Stop Reading the News

October 28, 2024

Stop Reading The News

The subtitle of this book encapsulates my own message about digital minimalism in general and news consumption in particular: A Manifesto for a Happier, Calmer and Wiser Life.

Its Swiss author, Rolf Dobelli, first published his manifesto in 2019 but his message could not be more timely. With the most recent US Presidential election and all the other madness going on in the world right now, how many people reading this blog are tethered to their news sites?

I thought so. 

Thankfully, I’m not. Or at least, I’m not as tethered as I used to be. That’s thanks to this book. I ordered and read it several months before I embraced digital minimalism. I don’t agree with everything Dobelli writes, but I took much of his advice on board because I knew it would turn out to be a healthy decision for me. 

It’s not easy to go on a news diet. It’s like stopping yourself while binging on cookies or potato chips. You just keep mindlessly eating, long after any enjoyment has worn off.

In a nutshell: The negativity bias inherent in the news makes it very toxic to our bodies. For me, it’s an information equivalent of gorging on food with too much sodium and cholesterol, both bad for my hypertension. Like cutting back on salty snacks or fried foods, I needed to reduce my news consumption drastically. Dobelli explains why.

“The news continually stimulates our sympathetic nervous systems, a part of our automatic nervous system….Psychological stressors lead to the release of adrenaline by the hypothalamus. Adrenaline then leads to a rise in cortisol.” 

That cortisol floods our bloodstream, he further explains, leading to a weakening in the immune system, causing every garish story to lead to the production of the stress hormone.

“By consuming the news, you’re putting your body under stress,” he concludes and that can lead to anxiety, among many other reactions like panic attacks and feeling emotionally desensitized. 

So what does he suggest? Well, first there’s the crash news diet or radical abstinence option which he calls the 30 Day Plan. 

“If something truly significant happens, you’ll find out soon enough.” (That’s assuming of course that your friends and family read the news and will tell you if something big has happened.) I knew I could never stick to it.

His Soft Option is more to my liking. That involves reading the news only on the weekends to catch up on the week’s events. Or subscribing only to a weekly newsletter offering a roundup of the news. I took that route along with setting a confined time every morning to make sure the world didn’t end overnight.

I also took his advice about reading news only in print if possible. Unfortunately, I’m only able to do that where I can have the paper delivered. (In San Vito, Costa Rica, there is no Globe and Mail carrier). But I like reading an e-paper because I can’t follow any links or read vile comments. That option has done more for my sanity than any other. 

The point is to try something, anything, to reduce your news intake and then stick to it. What do you have to lose except your anxiety?

Stack of Books

Now that I am reclaiming my brain, close to three hours every day that used to be taken up worrying about the news have become free. That’s bonus time and it has been spent reading up a storm. For starters, I can miraculously focus again. 

And because I am trying to reduce the time I spend on my tablet screen (there will be future posts here about the connection between screen time and a host of other wellness issues), I’m now reading real, honest-to-goodness books. You know, the kind of books you can touch, instead of download.

I’m lucky to have a friend named Betty in my life. She’s is my what-to-read-next consultant. Every voracious reader should have a Betty in their life. (She’s also a very optimistic woman and a delight to spend time with.) 

While I love reading the New York Times Book Review, my best recommendations have come from Betty. She’s a former librarian, a handy life skill if you enjoy books, and even better, she works part time in our local independent bookstore.

In previous years when I wintered in Costa Rica, I decided against taking real books with me because the weather is so damp and humid making it hard on books. This year though, I said to hell with that. Betty helped me select most of the titles in the book haul pictured above, now on their way south to me by mail. I stashed even more titles in my luggage.

There’s not a heck of lot to do in San Vito, a very out of the way rural town where everyone goes to bed early and arises with the sun around 5:30 every morning. True, there are birds and nature but do I strike any readers as an outdoor person? I thought not.  

I will probably go through that pile of reading material pretty quickly. The good news for the friends I have made here: I plan to pass them along as soon as I’m done.