News from all over the world comes in many forms: on television, on the radio, in daily newspapers, on the internet, etc. Nowadays, it is good manners to know exactly about the latest news.
Are we really doing ourselves a favour? Perhaps our news addiction also has negative consequences for ourselves.
Why is news bad for health?


I haven't read a daily newspaper or watched the news on TV for years. I don't avoid the news, I just don't do anything to watch or read the news.
Since I've been living this way, I've been much more carefree and relaxed. I don't have to worry about things that I can't change anyway or that should only increase my ratings.

Of course, I don't live without messages just for fun, but I have my reasons for doing so.

There are always heated discussions about violence in computer games or films. In my opinion, we should rather think about the violence in the news. Every day we are confronted with murders, rapes and wars that have actually happened, unlike in computer games. We see real footage of dead bodies, wounded people and theatres of war. Personally, I don't want to bring these images into my living room.

99 per cent of the news we receive is negative, because that sells better, but beware: bad news makes you depressed. Images of dead bodies and injured people get stuck in my head and spoil my day. Of course, not everyone feels this way, because if you watch something like this several times a day, you naturally become hardened.

An important reason why I don't engage with the news is that in almost all cases you are just a passive bystander to tragedies over which you have no control. If someone has lost a loved one to a murder, it doesn't lessen their pain that I, a complete stranger, know about it.

Unfortunately, news is often dramatised and made more bloodthirsty, because people's thirst for sensation demands it. News is a business, so it is advertised and sold as well as possible.

I often wonder what kind of person someone must be who stands directly in front of a desperate, injured and/or grieving person and mercilessly holds the camera on them. I for one would feel callous and heartless. But the person with the camera is not the only one to blame, those who support this kind of sensationalist press by reading or watching the news are also complicit. I don't want to contribute to other people's misery being turned into money.

Of course, news is not only about murder and manslaughter, but also about politics. If you are only interested in the political side of things, you can catch up on special political programmes. But politics is often just an excuse. Many people tell themselves that they need to know about political events, so they 'of necessity' watch the other news programmes. In fact, however, it is these programmes that they want to watch with their morbid curiosity, because news is addictive.

I admit that I don't know anything about politics, I never have. That's why I prefer to stay out of it. But at least I don't have the attitude that 'the government has to sort everything out' like many of my fellow human beings. The government is made up of individual people who only have a limited amount of time at their disposal. In the time and with the resources available, you can't expect the individual needs of every resident to be taken into account. That's why I prefer to take my own life into my own hands. I know best how I want to live my life and adapt to the given circumstances.

Finally, one of the most important reasons why I see news in general as a waste of time. How much can you trust them? The information we are presented with is inflated or manipulated. Depending on the TV channel or daily newspaper, some details can change. How do I know how much of it is true?

Let's take one example. After the death of Princess Diana, there were people who took this tragedy very much to heart. So they couldn't miss an issue of their magazine in which, even weeks later, information about the accident and the circumstances surrounding it were described and documented with colour photos. Have these people ever considered that they themselves are indirectly responsible for the death of their icon Diana by creating the demand for such pictures and reports by buying the magazine, thereby increasing the demand for paparazzi, which ultimately caused Diana's death?

My conclusion is that news contains too much blood and misery, which can't be good for my soul. And what is not good for the soul is unhealthy. Wouldn't it be nice if we only showed good news instead? I think that would do us all good, but then nobody would buy the newspapers.