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News Junkie Stress:
Perhaps you’ve
been watching CNN religiously for its coverage of the war in Iraq.
Or maybe you spend hours glued to Fox News for its take on the U.S.
Supreme Court nomination process. You might surf the Internet, hunting
for news. Your radio might be turned to talk radio throughout the
day. You may also read as many as five newspapers each day in order
to keep abreast of the current news.
You feel as if 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 are
not familiar with. You know the talking heads on TV on a first-name
basis, and you’re familiar with all the major news anchors.
Yet, at times, you feel as if you are on information overload.
The desire to be informed
is certainly an attribute. In a democracy, we want citizens who are
knowledgeable about major issues. Knowing about current events can
help you to protect your property, to improve your health, even to
protect the lives of yourself and your family. People who ignore current
events altogether do so at their peril.
However, being addicted
to news can cause you a great deal of stress. In addition to dealing
with your own problems, you might feel as if you have to weigh in
on every major issue of the day. You might find yourself depressed
by somber 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.
In order to determine
whether you’re putting yourself under too much stress, consider
taking a little quiz to determine if you are 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 you answered “yes”
to the preceding questions, you are in serious jeopardy of threatening
your emotional and physical health through excessive stress. While
watching television or listening to talk radio is a passive experience,
it can nonetheless take a toll on our nerves. We might become edgy
and feel high-strung. We might find it increasingly difficult to concentrate
because we are distracted by the news stories we see and hear about.
Our stress might even manifest itself in terms of increasing irritability.
The point is, information
overload can be a highly stressful experience. Therefore, if you’re
a diagnosed news junkie, you’ll need to do what you can to lessen
your stress level. There is a point at which seeking out news can
become highly counter-productive. Therefore, you need to take steps
to protect yourself against excessive stress.
To begin with, try
to limit the amount of time you spend viewing cable news. You might
have noticed that the news is updated every half-hour. Therefore,
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. But 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.
In many cases, just knowing the headlines is enough. You don’t
necessarily need to know a minute-by-minute casualty count in order
to form a viewpoint about 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 is nothing wrong
with wanting to be informed. But taking it to the extreme can cause
you unnecessary stress. So, if the news becomes overwhelming, turn
off the TV, disconnect the Internet, sit back and relax. 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 become used to it, you may be amazed at how relaxed you
feel.
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