11 Reasons To Stop Watching the News in 2024

With an election, a pandemic, and continuous protests, everyone’s watching the news more. It would seem like that’s exactly what we should all be doing. But really, we should all stop watching the news.

Have you ever wondered how much you’re benefiting from seeing all that “breaking” reporting? Every day you just learn about a new weather disaster, a mass shooting, or some other tragedy that you have very few (if any) options to affect positively.

What if you knew all the news was doing was making you angry, distracted, and brainwashing you into what to think? You’d probably never turn on another 5 o’clock, 6 o’clock, or 11 o’clock newscast again. Whether you watch CNN, FOX, MSNBC, or your local station, here’s why you should stop watching the news for good.

Why you should stop watching the news

1. It hurts your mental health

The top story and headlines of the day are usually one of three things. A death, a disaster, or a scandal.

Something negative that influences you to feel anxiety, sadness, or anger. That alone should be enough reason to stop watching the news.

Now, of course, some people enjoy seeing all the drama. Even I’m tempted to watch just because of that. But after you’re done hearing the anchors gossip to you, you’re going to be in some kind of emotional state that isn’t positive.

When you’re not in a positive state, you’re less likely to be productive with your time. Whatever violent images or sad stories you just heard are going to stay on your mind.

Researchers have looked into how constantly consuming this kind of information affects us. Unfortunately, the more you’re consuming it, the more stress, anxiety, and depression you’re feeling. An article published by The Anxiety And Depression Association of America noted while watching the news may briefly make us feel in control, it actually makes our anxiety worse.

And when you feel all these things, you sleep less, you have less energy in your day, and a number of other problems could build up. Even without citing a study, common sense would tell us that constantly seeing a violent image or hearing a sad story can harm our mental well-being. If you were to stop watching the news for a few days, maybe you’d be surprised by how much better you’d feel.

2. They make money off of you

It’s no secret to anyone, but it’s something most people don’t think about. All of these television networks are businesses, including your community stations.

They’re corporations that have to do what they can to keep you looking at the screen. The more you’re looking at the screen, the more ad revenue they make. Pew Research made a chart that shows the three major cable networks (FOX, CNN, MSNBC) make hundreds of millions of dollars in ad revenue.

Have you ever heard the phrase, “if it bleeds, it leads?” That means if something violent happened, that’s going to be the leading story of the day. So you’re consuming things that make you anxious, and then have million-dollar drug companies advertise pills to make you feel better.

If you’re constantly fearful of what’s going on in the world, what are you going to feel like you need to do? Right, you’ll feel like you need to stay tuned.

You’ll feel like if you’re not staying informed, there will be consequences you’ll face. But that begs the question. Are you really staying informed?

3. You’re not staying informed

There’s something interesting about watching national or local reports. What you learn at the beginning of the day is usually the same thing you learn at the end of the day.

Sure, there might be some breaking coverage every now and then, but most of the time it’s nothing new. The formula is basically the same three things I mentioned earlier. A death, a disaster, or some kind of controversy.

You’re only staying informed of that same formula except with different people, different details, on a different day. A lot of times it’s about the same people many days in a row because they don’t want to talk about anything else.

Networks love to milk these things as long as possible because they have Nielsen data to tell them how much you’ll keep looking at it. They analyze how much you’ve watched certain things, and that’s likely what determines something being a “top story”.

It’s not about what’s most important for you to know. If that’s the case, why aren’t we learning more about things that specifically matter to us? The things that affect our physical and mental well-being. It had to take a full-blown pandemic for wellness to get a little bit more attention than normal.

And we should also be getting more information about things that could help us financially on a daily basis. These are topics we should be knowing more about, and not the latest political conflicts or the end of a celebrity marriage.

But do we get information on things that could help us be better? No. Only for 30 seconds about some random new study that was recently discovered. Instead, we get multiple days of being told about events that have already happened.

4. Most of it doesn’t directly affect you

Not really staying informed flows directly into the next point. Most of what you’re learning does not directly affect you.

Unless it’s a new law or a warning of something that could harm us, generally it doesn’t. What you’ve learned has happened is only affecting the people involved.

So, if we’re not directly affected, why do we need to know about it? Even if you learn there’s been a shooting in your area, you already know to be vigilant whenever you go out in the world.

We don’t need to be aware of every single crime to remember to stay safe. The other thing that bugs me is the intentional showing of dramatic live images.

With any protest, news cameras are going to be eager to film something burning or people fighting. Remember that phrase, bleeding equals leading.

It’s hard to turn your eyes away from all of that, but you have to. Your mental well-being has to matter more.

The only direct effect on you is it’s making you more worried about the world you live in. That’s not something any of us need in our lives.

5. It’s misleading you

In particular with cable networks, most of us have an idea of which ones lean left, and which ones lean right. Unless you take time to dig deeper, you’re mostly getting one side of the story emphasized to you. It’s essentially propaganda.

I know that’s a strong accusation, but does it fit the definition? Propaganda is commonly defined as communication primarily used to influence an audience through presenting facts selectively.

If networks are emphasizing certain facts and not mentioning others, is that not propaganda? Most of us don’t like being lied to, so why would we choose to sit down and be lied to every single day? We do this mostly because it confirms things we already think and believe.

We all want to feel right about our view of the world. If a network reports in a way that tells us we are, we feel validated. But in a world where our own thinking is just being confirmed to us, nobody’s learning, nobody’s growing, and nothing is changing for the better.

6. It’s a waste of your time

If you’re being made to feel depressed and not learning anything new, it sounds like a complete waste of time. You realize most of these news-related shows last 30 minutes to an hour. That’s a lot of time in your day to give.

In that time, you could have gotten work done on something important. You could have spent quality time with people you love.

Our days can be very short. We only have so much we can do in them. Make what you spend your time on something of value. Learn new skills, gain knowledge that you can actually use, and do things that actually make you happy.

7. It rarely makes you happy

Can you remember the last time you were happy after watching a broadcast? I honestly don’t know if I ever was.

The best I can think of is when one of my teams won a championship, or a political candidate I supported won. Of course, the people who were rooting against the team or candidate were likely very unhappy.

There’s probably only a handful of examples where almost everybody was happy watching a broadcast. Imagine you had a friend, and every time you were with them, you never felt happy. What would you do?

Right, you would find a way to cut them out of your life. The same needs to be true for any activity you engage in. If it’s not making you happy most of the time, you need to cut it out.

8. The internet can tell you what to know

We live in a world where you can get information at the press of a few buttons. You can go to Yahoo or your local network’s website and just scroll through the headlines for a minute or two.

If something seems like it really could directly affect you, then you could click the article and skim it. Once you get to the point where you realize it’s not directly affecting you, you can just move on. You could do this once or twice a day.

I say once or twice, because most of the time, nothing dramatically updates or changes in the day. Often nothing really changes in the week, so maybe you only need to do this once or twice every few days.

Or you can just look up a specific story that you know may directly affect you, like school closings. But don’t look at a broadcast.

9. Enhanced focus and productivity

News can be a significant distraction, interrupting work and reducing productivity. The ‘urgency’ created by breaking news stories often leads to constant checking of news updates, pulling attention away from important tasks. By reducing news consumption, you can focus more on your personal and professional goals without unnecessary distractions.

10. Greater appreciation for local community and surroundings

Constant news consumption, especially of global or national news, can lead you to overlook the positive aspects of your local community. Focusing less on global events and more on local activities and news can foster a greater sense of community and belonging.

11. Encourages critical thinking and independent research

Relying less on news outlets for information encourages you to seek out information independently. This process of research and critical thinking can lead to a deeper understanding of issues and a more nuanced perspective, rather than accepting the often-simplified versions presented in the news.

What else can you do?

Better ways to use your time

If you want to know what’s really going on out in the world, there are lots of more productive ways to do that. Here are a few things you can do instead of news-watching.

Watch documentaries

You get only a 1 to 3-minute segment on most topics you hear on a newscast. Sometimes less than 30 seconds. But you haven’t really learned that much about the events being talked about.

Documentaries on single subjects give you 30 minutes or longer of in-depth information on whatever you care about. With more knowledge, you can come to better conclusions about different topics and make better decisions as a result.

Do your own research

You just can’t fully trust what any newscast tells you. Making money off of keeping your attention is their main goal.

If there’s something you really care about, then search Google Scholar and find scholarly articles on the topic. Look through a variety of sources for information so you don’t just get one side of the story.

Take care of yourself

Instead of raising our blood pressure or anxiety watching a newscast, why don’t we just relax instead? Doesn’t it seem odd to stress ourselves out more after a long day of working at a job?

Do something that you find fun or enjoy something that calms you. Our mental and physical well-being has to be a priority in life.

Related: 21 Winter Self-Care Ideas That Will Warm You With Joy

Contribute to your community

You can sit around all evening getting angry about what you see in the news, or you can actually do something about it. Passively doom scrolling through the garbage fire on Twitter or Facebook and leaving strongly worded comments doesn’t count. If we all got out in the world more and focused on helping people, everybody probably wouldn’t be as divided as they are.

Keeping us all divided makes those same corporations more money. Because unfortunately, we give our attention more when everything is dramatic and crazy, rather than peaceful and good. Go out of your way to offer a helping hand more.

Related: The Value of Selflessness | Meaning, Examples

Final Thoughts

As the old saying goes, money talks. If everybody stopped watching today, stations wouldn’t make so much in advertising anymore.

They’d be forced to tailor their newscasts in a real informative way to get our attention and not go out of business. I have a question for you. Is there any time recently, if you had missed a few days of looking at a broadcast, it would have harmed you in some way?

If the answer is no, then maybe you don’t need to stay as up-to-date as you think. Maybe you’re really not missing out on anything at all.

I’m going to give you a challenge now. Try not to look at any report one day in the work week. I’d recommend sometime between Monday and Thursday.

The next morning, check what you missed, and see if any of it directly affected you. If it didn’t, then this could be the beginning of a much more peaceful life for you.

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