Thursday 17 December 2015

Are You Addicted To The News?



Are You Addicted To The News? by Omar Cherif, One Lucky Soul

If you religiously follow the news and all your social media posts are about what’s going on” in the world, you may want to know that media studies have shown that bad news far outweighs good news by as much as seventeen negative news reports for every one good news report.

The reason behind this is that us humans have adapted to seek out news of dramatic, negative events. Our brains have evolved in a hunter-gatherer environment where anything novel or dramatic had to be instantly attended to for the sake of survival. This is what makes a charging bear more noticeable than a beautiful sky.  

Based on what evolutionary psychologists and neuroscientists have found, propagating fear and negativity becomes a state of the art if you ever want to make the media and current affairs more appealing to the masses. This means more views, which means more advertising money. 

Another reason why people like to follow the bad news is to feel better about themselves, to have some sort of scapegoat. When you’re watching T.V and you come across all the things that are going wrong in the world, you kind of feel grateful this isn’t happening to you — even if it’s on the subconscious level. You consequently become contented with the status quo of your surrounding environment, whether it’s your city, state, country, or overall reality. 

An additional reason why many people obsessively follow the news is to cure their boredom. Again, Today’s news offer non-stop 24-hour drama, which naturally gets people anxious. Anxiety is known to be one cure to boredom.

Just like our addiction to drugs, alcohol, and food, addiction to news also changes our brain chemicals. This often leaves us anxious and depressed. Simply because most of the news is recycled, repetitive, depressing, and even useless. 


ISIS, ISIL, DAESH, ANSAR BAIT AL-MAQDIS, HAMAS, FATAH, JIHADISTS, MILITANTS, AL QAEDA, MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD, OSAMA BEN LADEN, IRAN, MUSLIMS, THE WAR ON DRUGS, THE WAR ON TERROR, THE RED SCARE, GUATEMALA, THE JEWS.

When you read and reread the above words all over mainstream media, you may start believing that everyone other than you is the enemy. Having enemies is an important tool to control populations because you scare them. Once people are scared, they give in and allow certain entities to help them through their fear. By doing so, they lose their freedom. They also lose compassion to others and start hating them. And all this because of the relentless work of mass media, which seems to routinely lie to people and fabricates a reality antithetical to verifiable facts just to keep them irrationally fearful, enslaved, and wanting even more news. 
 

So what happens when you stop following the news?

Well, that’s quite the radical game-changer. You actually have time, clarity, and energy to do more constructive things. Because your brain isn’t full of fears and drama you literally become healthier. 

Personally, I haven’t read, listened, or watched the news for more than six years. And that was one of the best decisions I have taken in my life. What I do, however, is create my own headlines — my own reality.

Yet, I still can’t help but remain in the loop when I check my Facebook feeds. That is because people love to talk about who got killed where and what went wrong how, which eventually gets too much if one wants to lead a peaceful, and perhaps even conscious life.

It is not like I choose to live in a bubble or a cave. But it is because I don’t deny that many horrible things exist in this dual world we’re living in, though I willingly choose to live away from all these low vibrations. Call it selective ignorance, if you will. More about it is covered in a different list-article:
Things I Got Rid Of To Become Happier.


In summation, if you are always plugged to the matrix, it will be radically hard for you to lead a peaceful life. Since nowadays we are surrounded by an overabundance of news sources and channels, it may be equally hard to unplug. Yet it still remains doable and sincerely worth it. If one must remain in touch with whatever is going on in the world, then I suggest to be ruthlessly selective in choosing your sources. In a world consumed by lies, fakery, and deception, being our own researcher seems like the only rational solution there is.


Free Thy Mind. 



ALSO VIEW:



Codependency: What Being Addicted to Someone Means

What Is Fear of Abandonment and How to Overcome It

Opiated Then Hatin’ It

The Significance of Letting Go

What Is Overcompensation?

Dealing with High Awareness and Empathic Accuracy

Why They Do It: A Look at Domestic Violence and Abusive Relationships
 
The Parable of the Cow: You Are Not Your Thoughts

To Forgive Is Not To Reconcile

Things I Got Rid Of To Become Happier

On Love and Attachment

Letting Go of Getting Offended and Taking Things Personally

What Nomad Lions Can Teach Us About Growing Through Life

Who Are We?

Why We Should Not Fear Death

What Being Conscious Means
 


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