Yesterday I made a bold move. I turned the microphone off after recording this week’s podcast, and realised that I needed to actually take action on something I said.

So I turned off ALL push notifications on my phone. Including text messages and WhatsApp. And the BBC news alerts. I will no longer find out breaking news at the same time as everyone else in the room. And I think I’m OK with that. I will also only see text messages at times when I choose to go and check/process them. The twitch is still strong at the moment, but these moments have been getting fewer and further between over the course of today.

This is all in an effort to be more intentional about the way I let information influence my mood, thoughts, and ability to concentrate.

The impact of news on our health and wellbeing

The Impact of News
I’ve felt really aware of this recently, especially in relation to news. And in this week’s podcast I look specifically at ways we might take more control over how we consume the news. And the subsequent affect it has on our mental health. Both in the short and long term.

How can we re-engage with the news so that it affects us in healthy ways? How can we use it to add value to our lives, rather than being a source of distress and overwhelm? We don’t need to run away from it, or bury our heads in the sand. But we do need to be aware of how both affected AND desensitised we can get to the over-sensationalised, hyped up, emotive junk food news that is designed to keep us clicking, sharing, and dividing.

When we don’t have productive outlets or processes to deal with the feelings created by the bombardment of trauma that comes from being subjected to a never-ending stream of news (and reactions to it).

What happens when the news hits the room?
Do you have news alert push notifications on your phone? How do you respond when an update comes through?

If my brain is not engaged I will head straight for Twitter to see how people are reacting. I look for the battle lines being drawn around the event, and the polarising discussions that are bound to develop. It’s a perverse kind of entertainment that brings me no joy, just that weird addictive sense of ‘I know this is bad for me, but I can’t stop doing it…in fact I think that might be WHY I’m doing it’.

Then there are the ill-informed conversations as everyone in the room receives the news update at the same time. Suddenly everyone’s an expert as we all second guess the circumstances, perpetrators, and implications of whatever is going on. All based on nothing more than a headline.

Non-Stop News
It follows that newsworthy information is usually bad. Or divisive. Or fear mongering. It is exceptional. Not normal. Or it wants a reaction. And the simplest way to get people to engage is to provoke, scare, or anger.

We might think that news is just information we passively consume. Whether on radio, TV or through social media. But it’s not. It seeps into our experience of life. It contributes massively to our overall health. We need a balanced diet in the food we eat, and it’s no different with the information we consume. What goes is is what comes out.

You cannot binge on nothing but newsworthy news, expecting to feel balanced, happy, and healthy afterwards. You will build a skewed picture of the world, and carry that with you into all areas of your life.

Trauma
When it comes to emotional responsiveness, the brain doesn’t really discriminate between things happening directly to you, and things it sees happening to someone else. As a result, we put ourselves into stress mode whenever we watch the news and hear about traumatic events going on around the world. Stress mode is when our bodies release hormones like cortisol and adrenaline.