this post was submitted on 23 Aug 2023
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I don't want to be totally uninformed about what's going on, but I also don't want to fall into doomscrolling.

I know that I could very easily just avoid any news sites and only find out about these things secondhand from people I talk to whether in real life or online. I also know that it's not good to bury your head in the sand quite that far.

I could also very easily doomscroll different news sites and actively seek out more depressing news when I'm done scrolling one site. I've been doing more of this option lately, and as a reaction to that I've started doing total avoidance, which I know isn't good.

So how and where did you strike a healthy balance between reading enough news to stay informed, but not enough to be in a constant state of anxiety about the world?

I'm looking for genuine advice here. I don't want to be mean but I'm not too sure else how to say the following: I don't want to come back to a lot of replies about "I didn't find a balance lol I just doomscroll/stick my head in the sand" and "I feel this, same." Not really sure if that's going against the spirit of the chatting community, but seeing a lot of "same problem" and zero advice tends to make me feel more in despair. I already know this is a common problem, so what would usually be the correct social move of saying you relate in order to empathize and let the other know they're not alone isn't helpful for me in this particular instance.

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[–] iByteABit@beehaw.org 1 points 1 year ago

I struggle with this, I feel like Lemmy has affected me negatively overall. I guess you can't blame bad news being shared when the world is objectively shit, but no one benefits by you ruining you mental health.

Apathy and people not caring about politics is something that negatively affects the world by leaving all the choices to the ones with bad intentions, but caring too much can very quickly lead to desperation and hopelessness. I've been diving a bit into world history, trying to clear my mind from misconceptions and propaganda, but what I'm realizing is that everyone sucked, maybe excluding early hunter-gatherers.

In order to change the world, it takes power and the ability to cause harm to the ones standing your way, but this means that well meaning people who just want themselves and everyone around them to live a happy life can't really do much about it because doing something about it most often involves picking a side and dominating opposition. That unfortunately leaves powerful positions to the ones who are willing to do all that, who probably don't care all that much about everyone being happy or themselves being brutal.

And I think that's why we're left with a world so uncaring, so hostile to its own self, willing to take everyone down with them instead of working together.

Sorry for the rant, but it makes me feel better