Breaking the News Habit

I admit it. I can’t take it anymore. The sadness, the despair, the violence, the craziness, it’s all just too much for my little brain to take. I have to stop watching the news on TV.

Normally, I start off the morning with a little CNN Headline news. Sometimes, I’ll flip to local news or one of those cheesy morning magazine programs. But last night I told myself that I would quit, so this morning only the weather channel and the travel channel we shown on my TV. I also used to check various websites throughout the day for news updates at work. I’m trying to break the habit, but I must admit that I absent mindedly typed in the web address for CNN at least three times today before I caught myself.

Yesterday I caught my mom watching some Veteran’s Day memorial recap and sobbing.

How is the human psych supposed to absorb a constant barrage of horrible stories like child prostitution, gang rape and genocide? How do we wrap our minds around thousands of people dying after day in hideous ways? We were not built to take on all the problems of the world, hour by hour. Maybe that’s why so many people are unhappy or taking antidepressant medication. It just crushes your spirit after a while. Either that or you become so jaded that nothing shocks you anymore. I want to fight against the dying of the light. I don’t want to know that someone is stalking women at city parks; I don’t want to know that there could be a meth lab or child molester around every corner. And I never want to hear another story about what some sexual sadist did to another human being. So, I’m breaking the news…habit.