What happens to the human psyche (and body) when they’re fed a steady diet of unsettl

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The Health Impact of News Exposure | Mark's Daily Apple

A study of 89 people who were shown footage of four traumatic events showed that nearly 20% reported symptoms related to post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) as a result of the viewings.
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...our constant exposure to endless threads of instantaneous, disassociated “news” without the natural filters of time and context has the power to leave us overwhelmed and still lacking in larger perspective. We’d do better ... spending less time staying on top of each trivial update and devoting more time to discussing, reflecting, and thoughtfully acting on the major issues and events that we feel require our attention.
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My elderly father usually starts his day by watching a couple of hours of cable news where all the horrible things that happened recently are covered extensively :banghead:

It disturbs me to see him become angry and bitter about the horror and injustice to the point that it basically ruins his morning and detracts from all the positive things in his life. He does calm down once I get him out of the house for some enjoyable activities.
 
I gave up watching or listening to news that I can't control for the most part. This study just confirms my own beliefs, so thanks!
 
My father-in-law worked in the Washington DC bureau of CBS News for over 30 years. My parents-in-law live & breathe national & local politics.

"Unsettling" is not the word for it...
 
I gave up watching TV News on September 13, 2011. There was a grainy, green, sat-phone report from Afghanistan, which claimed to show aircraft or cruise missile strikes by the US against terrorist positions, but it might as well have been an oscilloscope with random inputs. I realised that we were basically in for "bad things are happening, be afraid" for ever. (It later turned out that there were no US military attacks against Afghanistan for many more days after 9/11.)

Now, I browse the BBC news site for a few minutes and get back to things that I actually can do something about.
 
You know, my mother and father both (divorced when I was 1-1/2) really made efforts to not let anything upset them ever. My mother cause she wanted to stay "mellow," and my father cause he was so emotional that he spent his time looking for things to laugh about mainly. Since they lived to 91 and 90 respectively, maybe they were right?
 
I never watch the news and only occasionally scan cnn.com for headlines. But I could go weeks without seeing a headline and wouldn't care one bit.

My MIL is regularly frantic about the world 'falling apart'. I gently remind her that the world has always been this way, we just 'get' to know about it the second it happens.
 
What happens to the human psyche (and body) when they’re fed a steady diet of unsettling news?

Something like this, I imagine...
gollum.jpg

 
Thanks for posting this. It came just in time for me---I subscribe to Newsweek and Time. I was about to start a subscription to the National Review because I wanted to read some conservative media to balance out those with a more liberal slant. You possibly saved me a few dollars (and possibly some sanity!). I do think that reading news may be a little less intense than seeing it, especially rehashed over and over.

I never understood how people watched war footage (starting with Vietnam) over dinner......
 
i listen to a morning radio program while driving to work. Sometimes the evening news but never the late news. I like my sleep.
 
M Paquette said:
What happens to the human psyche (and body) when they’re fed a steady diet of unsettling news?

Something like this, I imagine...
gollum.jpg

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One of my best friends is this guy. I usually avoid him but when cornered, I tell him about the positive things in the world and try to explain that it has always been this way. He just moves on after a while.
He has a steady diet of crap so he thinks and talks that way too. It's a shame because he is actually a nice guy until that side shows up.
 
I get most of my news from Yahoo. I don't need much. Stopped watching the nightly news years ago. No news magazines. When I am home, I do skim the local small town paper. I research something when it gets my attention.
 
Watch the news?........
smiley-scared010.gif
....pffttttt....

I've got enough drama going on in my own little world.
sSc_spin.gif
 
This topic has perfect timing....just asked DH yesterday if there was such a thing as post traumatic stress syndrome from watching too many current events/political debates.......it is something like watching a train wreck....you don't want to watch it, you know you shouldn't watch it, but you just can't help yourself....good thing vacation is coming up next week or I might have a nervous breakdown! we will be deep in the Okeefeenoke swamp most of the time....no TV! YEAH!
 
To me it is how you process it....

I record the national news and watch it... but will skip a story or two if they do not interest me... after a few days, Egypt did not interest me and I skipped them until I saw a headline of the leader leaving...

I do look at the headlines on Yahoo and will read the stories that interest me...

And I will admit to watching a couple of the Sunday political talking head shows... sometime there is something interesting on...
 
If I need to get news, I go online. The mouse click is under my control instead of being [-]blasted with negativity[/-] broadcast at.

News does depress me. I was watching the weather channel today and saw the story about the Amish family caught up in floodwaters in KY. I had to mute the TV after the second time the story was repeated. I guess my skin isn't so thick after all. :(
 
BigNick said:
I gave up watching TV News on September 13, 2011.
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Did you already ask the moderators to change the typo to "2001", or can I ask you some questions about the next six months' performance of the stock market?
 
What is the value of news about events that are out of our control?
 
One thing I have noticed after not watching/getting news from any source for some extended period of time. I haven't missed anything and there is not any sort of catch up needed.
 
I would like it ignore news most of the time. It's not always possible. My supervisors think that knowing how many people died in a riot, who is up on rape charges, or how many people were killed in some flood thousands of miles away from me is important and will conduct pop-quizzes to see who is up on "current events."

I don't suppose I could tell them that I refrain from reading about such things out of an overall interest in my mental/emotional health... :LOL:
 
If someone is not willing to monitor news, he will be blindsided from time to time, or more or less continuously. I agree that it is not easy to avoid being manipulated, but staying away from TV likely helps in that regard, with little to no loss in important input.

Decisions matter, and as my sig says, good information counts.

Ha
 
I wish I could get away with not constantly keeping up with the news. Sadly my work requires I know what is going on in different areas of the world and attempt to assess how those incidents will effect the smuggling of illicit goods into this country.
 
I guess the trick is to figure out how to stay aware of current events that actually matter without having to read about every single raped grandmother and murdered baby.
 
Like so many others on here I gave up watching TV news a long time ago. I started to notice that they had a lot of "if you don't watch our news you're going to die" types of stories. Now I stay current scanning CNN, Fox, and Drudge web sites.
 
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