When my co-workers said they didn't hear much about the war in Ukraine anymore, I had to do a double take. Were they not following the news? Were they (gulp) that ignorant? They're educated people who fully support Ukraine's fight against Russia. But for them, and most others, I suddenly realized the Ukraine war doesn’t make it into their news feed.
The war is in the background, arising every now and then, but rarely making the top headlines. When entire cities are razed to the ground over and over again, we become desensitized. To most people, that’s old news.
I realize there's an intense algorithm working in my computer that focuses solely on Ukraine. Every day, a few articles pop up telling me about how Ukraine blew up something in Russia or how many civilians have died or how Russia is continually advancing.
Whether for good or bad, I want to stay on top of things. I receive email updates from someone who summarizes all the latest Ukraine news. It even includes perspectives from people on the ground in Ukraine – people who live in the middle of it, close to the war’s frontline.
Do I stay as interested in other international affairs like the war in Gaza and Israel? Unfortunately, like most people, my interest has waned. I don’t get many news articles on Israel, even though it’s a serious international conflict.
We are what we read and watch – what we consume for news. Sometimes this can have unintended consequences. News can make us think that the world is falling apart. I’ve written about this before, but the world is still a great place to live. Overall, we have more peace, less death, and more wealth than ever before in human history. Does that mean we feel great? Not at all! Under the best conditions, we can still feel like the world is going to hell in a handbasket.
This is likely a natural human tendency. But I would say it’s also natural to be overly optimistic in times of great peril. Which side of our brain wins depends a lot on what we immerse ourselves in.
As a self-proclaimed Debbie Downer, I’m naturally drawn to news that is negative (unless it pertains to Ukraine – then positive news is welcome!) I do, however, still receive a weekly newsletter that includes only good news stories, which is incredibly frustrating to me because there’s not one piece of bad news in it! I glance at the headlines that read: “Fewer kids dying of disease”, “More ecological area protected in Brazil”, “Gay rights protected in more countries than ever before.” I’m not playing this stuff down – this is great news for the world and I celebrate it! But I’m not motivated to read about it the same way I read about politics or a war zone.
My brain may even be configured to not believe in the good. When someone tells me something positive that happened, I sometimes think to myself, So what’s the potential downside of this so-called good news?
It goes without saying that this is a source of psychological misery for many people, myself included. If we don’t temper our intake of news, we can become absorbed by the doom and gloom that may infiltrate our thoughts.
The same can be said for political views. We tend to read and listen to those stories and viewpoints that confirm our biases. This can make the “other” seem that much worse than they really are. This contributes to division and makes it that much more difficult to resolve conflicts.
I won’t be shutting down my news algorithms (how do you, anyway?) because it’s important to have a sense of the human suffering that goes on in the world. I certainly won’t stop reading about Ukraine, a war that affects so many people I care for.
But to be aware that we are limited in our viewpoint, and that the world is not as bad a place as the news makes it out to be, is important, too.
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