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Comment by philomath_mn | Hacker News Reader

I think this is the best approach. Turn off the news, delete social media, commit yourself to caring for those around you. You need to focus on the stuff within your sphere of influence, otherwise you'll drive yourself crazy. There are good and bad things happening to the 7+ billion people on this planet each day, there is no way we can have an emotional reaction to every event.

Edit to add: regarding the recession, talk to your supervisors and others in your company. Are layoffs actually likely? What is the outlook? You should only worry if your company specifically is in trouble. Even then, we are in a highly in-demand field, there is a good chance you'll find a new job if you focus on doing excellent work here and now (be so-good-they-can't-ignore-you, as it were).

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Why does everyone say “turn off the news. Delete social media.” Kids are still being murdered, pandemics still pandemic, and the economy is still crapping its pants.

Kids getting murdered is absolutely horrible, we should all be mortified by that and looking for ways to help solve the problem.

But at some point it is worth acknowledging that prolonged anguish or anxiety about something bad isn't useful unless it leads to action (see sphere of influence). We can't stop all bad things from happening and they are happening continuously to people around the world -- we can't let that get in the way of improving the lives of ourselves and the people around us.

Because it's not your kids, you are not getting sick, you still have a job, etc.

Worst of all, you can't do anything about either of those

It may not be the right approach, but if you are suffering because of everyone else you should reconsider your priorities

The news and social media can cause tons of anxiety and stress when they consistently report on the many terrible things happening all of the time.

It doesn’t mean they’re not important, it’s just that it’s ok to take a break.

Sometimes people need that break from the eternal flow of news and social media so that their mental health isn’t impacted and so there is time to process what’s going on.

I agree! Commit yourself to caring for those around you. That’s the number one priority. Anger or disillusionment is not the answer. I wrote more about that here: https://moviewise.substack.com/p/a-vow-to-never-get-angry-ag...

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