When getting ready for work most people follow a particular routine. For some people the routine might be to roll out of bed, get ready for work then check out the news. Then, when it is time for the long commute to work, the majority like to “turn that dial” to the local news station during their drive. During work, these news junkies just cannot stop thinking about what else is going on in the world. Eight hours of tedious pain staking work, they head on home while listening to the news. Lastly, once at home they greet the family or pet, followed by getting out of those uncomfortable work clothes and you guessed it, check out the news again! The cycle repeats the next day.
Does that sound a lot like your life? Well if it doesnot, then you are part of the small minority because there are many people who just cannot stop checking out the news. The obvious question: Why? Is it because we are in the information age and absorbing new information is really important to our likelihood and well being? Maybe for some it is. After I became extremely curious why most people get engrossed with the news, I decided to search for my answers. I asked my closest friends, family and anyone I came in contact with to figure out why people are so addicted to the news. The answers I received was your typical, “I just want to know…” Since that was the first response I got, I decided to pry a bit further by asking more questions. I finally came to a very interesting conclusion. I realized that many people watch the news because they subconsciously feel better about their own lives and themselves. I found this odd and interesting, but it does make sense. It seems as if the worse and worse the economy gets, the more and more people are interested in watching the news.
Negative News Equals Negative Mindset
For some of you who have not already read my popular post: Do You Have a Friend Who’s a Looser? Get Rid of Em, read it. Hanging around with negative people will lower your standards which I compare to immersing yourself with negative news. Think about it, is the news really that irresistibly interesting? “2 suspects were sent to jail today on suspicion of murdering their former teacher…” “The economy is doing terrible, 65,000 jobs were lost last month alone…” Why is it necessary to know this information? What good comes from this? Do you believe you are setting yourself up for a successful life? Do you really need to fill in that void with a daily “news fix”?
Why I watch the news
I have a different reason for watching the news along with being very selective of what I read. I almost never read about negativity in the news including:
- Shootings
- Murders
- Rapes
- Losing jobs
- Economic meltdown
- Mortgage crisis
- Real estate gone bad
- War
I usually read about:
- Technology advances
- Successful people
- People getting their big break
- Hollywood news
- Movie releases
- Blogging
- Occasional updates with whatever else is going on in the world
The occasional updates I use for different reasons than most people. I use it as a tool to communicate with other people. Almost everyone is talking about the bad economy. What I normally do is briefly converse with someone on a negative story and quickly change the conversation into something inspirational or positive. I choose to be excited and motivated versus down and glum because of a horrible story. I am different than most people which is great! Does that make sense?
Positive News Equals Positive Mindset
Whether you are looking to become wealthy or spiritually connected, you have a much better chance doing so by being around the right people. What you see on TV or read online has the same impact. The more positive news you read, the quicker you will allow yourself to emerge in positive thoughts. They say positive thinking is what helps one move forward. This is somewhat true. Positive thinking is an ongoing action, meaning you must exert energy every second to keep your mind at a positive state. Most people tell me “AJ, I had my one positive thought for the day so I’m ‘thinking’ positive.” Even if you have conditioned your subconscious to continuously think of positive thoughts without being consciously aware, you will still end up with something negative by reacting to the news around you. This is why it is also important to not only stay away from negative news, but read, watch, and listen to more positive news. A great website I found is called Happynews.com.
Why is the Media Persistent About Providing Negative News?
Every influential person in the world can write about why the news has such a terrible impact on one’s mind, but will people stop watching? Definitely not! The media is like any other business, the only way it survives is by making profit for its shareholders. The media is only interested in making money which is done by advertising. The more people that watch, the more money they will make. If someone has the option on which they would rather see, a bank getting robbed compared to healthy babies being born, the answer would be obvious. The media is aware that more people would watch the story about the bank robbery compared to the new babies. This translates into people prefer negative stories rather than positive.
Empower Yourself and the World
Since we cannot simply boycott the news, how about we put 100% focus on positive news. The media will deliver what the public wants. If the public would rather be informed of more positive news compared to negative, that is what they will begin to deliver. You have the power to control the news. Every person who decides that they would rather better themselves by viewing positive news would see the dramatic impact in their mindset. Imagine the influence if 1 million people across the United States made the decision to ONLY watch positive news from now on. The outcome would be that those one million people would almost instantly see a change in their mindset which would allow them to focus on much more productive or spiritually enlightening things. Those 1 million people will create a ripple effect and possibly even help the economy.
Do you think this is possible? Can we really make vast change in the way we live our lives? Do we have the ability to influence the media conglomerate? Martin Luther King did and succeeded. Gandhi made a difference. Rosa Parks took the chance. Why wait around for someone else to take action when we have the power to simply do it? Only focus on positive news! Only talk about positive news. Only ASK for positive news.
Hey Aj great post, I generally never listen to the news I always have a cd or a casette tape in my car during drives to work. I listen to motivational speakers like zig ziglar, jim rohn, les brown and many more. I totally agree listening to positive stuff is better than the news 🙂
Thanks
Yes, I use to do that all the time. I forgot which motivational speaker said this, but listening to anything but something motivation is like chewing gum for the brain.
Great post AJ. I stopped reading bad news and watching tv about a year ago, and all of a sudden I found myself with nothing to talk about with some friends and family. What happened? I started to make friends with more interesting people with more interesting and uplifting topics to talk about. Not that I’m better than those that read, watch and talk about bad news, it’s just not my way of life anymore.
Wow thats great Marco. Your right! You will lose all the news junkie people you talk to and find yourself with people much more interesting.
Wow that is so true, people listen to the news to make themselves feel better. It is just like majority of people hang out with people who are worse off then them to make themselves feel better.
But in the end it does not get them anywhere.
Another point I would make is the new feeds negativity which puts people in fear and they usually go out to buy something to “protect” themselves.
I personally don’t pay attention to the news as much and have not really been affected and feel great, my blog is doing great and i got big plans for it.
@Marco, it is not about being better just not wasting your time listening to people complain, that is so annoying
Great point Tom. News does place ‘fear’ into a persons mind. I’m glad to hear your blog’s doing well. The best of luck!
Thanks AJ.
It is funny to see how majority of people have so much to talk about when it comes to like complaining about people, money, businesses, etc.
Also, listening to motivational tapes is great but I think it is important to get a sense of reality too.
A lot of business books I read sell a lot of hype and until you try it, you don’t see that.
A lot of books do contain ‘hype’ so it important to learn the skill of grasping what you need without wasting time.
I have only full read a few books in my life…I have trained myself to pick up key points.
You bring up a good point, I have noticed that too, so when i do pick up a book now, i usually skip a lot of it because it is information I know.
And in the end, it is all the same, it gives you the basic framework and now you have to go out and do the work.
Too bad people don’t realize this and they go around searching for the magic book.
I’ve seen people go from book to book to book which is great, expect they read it for the wrong reasons. They read it because they feel they don’t know enough. Take action with what you have now, and you can see a mountain of a difference.
Where are you getting your statistics? Where’s the proof that the majority checks the news constantly?
I’m not looking to prove anything. It does not matter if a million people watch news or 1000 people watch the news. A statistic for this is irrelevant. My point for this article is to get you (the reader) aware of the effects that ‘negative’ news and ‘positive’ news has on your (the readers) mindset.
Sounds like another way of saying, “I made this up but I’m persuasive so it doesn’t matter.”
Made what up? That negative news affects your mindset negatively? Or that people prefer to watch negative news than positive news?
Am I being persuasive? Sure, I’m getting a message out to the public that says you should watch positive news and surround yourself with positive people.
HI AJ..
what a very Strong Points in ur post…
But ,for me it is better to tell people the real situation,especially a negavite news.For example economy downturn issues that will give a negative impact to all countries.IF they don’t know the real situation,how can they prepared to deal with it?
After xplains the real situation,then we can give a positive ideas/suggestions how to deal with it smartly..Is my idea ok?..
Hi,
Yes that makes a lot of sense and is a very valid reason to one of the reasons why people are addicted. They want to know more see what they should do next. This unfortunately is a misunderstanding that people have- to turn to the news to figure out what they should do next. Instead of turning to the news and getting bombarded with even more negativity, what one should do next is surround themselves with either positive news and/or positive people. Preferably both 😀
This is so great! I agree totally. When people ask me what if I miss something I always say “if something big happens people will tell me about it if I need to know.”
I have to admit I got caught up in the stock market about 10 days ago after 2 of my best friends pulled out. I started freakin out and my husband set me straight and said “we’re in for the long haul so stop listening.” I agreed and have not fallen back since.
Count me in your in on the positive only focus!
Awesome Tess! I agree with you about if something is important enough, someone will mention it. No point in wasting time checking out the news every single day. 🙂
Oh and as far as stock market, your husbands right, do not pay attention to it what so ever because it will make you cringe 🙁
I used to enjoy public radio but now every other story is about the “economy” . That is not what I need to fill myself up with to and from work. I listen to music mostly now.
haha I agree. I loved listening to talk radio like Adam Corolla who sometimes spoke about the economy, but more so in a parody fashion.
Also, instead of music, brush up on your personal development by listening to books on tape. I use to drive back and forth to Las Vegas every week, so I invested into a lot of audio books.
Very awesome advice, that I completely agree with. I can’t stand reading so much negative news. (hence the website we created). I don’t disagree with us being told about the important things. The floods, the fires, the genocides, the political downfalls, etc, but it’s NEVER balanced with good things as well, and it’s often neutral or positive news, made negative. I can’t agree with that. And you’re right, it is very depressing. I’m convinced the media constantly saying ‘we’re doomed!’ has a huge effect. Recession, anyone?
If you’d like to repost this as an editorial I’d love it, or if I could have permission to summarise it (both would involve linking you), that would be brilliant.
Yeah! you can absolutely summarize it!!
Please do let me know when it is up.
I subcounciously and counciously loath bad news especially the shooting and stuff like that, thats why I always avoid the local news. However, I think I still need to do more an be proactive.
In terms of the economic bad news and all, I try to see the inherent opportunities that comes with it.
More importantly, I endeavour to learn from the mistakes that lead to the bad news. This is where a lot of people go awry – they only intenalize the bad news and not learn from it.
T
Good for you Ace, learning from the mistakes that other people by watching the news is great, just as long as you do so :).
Also, keep in mind, the “media” is a business like any other business and their sole purpose is to have more people watch. This means giving out a lot of garbage of negativity. So just be aware.
After realizing the impact of negativity on morale in my business, I decided to fight back. I cut back on the news I watched, stopped talking about doom & gloom and encouraged others to do the same. I’ve proposed a rating system for the newscasts. Instead of PG they should be rated DG/Doom & Gloom, Some Content May Be Inappropriate For People With Positive Attitudes. I’ve also designed stickers that have the words Doom Gloom inside a red circle with a slash to act as a reminder that Doom & Gloom is prohibited. You can see more about the DG Rating and the NoDoomGloom campaign at http://www.nodoomgloom.org
Hahah! That’s awesome Dale! I love where you are going with this!
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Great article. I always stay away from reading bad news. But I have this strange behaviour. I am Indian and I like to read negative news about Pakistan. I don’t know if it is bad behaviour. Should I have to change it?
lol… no you should *never enjoy reading the news about someone else. Focus on positivity and you’ll begin to uncover more and more prosperity. Trust me on that.
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I get what you’re saying, but isn’t avoiding negative news like hiding from the real world? Just because you ignore it doesn’t mean it goes away. Not that I encourage these things to happen, but I personally enjoy watching depressing news. I for one think I’m mentally sane to!