in the available polling.

Thankfully, between nationwide polls, battleground state polls, senate race polls, gubernatorial polls, leaked campaign internals, favorability metrics and polling averages, there’s no shortage of mostly meaningless data to dawdle and fret over. 

But before we take you over to the big board with Steve Kornacki to break this down, maybe instead we should take a step back and — for a lack of any better idea — take a deep breath. 

Realistically, a one-or-two point swing in a single poll isn’t the revelatory, hot off the press news many in the political media sphere have a tendency to make it out to be. 

And yet, despite knowing rationally New York Times political analyst Nate Cohn and highly-rated pollsters like Times/Siena don’t in fact offer perfectly crafted insights handed down from the almighty, I can’t help myself from clawing through every cross-tabulated detail in each new polling dump. 

This hyperawareness of every slight change in such a close race only stresses me out without offering any valuable news or information in return for my troubles. 

I think the tendency to hone in on every new poll while just as quickly forgetting the last is a distillation of how modern technology has changed how we think about and consume our news. Perhaps more than ever the rush for the newest insight or the latest scoop defines how news is gathered and presented. 

Instead of getting the news at designated and contained times by reading the paper in the morning and catching a network newscast in the evening I’m inundated throughout the day with piecemeal bits of information, my phone buzzing frenetically nearly as soon as an event occurs. 

All too often an Associated Press news notification can, in an instant, ruin my afternoon, acting as a harbinger of concern. This phenomenon isn’t markedly dissimilar from the worry elicited from poll results. 

Unfortunately Pandora’s box has long since been opened, and the modern media landscape will only continue to evolve with the fast-pace information ecosystem created by the internet. But it might not hurt for all of us to take a breather from all news and social media every once in a while — not just me with my polls. 

News outlets know how worry can drive viewership, and presenting the election through polls with cycling results that paint a neck-and-neck race will keep people tuned in and engaged.

But we don’t always need to be fully locked in. For the fellow worriers out there, over these next couple weeks try your best to know your limits and recognize when to take a step back and breathe. 

For some news which won’t worry you, may I recommend this week’s edition of the Loyola Phoenix. In News learn about a group resource for grieving students. In Opinion writer Seamus Chiles Troutman explores the joys of walking, and urges us to get on our feet. In Sports celebrate the men’s golf team’s first tournament victory since 2021.