Daily Dose of Depression

This is a rant. I glanced at a newspaper the other day and was reminded why
I don't read or watch the news - what a Daily Dose of Depression! No wonder
the US / UK economies are in a rut, everybody has been scared / depressed /
frightened into doing anything but sit around and commiserating about how
terrible it all is. It IS terrible, it sucks, it's a rotten place to be in,
we've all done daft things to get us in this place and it's going to take a
while before things get better (economically). There are many people who
have been seriously affected by the economy and the shenanagins that have
gone on in the marketplace. But I wonder how much worse it is because of a
constant, never-ending verbal and visual barrage of HOW BAD IT IS.

If I am around people who constantly talk about depressing things, how
terrible this is, woe is me, moan moan moan, I find myself getting depressed
and start focusing, looking for everything around me that is wrong. And
boy, if I look for things that are wrong, can I ever find them! The media
which we let (or even pay) to come into our homes is worse than the most
dreadfully depressing person we know - you know, the one that when you see
him walking down the street, you cross to avoid talking to him; the one who
sucks the life out of a room. If the media were a person, would you spend
time with him or would you cross the road to get away from him?

There are toxic people in this world, people who make you feel bad, who skew
your perspective, damage your confidence, spread rumors and inuendos, and
lie to you. If the media were a person, would any of these apply to him?

It would be fine if news stories were accurate, well-researched and
fact-based, but they are often just that - stories. Bits and pieces of
unverified data spun with someone's personal opinion and then
sensationalised even further for ratings purposes.

There are plenty of sources available now via the Internet which give you a
more accurate, unspun view of what is happening. The data that the media
picks and chooses bits of is available in its complete form on the web,
usually providing a very different 'story' than the one that is presented on
the screen or the page.

Does the focus have to always be on the negative? There are just as many
positive things that happen on a daily basis, but unfortunately those don't
improve ratings or sell papers so we don't see them. I need a more objective view which
looks at the positives which are happening along with the negatives. One
study I looked at found that the average amount of positive news on American
TV stations ABC, CBS and NBC was 25.1 per cent. This is not to say that the
rest is negative. Almost half, 46.8 per cent, was found to be negative. The
other 28.1 per cent they called "indeterminable." How much press is given
to the positive impact of the drop in interest rates and the resulting drop
in mortgage payments (tens to hundreds of pounds per month)? How much focus
is there on people who are getting ahead in this economy or using this time
to discover other things of value besides the economy? How many stories are
there about people who are reconnecting with family or friends, discovering
talents that they never had time for, or activities / interests that they
never explored?

Like I said, I don't read the paper / watch the news and generally I'm
pretty positive about things. A question I do get is, "How do you stay
informed, what if something happens?" I can catch up on all the news in a
two month period usually by reading one day's paper or having a quick skim
of the news sites, but I miss out on two months of repititious gloom and
doom. And if something really big happens, somebody will always tell you or
it will be posted on one of the blogs I read. One site that offers a more
positive view is http://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/

Not being Pollyanna-ish or putting my head in the sand, but I think I'll
pass on the Daily Dose of Depression...