Negative news

I have never really been a newspaper reading type person, much like the rest of my generation, and if there was important breaking news I watched it on tv. The idea of opening up A2 sized pages, trying to manage it my hands whilst simultaneously reading is not exactly thrilling. A few months ago I started working for a media and printing company that prints and distributes the majority of the newspapers for our city.



Every morning I would find the daily newspaper on my desk (one of the 'perks'of working at the company), and I began reading it because it was there, and it was free. What started off as glancing at the front page headlines, turned into a morning ritual where I would scan through my emails, read the newspaper with my coffee, then carry on with my day. I even got the hang of laying the paper out on my desk, separating sections for convenience and pouring over every article.


After a few weeks of this routine, I knew every detail of the conflict in Gaza, what our unpredictable President was up to and how the stocks were looking on the JSE. I had even personally met some of the editors and journalists that wrote the articles, and felt slightly star-struck whenever they greeted me around the office. I had aquired information that I never really cared much about before, but that I also never worried about before. As ignorant as this may seem, I slowly realised through this process how cynical and depressing the newspaper actually is.

I found myself stressing about the constant crime in our country, child abuse and strikes, hijacking and corruption. Of course I knew this all existed beforehand, but I didnt know the details, and the names of the people involved, and the photographic evidence. I wasnt just keeping these horrible articles to myself either, I was telling my boyfriend, my parents, and anyone else who would listen. I wanted them to share the anxiety I was feeling that the world was going to fall apart any day. I didnt even realise the negative effect that the newspaper had on my usually optimistic mindset until someone I knew did the exact same thing. It was like looking in the mirror for a brief moment, when the other person shared the latest horror story about a child being abducted, with widened eyes and a jaded tone.

I wish someone had complained about my incessant interest in the news a little earlier, it would have saved me from a lot of anguish. The next day, after my sudden realisation, I brought it up with one of my colleagues at work in a casual way. She said she never read the newspaper because it affected her the same way to begin with, and she even went as far as to ask the guy who drops the papers off on each desk to skip hers so she wasnt tempted.

I am not against the newspaper at all, it is informative and compelling, and after all knowledge is power. If you are someone like me, however, who takes each story to heart and allows the negative news to disturb you, rather stick to the news on a NEED to know basis. Don't let it weigh you down, because the problems of the world will always be there. I have to remind myself that good always comes with the bad, so I stick to the uplifting stories instead. x