How I kicked my news addiction

I am a recovering addict. For the past five months, I have quit something almost as hard to give up as drinking, smoking or drugs. I decided to stop reading the news. No newspapers, no online articles, no television, no Facebook. Cold turkey, and on Thanksgiving no less.

My thinking was pretty simple: News is inherently temporary and seems like it is becoming increasingly hollow. Between print, radio, television and digital, news is now recycled repeatedly. A breaking story can be noteworthy, but by the end of a news cycle, you can’t help but feel overwhelmed by meaningless dribble. I figured there was a better use of my time. And if something important happened, I figured the news would find me.

Since Thanksgiving, all of my news has come from friends, colleagues and family. My wife, Cheryl, told me about fires and mudslides in Los Angeles, my neighbor Howard told me about political misdeeds, my chief financial officer informed me of stock market ups and downs, my friend Pete alerted me to a TMZ segment that featured me as the reincarnation of an arguably better-looking dead serial killer.

There is nothing inherently wrong with news, and I certainly don’t subscribe to the “it’s all fake” philosophy. Often, the writing in newspapers is brilliant and insightful. But news is, by design, skewed toward the negative.

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Negative news catches our attention, captures our imagination and scares us into reading more, because negativity looms larger in the human brain than positive events. We are controlled by our emotions, and our emotions are controlled by fear. A tiny almond-shaped part of our brain called the amygdala drives all of this. Even though it’s small, the amygdala can override our decision-making and is hyper-tuned to negativity. Inside the amygdala, a single negative event makes roughly the same impression as five positive events.

Our amygdala helped the human race survive in the wild —remembering a snake bite is more important than remembering a kind word. News exploits this quirk of human nature by focusing on negative events. But since we no longer live in the wild, negativity causes more harm than good and makes us more likely to suffer from depression.

Studies have shown that people who watch negative news are more likely to be stressed or anxious. They are also more likely to think catastrophically about their personal problems and challenges, even when those things have nothing to do with the news. Issues are often portrayed in terms of worst-case scenarios on the news, and once our brains get into worst-case mode, it’s nearly impossible to claw our way out. For that reason alone, it’s unfortunate that news consumption among Americans is increasing.

No one should put his or her head in the sand, unaware of what’s going on in the world. But you can get a pretty good idea of what’s happening without news, partly thanks to friends and family, and from long-form journalism. Reading a monthly publication, for instance, is healthier and just as valuable as staying in constant contact with the 24/7 news cycle.

Even a politician or businessperson can get most of what they need without hitting the Twittersphere. For my part, Twitter is now used only for posting, Instagram and Facebook for seeing friends, and I have officially locked myself out of my phone’s news and alert feeds (and its barrage of apps).

My news hiatus may not last, but my experiment has had a positive effect so far. Since dropping the habit, I am more focused on things that matter. Conversations seem to have more depth, time seems more available for family and friends, and my understanding of what is really happening in the world has actually increased. This past weekend, while everyone else was fixated on the latest news eruption from Washington, I spent my time painting with my daughter. It may be ironic that a columnist gave up the news, but who better than someone steeped in the stew to show that there are more fulfilling meals.