My grandmother lived to be 96 years old. She never learned to drive, had roughly a 6th grade education, and emigrated to this country when she was 17. All-in-all, she led a challenging but remarkable life. Still, I got to thinking about her recently and specifically about something that still saddens me about her final years.
As she reached her 80s and beyond, my grandmother found that she only needed a few hours of sleep each night. What’s more, she suffered from cataracts and her already limited reading ability was effectively gone. It was this combination of not needing as much rest combined with her inability to read that led to a surprising insight for my younger self.
One time when I was visiting her, we got to talking about what she did at night and I learned that my grandmother had become an avid talk radio listener. But what then became apparent was that the things she was listening to in those overnight hours tended to be pretty polarizing with a lot of doom-and-gloom to them. (Ironically, this was back in the 90s where far-left and -right talk shows were relegated to unpopular timeslots as compared to today when there are entire channels streaming polarly opposite points of view).
Regardless, this constant diet of negativity had a lasting impact on her. What I heard from my grandmother sounds a lot like what I hear today – of how the world is a bleak place and that our future prospects look dim. For my younger self, this was surprising and disheartening coming from my beloved Gram who had overcome so many difficulties and had nothing but love for her family and friends. I tried to assure her that things weren’t that bad but my occasional visits did little to stack up against the nightly barrage she was listening to.
Fast forward to today and I see the same pattern playing out repeatedly but on a much larger scale. We have so many content options that, in order to compete for listeners, shows and even entire networks tend to specialize and cater to a specific point-of-view. What’s more, I perceive that there’s this amplifying effect taking place especially when there’s a more narrow perspective being presented.
For myself, I have adopted two practices to try and balance this for my own sanity and happiness. First, I try to visit news aggregators rather than specific channels. I even go so far as to turn off any of their content tracking to avoid being categorized and getting fed the same kinds of things over time. I want to be exposed to the broadest range of topics and perspectives both to challenge my thinking and to offer different insights.
My other tactic is to disengage on a somewhat regular basis. I don’t want to be ignorant, but I also do not want to become obsessive and then fall into the trap that I believe happened to my grandmother. I might spend some time reading about a hobby of mine or watching a video I stumbled across that talks about how interstate highways got numbered. These can be a welcome palette cleanser when it comes to the other things I’m regularly exposed to.
Just as with the food we eat, the information we take in will have an impact on us. It can make us smarter but it can also easily impart a certain perspective and even emotions with it. Being aware of this and trying to “consume” a more balanced diet is, I believe, healthy for all of us whether it’s food, information or really any aspect of our lives.
I’d challenge all of us to pause after we read or watch the news and think not so much about what we have just learned but to focus more on how we feel at that moment. If you notice a pattern over time, and especially if it involves negative or unproductive emotions, you might want to question if you have a good enough balance in your life. Perhaps the solution might mean listening to other voices and perspectives or maybe it’s just taking the occasional break to give yourself time to process and reflect.
After more than nine decades on this planet, I truly wanted to see my grandmother live her final years feeling happy and contented with the life she lived. Instead, she spent that time convinced that the world was coming to an end and worrying about the family she was leaving behind. Thirty years later, we’re still here though that same message of pending doom lingers.
I do not mean to suggest that there aren’t real and serious issues we have to deal with. But for myself, I find that I can face my challenges more readily when I have hope that there is a way forward. Striking that right balance of being informed while maintaining the appropriate amount of optimism is, for me at least, vital to being able to carry on.
Know that I’m pulling for you (and for us all).
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