Viewing 40 posts - 1 through 40 (of 40 total)
  • Does the 'news' depress you ?
  • mrkstvnz
    Free Member

    News in the morning,online in the day and on the evening. It really does get to me a lot of times . Even though we are fed it every day, i am not immune to the shit that goes on in the world. I am at a stage where I think …… Well I just don’t know , apart from a depressive view of the world.
    Or more to the point , us humans. And yes I know good things happen and there are good people. It’s just what’s reported on the news all the time and it makes me wonder , what the f***. I don’t know if anyone feels the same but it feels different now I’m in my 30s compared to 20s. It feels sometimes life sucks , and what’s on the news most days makes me feel like shit*. No particular stories here just a generalisation .

    cynic-al
    Free Member

    Sometimes. Decent analytical news like R4 or C4 are better.

    cfinnimore
    Free Member

    Deleted all my news apps and stopped reading daily updates and buying newspapers. Listen to 30 mins of BBC4 Today in the morning.

    Ignorance, of most things, has been bliss.

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    CountZero
    Full Member

    I don’t let it get to me, I manage to keep a sense of detachment to bad news on radio and TV.
    Otherwise I’d end up like the OP.

    chewkw
    Free Member

    If you get suck in by all the news you are doomed.

    Just observe them as they are.

    Yes, living is difficult.

    mrkstvnz
    Free Member

    End up not detached.

    MSP
    Full Member

    Proper news no, it frustrates me to see the many things caused by greed, corruption and hatred going on in the world, but it doesn’t depress me.

    I do find all the inane celebrity “distractions” pedalled as news somewhat depressing though.

    maccruiskeen
    Full Member

    Depends on the news you’re consuming. Some channels / radio stations ‘editorialise’ the news – that is they don’t just report a story, they also tell you how to feel about it too. They’ll tell you that a story is ‘shocking’, ‘alarming’ ‘worrying’ etc, they might even put a musical bed under the item to heighten the drama.

    Some people have an endless appetite for bad news – the idea that things have just got worse – not because they’re depressive personalities but the because they have a low opinion of others and an inflated sense of themselves. Every story of misfortune, mismanagement and misadventure gives them an opportunity to tut at other and pat themselves on the back for being wise after the event.

    If you don’t enjoy that sort of thing then watch other news, or for fun watch the worst examples of news channels and enjoy seeing the games they play.

    I heard a great interview with Al Murray where he made an interesting point – saying he didn’t watch News Night because thats ‘just being agreed with’ – the news being presented fits his point of view. He prefers to watch ITN instead so that he can see what other people are being told to think.

    bearnecessities
    Full Member

    I’ve abandoned news altogether. I think I’m old before my time, because it’s ‘all’ designed to feed the market that maccruiskeen perfectly sums up in his second paragraph.

    I can’t actually add anything to that para, as it would only detract from it.

    It does mean I miss out on the weather forecast, which means my Dad probably worries a bit when I tell him I wasn’t aware of the severe weather heading my way.

    thestabiliser
    Free Member

    They only point out the bad stuff, cos its more dramatic and eye catching, there’s plenty more good stuff going on its just that ‘Terry mows elderly neighbours lawn’ doesn’t make good copy

    vorlich
    Free Member

    I’m depressed by the quality of journalism as much as the stories reported. I include C4 news in that, we used to watch it, but after they did the jimmy savile story in the style of a top ten countdown, we stopped. I called out padraig o brien on twitter for it and he couldn’t seem to fathom how reporting the story in that manner might be inappropriate. 🙄

    binners
    Full Member

    I think it’s a sort of moral obligation to keep yourself informed. I know it’s a cliche but the price of freedom is eternal vigilance.

    We’ve ended up with the politicians we’ve got because a lot of people ( perfectly understandably) have had enough of the moral vacuum they inhabit, so wash there hands of them. And look where it’s got us?

    You have the likes of Maria Miller, shamelessly ripping the taxpayer off, being completely unrepentant when caught, and being offered the full support of the Prime Minister while doing it. We get the politicians we deserve, and perhaps if more people took a more active interest, then they’d know they’d be held to account a bit more effectively.

    So… Yes… I do find it depressing. But more than anything it makes me really ****ing angry!

    Jerome
    Free Member

    Was talking to the lady who sits on the front desk of our office about rhis. She has to leave the news on all day. She was getting upset by all the bad news, to the point it was starting to really get her down. Not good..

    ohnohesback
    Free Member

    What is hacking me off about the news at the noment is the preoccupation with the Pistorious trial. TBH I couldn’t care less about it. I don’t know, and don’t want to know about it.

    mrkstvnz
    Free Member

    Perfectly worded first line binners . Couldn’t word that myself. Do I ingest less news or continue my daily onslaught of bad things. I think I’m a depressive person but that doesn’t mean I have a lower opinion of anyone else or an inflated sense of me. Just scared what goes on in the world.

    PeterPoddy
    Free Member

    I stopped watching news and buying newspapers years ago. Same old stuff over and over. No interest in politics either. So no, it doesn’t bother me at all any more.

    gears_suck
    Free Member

    I agree with everything everybody has said.

    jools182
    Free Member

    I don’t watch it purely for that reason

    bearnecessities
    Full Member

    gears_suck – Coffee Snob

    I agree with everything everybody has said.

    Twist. We’re all baristas 😉

    chewkw
    Free Member

    I watch news to see what those busy bodies are up to … 😆

    Edukator
    Free Member

    I’ve been a news addict since my teens. I wake up and turn on Europe 1, turn on the TV sound down and read the ticker on ntv at the same time over breakfast, read the paper, rarely miss TF1 at 20h. I’m hooked but not even a little bit depressed unless I’m daft enough to watch Sky.

    mrkstvnz
    Free Member

    Or scare you?

    JCL
    Free Member

    How can you not be depressed by the news?

    Governments in bed with corporations who are turning the planet to shit.

    boxfish
    Free Member

    I buy the Daily Mail* for a balanced view** of my small world.

    * not really
    ** rofl

    mikewsmith
    Free Member

    I watch a lot of news, and have news feeds on my home page, it’s important to know what is going on in the world, to ignore it or to assume that it’s all a great conspiracy is a lazy way of living and leads to a poor understanding of what is actually going on.
    It’s the same as saying I’d never vote for [Labour/Conservative] as they are [all left wing commies/right wing toffs] it over simplifies things to a point where the real meaning and detail is lost.

    The next worse thing is the soundbite “This is good” or “This is bad” story based on superficial facts which generally end up linked in forums and facebook, the classic “Health and Safety/EU gone mad!” which turns out to be nothing to do with what was actually going on.

    Governments in bed with corporations who are turning the planet to shit.

    Which is bad, but also mass populous not giving a shit so long as they can buy cheap stuff from abroad and drive round burning oil like it’s going out of fashion.

    People ignoring what is going on around the world because it upsets them or because it doesn’t interest them leads to more of the bad things happening.

    user-removed
    Free Member

    During my working life as a drone in various crap jobs, it became clear that the redtops always had the jump on the big stories. Two hours after I’d read the Sun / Mail / Record, left lying in the staff room, R4 would start reporting the story. The next day, the broadsheet’s front pages would present the story as if it had just happened.

    The internet and revelations about phone tapping have changed the situation somewhat, but I will never write off the gutter press’ ability to get a good story – all you have to do is ignore the didactic spin.

    iamconfusedagain
    Free Member

    Even the papers say bad news is bad for you:
    http://www.theguardian.com/media/2013/apr/12/news-is-bad-rolf-dobelli

    I seem to remember that the proportion of bad news stories has increased over the years, although I may have dreamed that ‘fact’

    Edukator
    Free Member

    News is irrelevant. Out of the approximately 10,000 news stories you have read in the last 12 months, name one that – because you consumed it – allowed you to make a better decision about a serious matter affecting your life, your career or your business.

    From your link, Imconfusedagain. My answer:

    Avalanche reports in the local paper meant I didn’t take any closed roads or ski in the wrong places.
    I took the bus when news reports said ski resorts were busy so didn’t get turned away as all the car parks were full.
    I adopted an investment strategy consistent with low inflation (or deflation), low growth and tax system changes.
    I bought a petrol car as reports on clogging particle filters and the health risks of diesel made it clear a modern diesel isn’t for me.
    I voted for the candidate who has a programme I agree with in local elections.
    I kept the list of products and services I boycott/support up to date.
    I could talk about just about anything with anybody and not appear stupid or ill-informed, to myself at least.
    I don’t live in fear of “the system”, because I know it, understand it, and can play it to the best of my ability.

    Our pseudos perhaps reflect our respective attitudes to news. 💡

    willber
    Free Member

    I avoid the news(in all its forms) as much as possible. Life’s better this way……..

    wl
    Free Member

    Sometimes a bit. Occasionally more. But then IMO it’s all part of being a (reasonably) psychologically healthy human with a degree of empathy, so I’d be slightly concerned if it never got to me at all.

    MrOvershoot
    Full Member

    binners – Member

    I think it’s a sort of moral obligation to keep yourself informed. I know it’s a cliche but the price of freedom is eternal vigilance.

    I agree, perhaps it was my parents influence as they always kept up with current affairs from a wide variety of sources?

    I think it’s rubbed off on me as I sometimes struggle to understand how people will have such polarised views on subjects yet when you ask slightly deeper they have no knowledge of the factors influencing that area as unless they saw it on sky news it didn’t happen!

    Or even worse say “oh I don’t watch the news its sweaty” and then proceed to tell me what’s wrong with the world?

    brooess
    Free Member

    I can’t remember the source but there was something last year about the rise in 24h/constantly available news being linked to increased levels of stress/poor mental health…
    Since then I’ve avoided bbc.co.uk and stopped watching the news every night. I’ve stopped reading all the papers (incl broadsheets) and use just R4 and The Economist as my sources. definitely get a more measured and constructive view on the world as a result.

    Best tip I was ever given was to read the paper that you agree with and then also read the paper that sits on the opposite side of your own politics. Then you’ll get a more balanced view and more importantly, you’ll see how much bias and manipulation you’re getting from the paper you agree with!

    Just pick your sources very carefully and avoid the negative/political ones

    binners
    Full Member

    My main news sources are Radio 4 in the morning, The Guardian I read every day, then Channel 4 news in the evening. This provides me with a mixture of actual ‘facts’, and the utopian world of Polly Toynbee.

    I’d never pay for it, but I read the Times and the Mail regularly. On a ‘know your enemy’ basis, and just to shake my head in disbelief that people swallow such claptrap as ‘news’, when it has such an obvious (and in the Mails case just plain nasty) political agenda. Sometimes read the red tops too. ‘News’ delivered in words of less than two syllables, in the most incredibly patronising manner imaginable. I do wonder why people pay for that crap!

    With regard to having a moral duty to be informed, I was watching the BBC4 documentary on the first world war, last night. It focussed on revolutions. On the fact that the men laying down their lives demanded in return a more accountable democratic representation. I find it absolutely unbelievable how much people take this for granted nowadays, and are so blasé about.

    So people saying ‘I don’t watch the news. Its depressing’. Yes… but maybe not quite as depressing as seeing the industrial slaughter of your friends. Do you think people have made that supreme sacrifice for your right not to have to see anything that might upset you? or heaven forbid, bore you? Maybe spend a fraction of your day looking at somewhere like Syria. Where thousands are being killed to demand the right for a free society like the one that’s too much trouble for you to pay any attention too

    Grizla
    Free Member

    I’m not sure that we have much of a grasp on how huge the world is or how many people inhabit it, and hence on the miniscule likelihood that we could have been that old couple that were beaten up, or that soldier that was beheaded or on that plane that disappeared.

    We see all this bad stuff in the news in a concentrated and sensationalised form and we think it’s going on all the time.

    IMHO It’s good to keep an eye on what’s going on in the world, but you have to stay grounded. How many people do (did) you know that have been murdered? I don’t know of any.

    The worst for me is news of all the cyclists that get knocked down on the roads. Keeps me off the roads if i can help it.

    grum
    Free Member

    My main issue with the news: ever seen a story about something you have personal knowledge of? Whenever I do, I notice numerous basic factual errors, and often the whole thing is ridiculously slanted one way or the other – and this includes ‘quality’ papers. I can only assume this applies to virtually every news story.

    Read Flat Earth News – the system of reporting/journalism is broken.

    So people saying ‘I don’t watch the news. Its depressing’. Yes… but maybe not quite as depressing as seeing the industrial slaughter of your friends. Do you think people have made that supreme sacrifice for your right not to have to see anything that might upset you? or heaven forbid, bore you? Maybe spend a fraction of your day looking at somewhere like Syria. Where thousands are being killed to demand the right for a free society like the one that’s too much trouble for you to pay any attention too

    I’m not sure how you think watching the news helps the people in Syria.

    binners
    Full Member

    I’m not sure how you think watching the news helps the people in Syria.

    because if you don’t watch any news, then you wouldn’t know anything about it. Depressingly, if you went and asked people in the street about Syria, a fair proportion wouldn’t have a clue what you were on about. As they wouldn’t about all manner of other important things.

    The only way things change is when people demand change. If everyone just opts out of wanting to know anything, because it depresses them, then the more unpleasant people around get away with murder. Whether thats the literal interpretation (as in Syria), or whether thats over-claiming £50,000 of taxpayers money on your expenses

    MrOvershoot
    Full Member

    grum – Member
    My main issue with the news: ever seen a story about something you have personal knowledge of? Whenever I do, I notice numerous basic factual errors, and often the whole thing is ridiculously slanted one way or the other – and this includes ‘quality’ papers. I can only assume this applies to virtually every news story.

    I know what you mean grum, having lived on Cromwell St during the Fred West investigation much of the stuff in the papers was speculation & full of 1/2 truths.

    But I think binners has a good point if the majority just opts out then things are easier to cover up/twist

    brooess
    Free Member

    On the issue of how ignorant most in the UK are about the reality of life in other countries, this is a shocker.

    I was 21, old enough to be aware but I had no idea this kind of horror was going on..

    Rwanda

    FEW pages of history are as hard to read as those describing Rwanda between April and July in 1994. Working by hand rather than with the industrial methods that the Nazis used to kill Jews, and at more than three times the speed of the Holocaust, militias known as Interahamwe from the ethnic Hutu majority, and others, slaughtered at least 800,000 Tutsis (and Hutu moderates) to remove them from shared land. They raped, tortured and dismembered in hospitals, schools and churches. “The Interahamwe made a habit of killing young Tutsi children, in front of their parents, by first cutting off one arm, then the other,” a UN official in the country recounted afterwards. “They would then gash the neck with a machete to bleed the child slowly to death but, while they were still alive, they would cut off the private parts and throw them at the faces of the terrified parents who would then be murdered with slightly greater dispatch.”

    maccruiskeen
    Full Member

    I’m not sure how you think watching the news helps the people in Syria.

    I’m not sure how the situation in Syria can be improved by the thought that nobody is watching.

    On the issue of how ignorant most in the UK are about the reality of life in other countries, this is a shocker.

    Adam Curtis calls this ‘oh dearism’. News is a short hand language, a story needs to have a beginning, middle and end and a sense of who is good and who is bad. In terms of conflict and civil war news finds it easy to describe a situation like Libya -were and oppressed population (good guys) are fighting an draconian government (bad guys). You know the side to take, how to feel, what you can hope should happen, know when the situation is improving, know when its worsening. The reason the situation in Rwanda was so poorly covered is because it was outside the accepted language of news – it wasn’t really clear who was good or who was bad – it was in his terms ‘unstoryfiable’ – you couldn’t use a news story to explain what was happening – you couldn’t have bulletins every day just say ‘shits just happening everywhere and nobody really knows why’ and you couldn’t leave the reader knowing what they felt needed to be done.

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