I wrote two blogs near the beginning of the COVID lockdowns about the importance of not obsessing over news, beginning with this on March 21, Turn off the TV! I followed the next day with something from Seth Godin: Curate Your Incoming.

Maybe it’s time for a reminder, and Seth Godin has written another winner: Doom Scrolling. Here it is in its entirety:

Being informed is a virtue. It helps us make better decisions and encourages us to take action.

Getting hooked on an endless scroll of media inputs is not the same as being informed. There’s long been a business model of urgent news (“man bites dog!”), but now it’s been leveraged, amplified and optimized to suck people in for hours at a time. And division is much easier to sell than progress.

If it’s not helping you take action to make things better, what’s it for? –Seth Godin, July 20, 2020.

I still can’t do better than the verses from my two earlier posts:

Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid. (John 14.27, NIV)

Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. (Philippians 4.8, NIV)