Yesterday I wrote about it too, the news! That constant stream of misery can be found daily on the internet, and in most places you can see around you. I've always been sensitive to it, and that hasn't suddenly changed. I had already developed my own ways to deal with it less. Back then, it was mainly by watching as little TV as possible; if you don't watch TV, you don't see the misery. Of course, my mother and sister did watch TV, and I could hear it vaguely in the background, but I preferred to do other things. Long ago, that was just old-fashioned drawing on paper and painting. When I bought my first PC, it changed to digital drawing, and sometimes browsing the internet via an old-fashioned dial-up connection. But when I was allowed to go online, I had at least a thousand other things I wanted to watch and search for. Looking up information for a presentation or paper, and checking my email. Digital pen pals. Facebook didn't exist yet, going online wasn't a common occurrence, and people still had real contact with each other. Now I probably come across as someone who seems to want to say, "Everything used to be better." Lol.
In many ways, I don't think so, but in some ways it certainly is. How I arrived at that conclusion is a mystery to me, because I wanted to write about something completely different. So let me jump right back to what I actually wanted to write about. Okay, I already mentioned that I didn't watch much TV, mainly to avoid the news and the accompanying misery. I can still hear myself saying, "Another news bulletin every hour with nothing but misery." If I had known then that the media now could bombard you with misery 24 hours a day, I would have signed up to that one news bulletin every hour. Nowadays, the method of not watching TV to avoid the news is completely ineffective; it's outdated and pointless. Currently, streaming services make it better to watch TV; at least then I get to see something other than just news misery online. Now, you might think I just shouldn't open those news sites. Wow, clever! Indeed, that's something I do as little as possible, but... with Google algorithms and Microsoft, you can't completely avoid it. Besides, the political situations around the world mean I still regularly check something to stay informed. After all, I want to know what the situation is in my own country, and it's not rosy either, as seems to be the case for 99% of the world at the moment.
Now this all sounds very negative, I know! But I do have some positive things to say. What then? Well, I wouldn't be myself if I didn't find a way to reduce that constant stream of misery, and even avoid it for days. How? Well, it's very simple: I have Skipper! That's right, a dog! A dog who doesn't care about news, a dog who's happy to get attention, a pat on the head. Walking together and playing together, working in the garden together, and just a nice cuddle. And as simple as that may sound, it does leave me with plenty of inspiration for the creative projects I want and need to work on. And it definitely means I don't have so much time left in my day to endlessly scroll through negative news. The time I would otherwise spend on that is much better spent making sure my dog stays happy. And let's face it... it's impossible to ignore that little head, isn't it?
How do you filter the noise? Now, I know no one has a "Skipper" like me (he's unique), but do you also have a similar "tool" to help you filter the constant stream of misery? Feel free to share it here in the comments; it might help someone else.
