The News Blues

Is the news bad for you? Some experts seem to think that it is. Fair enough, too. A quick look at the headlines on any given day will feature many more bad news stories than good news stories. If you consume enough of it, and if you care about what you’re seeing, it’s bound to have an impact.

Headlines from news.com.au

Swiss author and intellectual Rolf Dobelli discusses in his 2011 book The Art of Thinking Clearly, the many many reasons why consuming news is damaging to your mind, your career, and even your health. In fact, Mr Dobelli has given up news altogether, and says he feels better for it. 

Bully for Rolf. It must be liberating to be able to live without any information about what is going on in the world. For those of who are news addicts, the concept of giving up the news is on a par with giving up coffee, chocolate, red wine…oxygen… Aside from the immediate rush of horror we might feel at the idea, there’s also the practicalities of living on the anti-news equivalent of a desert island.

The news is more than politics. Consider these scenarios: There’s a safety recall on your car. Your favourite restaurant burned down. You have to vote next week. There’s a cyclone heading your way. The stock market crashed and your life savings are worthless. We’ve been invaded by little green men from outer space.

How do you get by without that information?

The impacts of too much news – and let’s be honest, most of it is bad news - are potentially worse for people who are already suffering from depression and anxiety. Some psychologists advise their clients with depression to avoid the news, and there’s certainly a push on some internet fora that if you do suffer with depression, it’s better to avoid news reports.

Is there really link between depression and consumption of news? If there is, are we talking about news content or the way in which the news is presented? Could people who are suffering depression improve their mental health by ditching the news? 

I suspect there is a relationship between depression and anxiety disorders and engagement with the news, but not a causal link. It surprised me to learn that there is a lack of research into this touchy issue, so let’s see what we can find out!

Please complete the short (non-scientific) survey below. It’s completely anonymous, and if the results are at all indicative of a correlation, we’ll look at formalising the results with an academic study.

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