this post was submitted on 16 Jan 2025
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Asklemmy

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Looking through my media feeds, including Lemmy, YouTube, News Outlets (Reuters, Financial Times) as well as news related to my profession, I would estimate that 85% of what I see is doom and gloom, i.e. reports about something that's going wrong in the world or might go wrong in the future.

I try to limit what I follow to educational and unopininated sources (as far as that's possible anyways) and some satire or a meme here and there. I don't like suggestion algorithms and don't use social media, because I don't want to be trapped in a self-reinforcing bubble. On YouTube for example, I use third party apps which show me only videos from channels I explicitly follow.

Still, it's mostly depressing information: how bad the job market and economy is, geopolitical threats, AI risks, symptoms of late stage capitalism. I am aware, thanks. But I didn't ask to hear these things over and over and over again, and it's negatively affecting my outlook on life. I've given up on reading the news entirely because I just get triggered by the enshittification of society, politics, the environment and daily life where I live. At this point I'd rather not hear about it anymore.

What I want to ask is whether you are having the same experience? Am I doing something fundamentally wrong? I don't want to be blind to what's happening in my/the world, but I want to have a positive and optimistic outlook on the future. How can I make that happen? How can I get away from an engagement economy constantly bombarding me with bad news without giving up on learning about the things that I am interested in?

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[โ€“] [email protected] 2 points 11 hours ago (1 children)

I just want to say thank you for writing such a detailed response. It's been quite eye-opening for me, I wasn't even aware that so many great resources and communities exist to explicitly counter this sentiment I've been feeling about negativity in news and other media.

It's very encouraging to see that I'm not the only one with this feeling, and even just the responses to this post are sending me on a whole journey of being more positive!

[โ€“] YungOnions 1 points 9 hours ago

You're more than welcome, glad it helped. Stay positive, friend! ๐Ÿ‘