News has become more accessible, but many people are tuning out amid information overload and relentless updates. Reasons for avoidance include sheer volume, negative emotional impact, distrust of media, and feelings of helplessness. People in mindfulness and mental health forums recommend setting limits or cutting news out entirely to protect wellbeing. A Reuters Institute survey found 40% of respondents across nearly 50 countries sometimes or often avoid the news, up from 29% in 2017; avoidance reached 42% in the US and 46% in the UK. Some individuals report reduced anxiety after unplugging, deleting media apps, or forming communities like r/newsavoidance to share strategies.
News has never been more accessible but for some, that's exactly the problem. Flooded with information and relentless updates, more and more people around the world are tuning out. The reasons vary: for some it's the sheer volume of news, for others the emotional toll of negative headlines or a distrust of the media itself. In online forums devoted to mindfulness and mental health, people discuss how to step back, from setting limits to cutting the news out entirely.
Now that I don't watch the news, I just don't have that anxiety. I don't have dread, said Mardette Burr, an Arizona retiree who says she stopped watching the news about eight years ago. There were times that I'd be up at two or three o'clock in the morning upset about something that was going on in the world that I just didn't have a lot of control over.
Globally, news avoidance is at a record high, according to an annual survey by the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism published in June. This year, 40% of respondents, surveyed across nearly 50 countries, said they sometimes or often avoid the news, up from 29% in 2017 and the joint highest figure recorded. The number was even higher in the US, at 42%, and in the UK, at 46%.
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