UPDATED: How much is too much news?
Note: This post has been updated to reflect
News is a part of our lives and we do need to keep up on important events of the day. The question is, however, how much is too much news? Can we suffer from news overload?
I believe we can, especially when much of the news is centered on that old news dictum: What bleeds, leads.
In addition to being informative, news is stressful and, if you took your pulse or considered some method of gauging your mood after watching the evening news, what do you suppose you'd find? I think you'd find that you were more concerned about things you never gave a thought to, heard about far too many incidents of violence in even the sleepiest towns in the world, or wondered if you had the "disease of the week" or had eaten at one of "the dirtiest restaurants in the city." Who would ever want to go out to eat again if you thought there were major health problems brewing just past those swinging kitchen doors?
Having worked in a kitchen in a community mental health center where I taught clients to make things like lasagna for 45 or mashed potatoes for the same number, I know kitchens. A psychologist who knows kitchens? Sounds highly improbable, I know, but when you work in this field, it's part of your entree into it. So you drive a van, go out on emergency calls and peel vegetables in kitchens, if you have to, and you usually have to if you want to get that all-important field experience.
Our cook was a woman who had spent the better part of her adult life as a patient in a psychiatric hospital and her recipes showed her lack of exposure to even simple foods. But the one thing we all knew was that the local health inspector would be coming and either giving us or denying us our certificate of health inspection. We took classes in kitchen cleanliness, made sure everyone washed their hands and carefully resisted all efforts at rodents or other little critters that wanted to find a home in our stainless steel haven.
The theme of this blog segment? Think for yourself, know that you can ask to see the most recent health inspection certificate (which must be prominently displayed) and turn off the news for your own mental health when it becomes too much. Who needs all that news? I don't mean to sound like a Luddite, but you really don't need it all and you certainly don't need to follow some producer's lead in what is or isn't important.
Be your own person and it will be better for your mental health. Turning off the TV may seem like a small move, but to turn Neil Armstrong's famous phrase, it's one small step for you.
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4 Comments:
hey! can we link up our blogs, cuz i am looking for blogs about stress management to link up with, mine is targetting school students who are under stress, mainly my schmate(i am 14)
The URL is http://www.life-pains.blogspot.com/
Dr. Farrell,
I just wanted to say "amen" to your blog. I am one who can't watch the news much. All the pain and suffering is too much for me these days.
I grew up with television, unlike many young people. I don't think they understand that some of the "news" isn't really... It is merely advertising the news program. Which is another issue--the way they show a news show commercial and quickly spring some bit of horror on us, leaving us to wonder what it's all about.
Even the TV shows are anxiety provoking to me, and insulting to me as a woman. Far too many crime show and not enough good humor. And the victim in the crime shows? 99 percent of the time...is a woman.
Anyway, thanks for another thought-provoking blog!
~Tasker
The blog administrator makes decisions about possible link-ups and I'm sure your note has been seen.
Yes, Tasker, news is many times manipulated to be most graphic, most disturbing and most anxiety-provoking. I've been around too many TV producers to think otherwise.
liyfrnt
The major networks seem to try and come up with a catchey lead for each tradgety accompanied by some morose music. REPORT the news and leave the broadway productions to broadway. It's truely offensive!
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