I Read the News Today, Oh Boy . . .

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How to stay informed while holding on to your peace of mind

During my 30s, as an on-the-go reporter in Los Angeles, I thought nothing of mentally digesting three newspapers over breakfast while half-listening to National Public Radio's Morning Edition and reviewing my to-do list for the day. I'd watch TV newscasts while I was dressing, then switch between all-news stations as I drove to work. By the end of the morning, I'd plowed through thousands of words. All this input was enough to make my head swim and my eyes bleary -- and it often did.

Mine was an extreme case of factoid oppression, which back then was confined mainly to people whose jobs demanded lots of media consumption. But these days the burden of too much news falls on almost everyone. It's difficult to walk through any public space without being exposed to some form of information input. Headlines and graphic images blare at us in checkout lines, at the airport, at health clubs, and on the electronic marquees of buildings. All day long at our computers, the world of mayhem and disasters is just a click away.

And all too often the Internet ups the ante even further. We turn to it thinking we're getting access to more information that will help us understand the world better, but instead we can wind up swamped with still more indigestible material.

"The pull and power of technology cannot be underestimated," says David Shenk, author of Data Smog (HarperSanFrancisco, 1998). "Even if you don't want it, the news is always there, right in your face."

And much of what's presented is unrelentingly negative. Some of that, of course, reflects reality: The country is at war, last year's political season was among the nastiest in memory, and our world has generally grown darker since September 11, 2001.

But often the news distorts reality in a way that seems designed to put us on edge. For instance, TV coverage of local murders has gone up during periods when actual homicides were dropping. One study found that 71 percent of network news time depicted people who had little or no control over what happened to them.

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