It’s a wild time to be alive, and an easy time to get overwhelmed by the world’s geopolitics. Sarah Lang decided to tap out of international news for a month. How did it go?
If you don’t want to see someone’s posts, you can unfollow them on Instagram or Facebook (or unfriend them on Facebook, though that’s sometimes too blunt a tool).
But we can’t unfollow Trump. If you consume international news through various platforms, he’s all over it. Meta, can you please invent a feature that stops any Trump content appearing on my feed? Thankyou.
I’ve always kept up with international news because I consider myself a global citizen, not just a New Zealand citizen, and I very much care what’s happening around the world, especially in war zones and where things are very bad. I know I shouldn’t put blinkers on. I’m a journalist, after all.
But news consumption is tricky. Research indicates that exposure to just 14 minutes of negative news (and let’s be honest, that’s the majority of news) can elevate symptoms of anxiety and depression. Some experts advise you to restrict your news consumption to, say, 10 to 15 minutes in the morning and, say, 10 to 15 minutes in the evening – and only from trusted news sources. I started doing that. But I was still getting too much Trump.
A month ago, I thought ‘God I’m so sick of hearing his voice and seeing his face, but what can I do about it? Nothing.’ Then I realised I could do something.
I could press pause on international news. Not forever, of course. Just for a bit.
So I took a month’s break from international news. I called this an detox, but you can also call it a Trumptox. He surely wouldn’t turn up in NZ national news, would he? Well, David Seymour, who has used the slogan “Make Aotearoa Great Again”, got his crony on the party list. Paul Henry is, disgustingly and publicly, a Trump supporter.
But Trump won’t turn up in sports, right? There I was, watching some FIFA World Cup games with my son, and Trump tainted even that, corruptly getting FIFA to overturn a red-card decision that went against the U.S. team.
I gave him a red card by not allowing him on my screen.
Did it Help?
Righto, I’m done talking about Trump. How did my month go?
In the mornings, I ate my breakfast and made my lunch without turning my phone on yet. Rather than listening to The Rest Is Politics podcast while walking to work, I listened to pop-culture podcasts or did that ‘be present with your fice senses’ thing – watching people pass me by, listening to some birdsong, smelling coffee beans roasting at my local. I spent around 15 minutes reading national news only, once per day, after work.
Rather than doom-scrolling in the evenings, I put my phone up on a high shelf. Instead, I read four Henry James’ novels. And who knew you might sleep better if you wind down rather than scrolling through your phone in the evenings?
As the month went by, I felt less anxious. More centred. Less defeatist. I also felt a little guilty for tapping out.
But I needed to. I was trying to prevent what was hurtling toward me: news fatigue, which Psychology Today describes as “a form of emotional burnout caused by prolonged exposure to news media, particularly content that is overly negative, sensationalised, or repetitive”. In other words, it’s the state of emotional and cognitive overwhelm that results from sustained exposure to news.
Psychology Today also says “the habit of doomscrolling, characterized by continuously scrolling through negative news and content on social media, contributes to emotional fatigue and mental exhaustion”. Agreed. Over the month I used my social media only for, well, being social, (and didn’t use it very much).
Not Alone
I was taking a break from news, but not planning long-term news avoidance. News avoidance is a phenomenon that reflects very low or no consumption of news, and strategic news-limiting practices.
A Guardian article says news avoidance is at a record high globally, according to the 2025 Digital News Report, an annual survey by the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism. “This year, 40% of respondents, surveyed across nearly 50 countries, said they sometimes or often avoid the news, up from 29% in 2017 and the joint highest figure recorded. The number was even higher in the US, at 42%, and in the UK, at 46%. Across markets, the top reason people gave for actively trying to avoid the news was that it negatively impacted their mood.”
Which isn’t surprising. As the report says, it “comes at a time of deep political and economic uncertainty, changing geo-political alliances, not to mention climate breakdown and continuing destructive conflicts around the world”.
It’s a wild time to be alive.
Tap Out or Stay Tuned?
An Independent Media Institute story says that “research consistently links heavy news consumption to elevated anxiety, disrupted sleep, and a diminished sense of personal agency. For many, the stress creates a desire to tune out the noise entirely. Recognising when to pause is essential for protecting your mental well-being before fatigue turns into permanent apathy or severe anxiety.”
But disengagement carries its own costs. “When news fatigue evolves into news avoidance, people cut themselves off from information essential to their health, community, and political participation. This is the central tension at the heart of news fatigue: the pull between two legitimate and competing needs – staying informed and staying sane.”
Yep. That’s the juggle, the struggle.
I’m far from the only person who has needed to tap out for a bit. Heather Mayer Irvine wrote a story for Men’s Health called ‘I Stopped Reading Political News for 30 Days. Here’s What Happened’. Why did she do it? “I found myself doom-scrolling and hope-refreshing so much that it could make me less present for Real Life and all it contained: my job, my family, my friends. I thought disconnecting from the news for a month would help drop my stress level, reduce my anxiety, and make me feel less distracted overall.”
She also wanted to test whether she could stick to this resolution of a month. She found it really hard, experienced cravings, felt naïve and stressed at not knowing what was happening, wanted to sneak a peek etc. Whereas I craved a world where all this bad news didn’t exist. But of course, there will never be a perfect world – and we all need to help it be more good than bad.
I’m now weaning myself back into reading international news – for now, that’s five minutes here, five minutes there, just twice a day. I don’t think anyone would begrudge me – or begrudge anyone – some time out, should we need it.
