Should we keep up to date with current affairs; is it a privilege to tune out news?

Its overwhelming, panic-provoking and often simply just sad to hear about the colossal amount of suffering going on in the world, yet if denial and ignorance are the alternatives, I'm afraid we may start working on some calming exercises and read on.

Whilst it may be true that turning on the news today leads to floods of outcry, moral panic, and a heightened sense of impending doom, its argued that it still remains imperative that we keep up to date with current events. "Ignorance is bliss", avoiding the news to have a calmer state of mind, scrolling off any indication of negativity to stay in a delusional denial. What's harder to grasp is the amount of privilege it takes to be ignorant; to have the geographical luck to be able to not have to be aware of what's going on, because its "too negative". However, for some, these same news articles are essential to their own lives: determining whether or not laws are made against them, if its safe to leave the house, if flooding and climate chaos is headed their way, or even if their whole country is at risk of war. Unfortunately, the reality is that if you find yourself upset by the news, you care. The reality is that you're suppose to feel empathy, you're suppose to feel informed.

Its easy to understand the panic created by news, being so that its often the same regurgitated depressing stories on repeat, like the worlds worst "Groundhog Day". But it could be argued that if you are constantly finding your news from the same panic-spiralled sources, then you're looking in the wrong places. Today, there are so many ways to get our news and avoid being desensitised to suffering. Therefore, it leads us to ask the question: is news too negative, or are we simply too ignorant?

So what are the solutions? We have to stay informed and not go insane, keep up to date whilst keeping our mental stability- its a demanding ask, but not unachievable. You consume news daily, whether you want to or not, that podcast you love, the doom scroll on TikTok, the new music and artists you keep up to date with: its all news, and its all accessible at your fingertips. There are ways to dilute the depressing information, removing yourself from constant negativity doesn't make you a horrible person, it makes you human. Pop culture, fashion, arts, music: its all often positive news and its all crucial too keep up to date with. In fact, an over consumption of negative news is almost just as ineffective as no news consumption at all, leading to a higher rate of desensitisation to the suffering. News, especially that of a negative context is meant to instil emotion from its reader, so we care, so more people become informed, so action can happen.