An interesting example of the fear and its poison was one time I was in an airport and a 24hr news channel was on with the talking heads. You couldn't hear the words, just the tones. I found myself feeling anxious and agitated and I realized it was the voice inflections. So I walked over to the TV and muted it.
No one made a comment around me as you couldn't really hear the words anyway. About 10 minutes later the entire group that was near the TV was totally different from before. With the voices nagging, they had withdrawn, were hunched and quiet. With the TV off people were talking and there was laughter.
A lady walked up as we were about to board and thanked me saying that she hadn't noticed just how much of an affect it was having on her until it was gone. We talked about the voices and she said she was going to stop having the TV on in the background at home. I also recommended she read a news aggregation site or a publication that takes a slow approach.
To that end, I found the news aggregation group 1440 to be a great way to keep up date without the hyperbole.
One set of my grandparents has the news on in the background all day and they are anxious, nervous, and constantly talk about the world ending.
One set of grandparents never has the news on and they are alive, vibrant and go outside and travel all the time
I like to tell people who are always panicked about all the 'threats' to go outside, go to places with lots of people and watch them all living life.
An interesting example of the fear and its poison was one time I was in an airport and a 24hr news channel was on with the talking heads. You couldn't hear the words, just the tones. I found myself feeling anxious and agitated and I realized it was the voice inflections. So I walked over to the TV and muted it.
No one made a comment around me as you couldn't really hear the words anyway. About 10 minutes later the entire group that was near the TV was totally different from before. With the voices nagging, they had withdrawn, were hunched and quiet. With the TV off people were talking and there was laughter.
A lady walked up as we were about to board and thanked me saying that she hadn't noticed just how much of an affect it was having on her until it was gone. We talked about the voices and she said she was going to stop having the TV on in the background at home. I also recommended she read a news aggregation site or a publication that takes a slow approach.
To that end, I found the news aggregation group 1440 to be a great way to keep up date without the hyperbole.
https://join1440.com/?utm_source=nl_fwd_cta_main&utm_medium=email&utm_placement=url_link
and I've I've enjoyed Quilette for their long form and delayed coverage of events which lets things mature. https://quillette.com/
Thank you so much for the thoughtful recommendation of my Stack! Appreciate that 🙏🙏
Culture, politics, literature, memoir, personal essays, people 👌
Michael Mohr
‘Sincere American Writing’
https://michaelmohr.substack.com/