David's Blog

For the last two years I have actively tried to remain ignorant about current events, social media, market movements, and politics. I no longer habitually consume any form of mass media, aka “the news”.

This strikes some people as extreme and crazy. I guess it is.

Really, though, it’s one of the best things I’ve ever done for my mental health. I have much less anxiety since I stopped reading the news and way more time to focus. And it has had no obvious negative side effects – except maybe that I’m a bit less interesting to talk to at cocktail parties.

There are many reasons for not reading the news, but this was mine: it was habitually triggering strong negative emotions in me (anger, fear, frustration, anxiety) but none of it actually mattered to my day-to-day life.

I started to make a list of the stories in the news that I was following or cared about. And then I’d simply keep track of whether or not they had any practical impact on my life. I quickly noticed a pattern. For example:

• Was I mad about something that happened on the Supreme Court? Very. Could I do anything about it? Nope.
• Was I super scared that North Korea was launching ICBMs? You bet. Anything to be done on my end? Nada.
• Were the riots in major American cities really concerning and bothersome to me? Yes, indeed. What did I end up needing to do about it? Absolutely nothing.
• Did that misleading article about COVID vaccines annoy the heck out of me? It did. What could I do about it? Nothing.

And so on.

So I decided I would try taking a break from the news for just a month and see what happened. Initially the only thing that I noticed was boredom: it turns out I had been spending a good amount of time reading the news. That time could be better spent: either more productively, or more leisurely.

That month went fine. Nothing terrible happened. So I decided to just continue indefinitely.

I’ve found that a few big events still trickle down to me from friends and family – usually the most important, high-impact ones. The things that caused them to change their lives in some way. When a friend mentions something potentially impactful, I’ll read more about it and take appropriate action. For example, when my friends were all talking about refinancing their houses because rates were really low, I looked into it and did the same. Otherwise, I just let things pass me by.

I’m sure that there are some useful things that I miss out on. But on the whole, this has been a big net-positive in my life. It’s worth a try!