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Are You a Stressed Out News Junkie?
Do you watch CNN religiously for
coverage of the war in Iraq? Do you spend hours glued to Fox
News for its take on the U.S. Supreme Court  nomination process. Do you
constantly surf the Internet hunting for news? Is your radio
turned to talk radio throughout the day? Or you one of those
news junkies who reads as many as five newspapers each day in
order to keep abreast of the current news?
If any of
those questions sound like you, then it’s obvious you don't
want to go a single day without knowing what's going on. You
feel out of the loop if there is a news event that you’re not
knowledgeable about. You probably know the talking heads on TV
on a first-name basis, and you're familiar with all the major
news anchors. Let’s face it, you’re probably feeling
as if you’re on information overload.
The
desire to be informed is certainly an good attribute. In a
democracy, we want citizens who are knowledgeable about major
issues. Knowing about current events can help you to protect
your property, improve your health, and even protect the lives
of yourself and your family. People who ignore current events
altogether do so at their peril.
However, the
down side is that being addicted to news can cause you a great
deal of stress. In addition to dealing with your own
problems, you feel as if you have to weigh in on every major
issue of the day. You might even start to feel depressed by
somber world news, adding to your state of anxiety. It can be
particularly troubling hearing about a news event and feeling
as if you're powerless to respond.
Let’s determine
whether you're putting yourself under too much stress with a
short quiz to see you’re a news junkie. Do you watch more than
two hours a day of television news? Do you read more than two
major papers? Have you foregone music radio for talk radio?
Are you on the Internet for more than an hour a day, searching
for news headlines?
If your answer is "yes" to these
questions, you’re definitely in serious jeopardy of hurting
your emotional and physical health through excessive stress.
Watching television or listening to talk radio is
essentially a passive experience, however, it can still take a
toll on our nerves. It’s quite likely you’ll become
edgy and feel high-strung and find it increasingly difficult
to concentrate because of being distracted by the news stories
you see and hear all day long. Your stress is likely to
manifest itself in terms of increasing
irritability.
The point is, information and news
overload can be a highly stressful experience.
Therefore, if you're obviously a news junkie, you’d be
wise to do what you can to lessen your stress level.
There’s a point at which seeking out news can become highly
counter-productive. Therefore, you should consider taking
steps to protect yourself against this excessive
stress.
You can start by limiting the time you spend
viewing cable news. You might have noticed that the news is
updated every half-hour, so you can just watch the headlines
at the top or bottom of the hour and get all the information
you need about the top news stories of the day. On occasion,
you might want to tune in longer in order to hear in-depth
reporting of a particular issue, however, try to limit your
viewing time to an hour at the most.
Also, try to cut
the amount of time you spend on the computer hunting down news
headlines. Often just knowing the headlines is enough. You
don't always need to know the minute-by-minute casualty count
in order to form an opinion on your city's crime prevention
programs. In addition, reading just a couple of major
newspapers each day should provide you with enough information
to have a good understanding of the major issues of the
day.
There’s nothing wrong with wanting to be
informed, but taking it to the extreme is likely going to
cause you much unnecessary stress. So, if the news
becomes overwhelming, turn off the TV, disconnect the
Internet, sit back and relax for a change. You can learn to be
a reasonable news consumer without becoming over-anxious. It
may take some time at first to adjust to your new viewing
schedule, but once you get used to it, you’ll be amazed at how
much more relaxed you feel.
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