Musings on Content Consumption
Geopolitics vs candle-lit cosiness.
I've been thinking about this topic for the past few weeks, if not months. And it's coming with an increasing level of guilt. Not about the amount of content I consume or the struggle to consume everything that peaks my interest (I currently have 82 tabs open on my phone’s internet browser) but the nature of exactly what I'm reading and listening to. And I'm mainly talking articles and podcasts here, book selections being a separate issue, and my TV watching is pretty limited anyway.
But my concern lies with the fact that my content consumption is more often than not quite, what I've come to think of as, introspective, frivolous, even self-indulgent, rather than being focused outwardly on current affairs and world events. This seems to have been a gradual shift and now I am left feeling a bit too out of tune and as though I have a responsibility to step back into the news cycle.
But I can't help but also wonder whether I should be feeling this guilt, or responsibility, at all? Should any of us? I don't live in a bubble, I am broadly aware of what's going on, but should it matter more that the devil is actually in the detail? Detail which I am not really engaging with.
Let me give you a bit more context.
At 7, a budding journalist, I distinctly remember making my own newspaper edition to report on the horrors of 9/11.
At 16, during breaks at school I would go into the classroom of my history/politics teacher to borrow the latest issue of The Economist, not satisfied with giving it back until I had made my best attempt at reading the issue cover to cover.
At 22, I graduated university with a degree in politics and international relations, relishing the years spent studying the intricacies of geopolitics and having heated debates over the concept of realism. I thought I was going to change the world.
Having then moved to London I made the most of being able to join marches to support causes I cared about, worked in a job where knowing the latest policy updates and tracking the movers and shakers in Parliament was pretty essential, and Brexitcast became a must-listen. A scroll through Twitter was both helpful and insightful, but we all know what happened there…
Don't get me wrong, through all these years I also had a wide variety of other interests I'd engage with. Magazines have always been a favourite passtime among the women in my family and I've long adored poring over the glossies, spending pocket money on Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar. I've gone through periods of really delving into health and nutrition, which has taken over my podcast app for weeks on end. But keeping abreast of current affairs and related commentaries and critiques had always been a staple.
Probably until about 2020. As with many others, I gradually found the COVID news cycle too much to bare. My grandmother passed away in February 2020, which left me in swathes of grief for a long time, work was crazy on account of many colleagues having been furloughed and the pressure of knowing the efforts of those of us left were really trying to save their jobs, and all the while there was an expectation to keep up with daily death tolls and ever changing rulebooks. And I couldn't. Slowly but surely I stopped engaging in that particular news story, knowing that enough of those around me were still keeping up with it daily, talking about it constantly, and I'd get updated on what I needed to know.
But the news was so full of that story during that year in particular, and even into 2021, that I think as I pulled away from that narrative, I pulled away from the news more widely. I’m sure you’ll remember how it was impossible to pick up a newspaper, scroll through a news site or listen to a newsy podcast without being taken back in to updates of daily tragedy on your doorstep - feeling totally helpless other than going on that doorstep to clap in celebration of the healthcare workers once a week. For all the good that did.
Reflecting back, I think this must have been around the time I naturally started to turn more towards content that was just nice to read or listen to. Things that made life feel a little bit better. Things that peaked my interest outside of what was going on in the world. Things that made me feel cosy, and that everything was going to be okay, or at least helped me focus on what I could control rather than spiralling into what I couldn't.
Despite all the surrounding tragedy, I did appreciate the time that lockdowns provided. I leaned into hobbies: I got through a ton of books; I started taking my writing more seriously; I knitted a really long lovely scarf. And I think since things have gone back to “normal” I've still wanted to maintain the time and energy for these things I enjoy, and the content that relates to them, which seems to leave less time for delving into the news in great detail.
But, it doesn't feel quite right. I have long identified with being… let’s call it “politically engaged”. There are policies I can talk in depth about - in praise and critique (though usually the latter) - particularly around education. I’ve always had strong opinions, typically without a fear of sharing them. I know my friends and family still see me this way. I am occasionally in Parliament for work events. I chat with friends about certain politicians using their first names only, such a part of our lexicon they are. One friend recently asked for my opinion on the state of things in Palestine and Israel, as part of trying to educate herself on exactly what is going on there and why, which I was duly able to share. But my engagement has undoubtedly declined.
I do still have opinions. I do still have thoughts and feelings about the conflict in Ukraine, freak weather in Europe, and who will be the next US president and what that will mean for the world. But I am inevitably less informed. The more time I spend reading wonderful Substacks about everything from lighting the dark months (can always rely on
I’ve been feeling as though a bit of a shift is perhaps in order. When the world is burning, innocent people are living in fear for their lives, and financial concerns reach far and wide, what right do I have to bury my head in the sand? How can I sit scrolling through journal prompts, gift guides and book recommendations, instead of … well, what? What exactly can I do? What will refreshing the home screen of BBC News every 30 minutes really achieve, for any of us?
Incidentally, as I’d been pondering this conundrum in recent weeks, I found
My current approach to consuming information on current affairs is to have a scroll through one or two news sites maybe a couple of times a week - though I can go a full seven days without. I look out for takes on a situation from people I admire and whose opinion I’d trust, as well as slightly more positive insights on issues that are otherwise quite dire.
I think though, for my own peace of mind at the moment, I perhaps need to spend a bit more time in and around the news cycle, and slightly less time on content that can seem trivial. I am a person with interests in lots of areas, and I guess I don’t want to feel I have to give up lighter content, but it’s a about finding a balance that works for me in the limited time for consuming. That works for all of us. Leyla seems to have found hers, and I think I just need to spend a bit of time re-exploring mine. Maybe you do too?
I also know my ambitions of changing the world have waned since the glory days of lively seminar rooms surrounded by fellow political enthusiasts as we talked of one day being sat at UN roundtables making decisions that mattered on a global level. These days I think on a much more local level. When pondering the question what can I do, answers include volunteering in my local area, choosing to shop ethically as much as I can, and showing up in the world to model what I think is right. The way I treat people. The way I call out things I think are wrong. And trying to do it all with a smile on my face, feeling an inner sense of content that can be at odds with the world’s challenges. And if the lighter, self-indulgent content helps with this, then surely it can’t be all that bad?
How do you manage your content consumption? Do you read the daily news in depth over breakfast or prefer to steer clear of breaking headlines? What do you engage with to get through the darker days?
All takes on this and/or recommendations welcome in the comments, as I look to better navigate my content consumption.
PS…
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Do you ever read The Simple Things? It’s a favourite of mine