Does reading the news make you miserable? 7 steps to stay informed without losing your mind

Reading the news was making me miserable. Until it wasn’t.

For someone who genuinely cares about the state of the world, there could be a strong sense of guilt that comes with avoiding the news. And yet, reading the news is making us unhappy. The deteriorating state of our mental health as an entire race has been dubbed the “Next Global Pandemic”, and staying up to date with all that’s happening in the world is directly aggravating our sense of depression, frustration, and anxiety.

A lot of us know very well the dilemma of wanting to stay informed, but also wanting to protect ourselves and our own emotional stability and peace of mind. This was especially the case for me.

It didn’t help that I’d fallen into the habit of getting most of my news from Facebook. I would open the app with the excuse of wanting to check the latest, but I would end up sliding down the rabbit hole, scrolling mindlessly through the same old memes I’ve already seen a dozen times this week.

I contemplated the alternatives. Should I stop reading the news?

There are voices out there advocate for not reading the news altogether, that “the news is bad for you”. In his infamous book Amusing Ourselves to Death, Neil Postman argues that there’s hardly anything relevant, useful, or actionable in so-called “world news”. Most of the news we hear every day is either not directly relevant to our lives, or is something we have no control over and can do nothing about.

I do think there’s some merit to this argument. After all, not all data is information. Some data is simply noise. But does that mean we should give up on knowing anything about the world altogether?

I don’t think so. I think the real issue is that what we see and hear everyday is not actually world news. It’s not the news that actually matters, and it doesn’t help us understand what’s happening in the world. In fact, we remain in the dark about most things actually taking place that we could learn from or find inspiration in.

The news as we know it is designed to engage our attention, and to make money from our attention. Big news makes more money. Bad news also makes more money. And so mainstream media wants to feed us either big news, or bad news. That’s why a lot of the news you’re reading is the same. All designed to get you to click and look at an ad.

And we are being fed this “news” everywhere—not just on news sites, but on Facebook, Instagram, and even TikTok.

What we are experiencing right now is not just information overload, but also simultaneously information scarcity. We live in an information desert—we’re starved of the real information that we need to understand the world around us.

I’ve been trying to find a way to work against that. I want to keep reading the news. I want to stay informed without sacrificing my mental health. I want to make reading the news easy, informative, and enjoyable for myself.

Over the past couple of years, I’ve created a system for myself where I get news I actually care about from sources I actually trust. Here are my tips for how you can create a system of your own.

1. Re-evaluate what you think of as valuable news

Start by deciding what kind of information is valuable to you and worth your time. For me, a piece of news or information is valuable if it (1) helps inform or change my opinion on a certain topic that matters to me, (2) is directly relevant to me or my local community, or (3) is actionable and something I can apply to my daily life.

I decided that news about each individual explosion in a war-torn country is not relevant or actionable. I’d rather learn about that country’s history, become familiar with its people and culture, or understand better the political structures and systems that led to the current situation.

I also decided that I don’t value individual feel-good stories, but positive stories about communities and collective action. I care about things like worker action, or volunteer-run initiatives that help get better jobs for members of the community.

2. Create your own news feed using an RSS app

Instead of getting your news from social media or mainstream news sites, search for news sources that publish the type of content you want to see, and add them to an RSS reader app.

RSS readers aggregate all the recent content from your favorite sources. I use Feedly for its sleek and minimal design, but there are a lot of excellent RSS readers out there, and most of them are completely free to use.

My sources include socialist or left-leaning publications like Jacobin, New Statesman, and The Intercept. But when it comes to RSS feeds, the sky’s the limit! You can add any site or even blog you trust and enjoy reading.

3. Include a mix of independent and reader-supported sources

When choosing your news sources, try your best to incorporate media outlets that aren’t strongly driven by business interests.

I find that the best and most trustworthy media outlets are cooperatives that are supported by their own readers, either through subscriptions or donations, but those can be hard to come by. As an alternative, there are media outlets like The Guardian that, while still largely biased in their reporting, are partly supported by their readership and relatively less biased than others.

4. Add your favorite “good news” sources to your feed

One important thing is to incorporate sources of “good news” to your feed. Some of my personal favorites are positive.news and The Optimist Daily.

If you’re into art and culture, you should also remember to add some sources to your feed that add to your knowledge and keep you up to date with what’s happening in your city. As a Londoner, I keep sources such as Londonist in my feed. I always take pleasure in reading their “Things to Do” section whenever I’m in the mood for going out and exploring the city.

5. Find a way to incorporate checking your feed into your daily routine

If you’ve set up your reader but find that you don’t end up checking it that often, then you need to work on building the habit. Examine your day and choose a time where reading the news will be relaxing and enjoyable rather than stressful. It can be your during your commute, or, like me, while you’re having your morning coffee.

If it’s easier for you to listen to your feed rather than to read it, then you can use one of the apps mentioned below.

6. Listen to articles in your feed by saving them to Pocket

I’m a big fan of audio content, and I consume a lot of audiobooks and podcasts. It allows me to stay informed or entertained while keeping my hands free to do chores, or take a walk. I want my news to be no different.

Some RSS readers have a text-to-speech feature that can read out your articles for you.

Pocket allows you to listen to your articles with text-to-speech.

If you’re using a reader that doesn’t have this feature, like Feedly, you can easily share any article in your feed to Pocket in one click, and Pocket will read it out loud for you. Pocket is an excellent reading app with some great features, but unfortunately, it doesn’t automatically pull content for you from different sources the way RSS readers do.

For the tech savvy, you can also use an automation service like Zapier or IFTTT to connect your Feedly account to your Pocket account, and immediately save all of your Feedly articles to Pocket. You can then do all of your reading and listening in Pocket.

7. Subscribe to a news-over-audio service for interesting edits and commentary

One of my absolute favorite downloads of 2021 was Curio. This is the only paid service I mention in this post, but I think it’s worth it if you’re willing to take your news-over-audio game to the next level.

On Curio, you can listen to real narrators read stories and news pieces from some of the biggest news sources.

I was hesitant using Curio at first, since it mainly pulls stories and articles from large mainstream media outlets, which I was trying to avoid. However, the diversity of the articles curated and the stunning quality of the narration got me converted, and slightly addicted. I find myself instantly reaching for the app as soon as I leave the house for a walk, or get on a bus.

The other benefit is using an app like Curio is that the app doesn’t just offer news articles, but also edits and commentaries on the news. I especially enjoy their Weekend edit, and their Wake up with Curio. They also have a series called Wisdom Walks which includes articles such as How to breathe, How to maintain a healthy brain, and How to perform well under pressure.

Another similar app which I’ve yet to try is noa, short for News Over Audio. I would love to see similar apps with a different array of sources.