1/24/25
I can’t lie, for about the past 6 months, I’ve been pretty locked in to the news cycle. If I scroll ‘right’ on my iphone, I see perfectly targeted apple news headlines that make me upset. If I turn on my reactionary cable news channel of choice, I get beautiful men and women in suits and dresses telling me things I agree with. If I open up Instagram, I see truly heinous events happening in the world on 10 different instagram stories. If I open up Facebook, I mostly see what Facebook’s algorithm thinks will keep me on their app for longer; friends posting links and commenting on the most explosive rhetoric of #47.
I confess, I love it all. I have the hedonistic urge to sit on my living room floor with every news outlet open on 10 screens and indulge in it like an addict; my blood pressure rising and falling with each hit of the newest executive order signed. When he says the prayer service was “Not too exciting” I want to text all my clergy friends and cry. I love it, but I love it like I love cheetos. Sure, that powdery, processed, cheese feels so good in the moment, but I know it’s not nourishing me with vitamins and antioxidants. I know in 2 hours where I will be headed to.
Maybe I sound too much like an exhausting, privileged, coastal, liberal? Obsessed with policies that probably won’t impact my life all too much. Maybe the right wing is right? Maybe I have the woke mind virus and it's finally time I got owned? Or maybe those on the left are right? That my silence on policies impacting social justice makes me complicit in their harm; that If I want to check out of it all and go uniformed, my privilege allows me to.
But back to the point…on cheetos…oh wait, no, on my unhealthy relationship with the news cycle. In A Beautiful Mind, the biopic about American Mathematician, John Nash, Nash' character is questioned on how he handles his schizophrenia…he says something that has always stuck with me… “Like a diet of the mind, I just choose not to indulge certain appetites.” Maybe that’s what I need to do right now. I am not trying to trivialize schizophrenia in this metaphor, but doesn’t it all feel a little chaotic these days? Facebook, CNN, FOX, Apple News, Instagram, Youtube, Joe Rogan, Hasan Piker, ect.
But wait, what about staying informed? I mean, I want to be a good citizen, knowing current events and being able to discuss them at the next dinner party that I won’t get invited to. I can’t do a full no-news-diet like a personal trainer goes keto! That somehow feels as dangerous as my fantasy where I get crushed by my 10 screens with Wolf Blitzer on 5 of them. I mean, I don’t want to be like the last guy to find out about Covid. Just imagine, on March 25th, 2020, there was someone who was really confused on why everyone was wearing masks at the grocery store.
So what do I do? I think the answer is the same one that I come to with almost every problem in my life - moderation. Sure, Cheetos may not nourish me, but I can have a bowl every once in a while. I don’t need to never eat a carb again.
In reality, for me, I think this mostly just looks like reading my newspapers once a day. I find that reading the news takes some of the sensationalism away from it all. For me, at least, I can indulge in the New York Times, which feeds my biases and opinions, while also opening the Wall Street Journal to scoff at the opinion section. Maybe I check Facebook once a day. Instagram, in the morning and at night…and sure, if I want dessert once in a while, it might be okay to turn on Anderson Cooper at 8pm.
I’m aware of my privilege with this essay. I can afford to check out a bit; not be on the protest lines. But I think I need to. I think, in a very real way, I am going to get sick if I don’t.
With Peace,
John