Information Hygiene or How to Deal with Bad News
Ruslana Pyvovarova
2020-12-14 3 min
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In the era of digitalization, people have created new ways to influence their mental and emotional health. A study by the American Psychological Association confirmed that almost 95% of our adult population follows the news, and more than half of those surveyed said that they feel stressed and depressed after shocking news. According to the Association, negative news can cause anxiety, sleep problems, increased levels of the stress hormone, and even cause symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder.
How can you save your inner balance when there is so much negativity in the world? We will tell you in detail about several ways to get rid of the info noise.
1. More Books, Less News
A group of scientists from the University of Sussex has proven that just 6 minutes of immersion in reading an interesting book reduces a person’s stress by 68%.
Read more books, because a lot of news will be forgotten tomorrow, and books will always be relevant.
2. Skip the News at Breakfast
Knowing that a successful recipe for news is a fast feed and a negative character, we want to step away from it. So take a break from the informational noise.
3. News in a Smartphone Is Pure Evil
A professor of social studies of science and technology at MIT, Sherry Turkle demonstrated experimentally that people, who read from a smartphone, often complain of fatigue, take useful news worse and also do not keep it in memory.
4. Implement the Practice of Postponed Reading
If you see an interesting article or news, do not rush to read it immediately. Save it in any convenient way, collect a whole log, and view them all at once in one day. You will be surprised that most of the saved information is not so interesting and necessary for you.
5. Review Your Subscriptions
There are tons of unnecessary information in social networks. Review your subscriptions to determine which ones will be useful to you and which ones should be unsubscribed.
6. Install an Ad Blocker
Install an ad blocker. We can recommend Adblock, which supports most browsers and mobile platforms.
7. Focus on Local News
Watch the local news. As a rule, there are fewer of them, and they are more important to you. You can also limit yourself to professional news and hobbies.
8. Be Skeptical of News from a Single Source
Do you often look at the news from different angles? Yes, it is time-consuming but most sources lobby for their opinion, and it is not always unprejudiced. The next time you hear big news, look for more information about it, its author, and its participants. This will give you a better understanding of what is happening and the points of view of different parties.
Information overload is a new disease of the 21st century. The amount of news you receive can greatly affect a person’s physical and mental health. Protect yourself with these 8 rules of information hygiene, and you will notice an increase in productivity the next day.
