Looking through my media feeds, including Lemmy, YouTube, News Outlets (Reuters, Financial Times) as well as news related to my profession, I would estimate that 85% of what I see is doom and gloom, i.e. reports about something that’s going wrong in the world or might go wrong in the future.
I try to limit what I follow to educational and unopininated sources (as far as that’s possible anyways) and some satire or a meme here and there. I don’t like suggestion algorithms and don’t use social media, because I don’t want to be trapped in a self-reinforcing bubble. On YouTube for example, I use third party apps which show me only videos from channels I explicitly follow.
Still, it’s mostly depressing information: how bad the job market and economy is, geopolitical threats, AI risks, symptoms of late stage capitalism. I am aware, thanks. But I didn’t ask to hear these things over and over and over again, and it’s negatively affecting my outlook on life. I’ve given up on reading the news entirely because I just get triggered by the enshittification of society, politics, the environment and daily life where I live. At this point I’d rather not hear about it anymore.
What I want to ask is whether you are having the same experience? Am I doing something fundamentally wrong? I don’t want to be blind to what’s happening in my/the world, but I want to have a positive and optimistic outlook on the future. How can I make that happen? How can I get away from an engagement economy constantly bombarding me with bad news without giving up on learning about the things that I am interested in?
Try to be informed about the stuff you can have an impact on
For example on my rss feed I just wiped out most of the non EU stuff. It’s ok to know that there are wildfires somewhere in the world but being overexposed is really just toxic
I can organize here in Italy, not even the whole of it but my region and the cities I spend time in. It’s much better to know what my little city council is discussing about rather than any even major event but so far from me.
Unluckily, social media doesn’t help too much with curating the feeds but as others said try to work more on mutes and filters. Don’t forget that getting informed is just one tool for change, do not get too high on it :)
Edit and P.S. : it’s also much easier that on social networks driven by engagement algorithms the posts that travel the most are the ones that cause hate/rage and sex or generally emotions easier to exploit online. Newspapers themselves tend to post more negative stuff. It’s just a human bias, take it into account and watch around yourself to find the positive stuff of life
Look into solarpunk
Wow, I am super intrigued. Thanks for the suggestion!
Glad to help!
Just be careful, slrpnk.net can also have a lot of doomerism. I like the instance though
Just avoid following climate and collapse x)
I myself do not follow them lol
True.
I’d recommend curating the ‘subscriptions’ feed first (also set it as the default), and then only browse the ‘all’ feed selectively.
You are 100% correct, negative news has a greater impact on people than positive: https://assets.csom.umn.edu/assets/71516.pdf
Media sites know this, and use it to drive engagement:
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41562-023-01538-4
https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/social-media-facebook-twitter-politics-b1870628.html
And so, negative headlines are getting worse: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0276367
But negative news is addictive and psychologically damaging: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/why-we-worry/202009/the-psychological-impact-negative-news
So it’s important to try and stay positive:
https://www.goodgoodgood.co/articles/benefits-of-good-news
If you want a break from the constant negativity, here are some sites that report specifically on positive news:
- https://www.goodgoodgood.co/
- https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/
- https://fixthenews.com/
- https://positivenewsfoundation.org/
- https://www.onlygoodnewsdaily.com/
And here’s 35 more: https://news.feedspot.com/good_news_websites/
Some communities on Lemmy you might be interested in:
- !goodnews@kbin.social
- !lemmybewholesome@lemmy.world
- !goodnewseveryone@sh.itjust.works
- !upliftingnews@lemmy.world
- https://lemmy.world/c/hopeposting
- https://lemmy.world/c/worldinprogress
- https://lemmy.world/c/climatehope
Remember, realistic optimism is important and, unlike what some might have you believe, is not the same as blissful ignorance or ‘burying your head in the sand’: https://www.learning-mind.com/realistic-optimism-blind-positivity/
https://www.centreforoptimism.com/realisticoptimism
And doesn’t mean you must stay uninformed on current affairs: https://www.goodgoodgood.co/articles/how-to-stop-doom-scrolling
https://goodable.co/blog/tips-for-balancing-positive-and-negative-news/
I just want to say thank you for writing such a detailed response. It’s been quite eye-opening for me, I wasn’t even aware that so many great resources and communities exist to explicitly counter this sentiment I’ve been feeling about negativity in news and other media.
It’s very encouraging to see that I’m not the only one with this feeling, and even just the responses to this post are sending me on a whole journey of being more positive!
You’re more than welcome, glad it helped. Stay positive, friend! 👍
You clearly took some time with this. Hat tip.
