I quit news for 30 days | Massive mood swing

In this video, I did a news detox for 30 days. I called it ‘No News November’. I actively avoided all news in order to see how it affected my mood.

I strongly suspected that exposure to news was more detrimental to my mental health than social media. So I set about to examine whether this was the case.

What I didn’t expect was just how hard it would be avoid the news. And unlike previous 30 day experiments I have done, this one didn’t just affect me.

At the end of October 2022 the news in the UK was so bleak that I had absolutely had enough of listening to the things going around me that I had no control over. During the course of a month without news, an upturn in my mood and happiness was confronted with the question of whether we need to keep up to date with current affairs. If we do, how do we stay informed about what is going on without it affecting our mood?

I speak to a former broadcast journalist who offers some persuasive arguments about why we can’t just live in blissful ignorance. At the end of the 30 day news detox, I reflect on the changes I am going to make in order to stay informed of current affairs without it affecting my mood.

For as long as I can remember the default web page on my computer has always been the BBC news website. This meant that every day I was unconsciously absorbing news headlines and often being lured into an endless doom scroll about the state of the world. Avoiding the news for 30 days and putting measures in place to ensure that I avoid doom scrolling has had a profound effect on my web browsing habits and my overall happiness.

If you have tried ‘Dry January’, ‘ Veganuary’ or ‘ Stoptober’, I can thorouhly recommend ‘No News November’ to improve your overall happiness.