Bad news attack!

30_bad-news1I wake up in the morning. With a cup of my favourite cafe latte in front of me, I turn on my laptop computer to check what’s going on in the world. What do I see?

“Russians threaten the world with their navy.”
“A pilot dies during the flight.”
“A man dragged behind a police car.”
“The USA and Israel anxious. Russian anti-aircraft sets S-300 delivery in progress.”
“This is probably the worst government since 1989.”
“Rats attack Polish cities.”
“A man kills his family and commits suicide.”
ENOUGH!.
My day has just began and I’ve already been bombarded with a massive load of bad news. I feel overwhelmed with all the bad things that happen around me. I am aware of the fact that the world is not just pink and blue, but for heaven’s sake it’s not just gray and black either! What I want to say is that bad news just overflows us. It yells at you from newspaper covers, from TV and the radio, and last but not least – from the Internet. You don’t even have to search for it – it will find its way to get to you. It’s much more difficult though to find any good news. It seems to be lost amidst the sea of depressing information.

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So what? You might say. You read it or hear it – you forget it if it doesn’t concern you personally. However, psychological reasearch has proved that negative news is not only likely to make us feel more unhappy and anxious, but it is also very probable that it will make you think more and worry more about your own problems. American psychologists conducted an experiment. They asked people to talk about their problems. One group of those people had been shown some bad news before the interview, and the other group hadn’t. It turned out that the people who had watched bad news tended to make mountains out of molehills, that is exaggerate their problems and catastrophize them. This experiment shows how powerful the impact of negative news is. It looks like it’s a real challenge to stay positive and to be an optimist, living in the 21st century.

good-news1Being a positive person by nature, I decided to put my foot down and stand against this contagious negative impact of bad news. First, whenever I hear some bad news on the radio or TV, I just turn it off or change the channel. And secondly, I’ve found some websites with good news only, and I start my day reading them, instead of tvn24 and the like. Will it protect me from bad news attack? Surely not. But, as I have said before, bad news will find its way to get to me and I am not gonna help it.

I wonder what you feel about this issue? Do you also feel overwhelmed with bad news? Do you watch and read the news daily or do you rather ignore them? I’m looking forward to your comments. 

And if you want to find some good news, you can check these websites:
www.sunnyskyz.com/good-news
www.goodnewsnetwork.org
www.dailygood.org

Sources: www.psychologytoday.com; www.npr.org
Pictures sources: www.npr.org; www.hakobo.art.pl; kensolowrotary.com

6 Responses to Bad news attack!

  1. Bad news find us and we can’t do anything about this. We can’t just change the channel or turn it off because people get hurt somewhere in the world and we can’t be inert. It’s obvious that we can’t just listen to bad news ethier but it’s very, very impotrtant to know what is going on in this world. Somewhere there might be war or a plane crash and innocent people will die! It’s really a tragedy that this world in 21century is moving in such a bad direction ! We need to know to change it !

  2. Unfortunately, bad news is more interesting for most of the people.
    Actually about a year ago I was doing a research about how people react to different news from media. It turns out, most affecting and intersting information is the bad ones. Let’s just think about it. You’d prefer to read about celebrity becomming drug addict or how that person has another child?
    And all off the media knows about it, so they use that knowledge for their advantage. I guess that is why everyone is drownoing in the ocean of bad news making us feel sort of unhappy and anxious.
    By the way.: Great arcticle. Feel the same every morning.

  3. Thank you Julia and Monika for sharing your thoughts!

  4. Everyday when I have free time I read in intenet the latest news. I like to know who is the most dangerous to the society or where there is a war. Unfortunately we must know news, sometimes bad, sometimes realy good.

  5. Aleksandra Z. 2D

    In any kind of newspapers, TV news or radio news there are definitely more bad news than good ones. I spotted that long time ago. It’s all about getting more and more watchers and what goes after it – earning more money. It’s sad, but honestly, money is the only thing that broadcasters care about. They should give people honest informations, not only the bad ones which are not always true. I think we shouldn’t avoid news even though they’re mostly bad and falsified. We should search more sources of informations and try to stay informed about news around the world.

  6. Basia Sobków

    When we wake up immediately our day is bombarded with negative and horrible news. Even if we don’t search it, they find us and upset our day.
    It’s a fact that bad news make our day very nasty and incerease our problems from small to large.
    They are everywhere: on the radio, TV, Internet, in newspapers.
    We have to fight it and search for good news to make our day nicer. We should stand aganist our problem and destroy it, not listen to world’s problems. Check this page to be with good news everyday.

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