The digital news cycle never sleeps, but sometimes I wish it would take a nap. 

Every morning, I wake up to an inbox bursting at the seams. Newsletters, public announcements, breaking news — the whole lot. The more time I spend scrolling through jaw-dropping headlines, my brain goes silent. I sit there, hopeless, and a little repulsed with my media feed.

I know I am not alone in this feeling, and sometimes, it’s easier to just ignore it and divert my attention elsewhere.

In an environment where news is centered around chaos, the simplest solution for many is to avoid news completely. However, news avoidance is commonly intertwined with low trust and low engagement. Across all American survey respondents from the Reuters Institute 2025 Digital News Report, around 42 percent say they tend to find themselves avoiding the news.

Of that 42 percent, survey respondents state their reasons for avoiding the news:

In addition to these responses, the report states that younger respondents aged 18 to 24 are most likely to feel powerless in the wake of distressing news.

As we watch our nation’s treacherous descent into fascism and worldwide violations of human rights unfold on our screens, we must remember that we get a choice in whether or not we look away.

“When people are exhausted and rushed, they start to make mental shortcuts. They start to conflate familiarity with veracity,” said Nolan Higdon, critical media literacy scholar and lecturer at UC Santa Cruz. “That’s why social media is so parasitic, because it sends us the stuff we like over and over and over again, and we don’t see the stuff we don’t like.”

Social media creates a false sense of reality for us. Our algorithms are curated by the content we interact with, and powerful figures who thrive on influence are all too excited by the opportunity to exploit this. Right-wing political strategist Steve Bannon found that the best way to oppose credible media is to “flood the zone.” This tactic is executed by issuing a torrent of controversial and often appalling statements to poison the information ecosystem.

Prolonged screen time exhausts our brains, and the Trump administration has continuously taken advantage of this exhaustion to overwhelm a vulnerable digital audience by flinging gobs of rage bait like spaghetti to a wall, just to see what sticks.

Sourcing news from social media can be much more overwhelming than sourcing from reputable news sites. When you make a conscious decision to search for information, you are acting mindfully and can process what you’re reading more effectively.

Large, difficult topics are not meant to be quickly and easily consumed. If your feed isn’t entertaining enough, or if news that’s breaking is so abhorrent that your stomach churns, you’re less likely to continue reading. This type of media consumption isn’t healthy, and it isn’t produced in your best interest.

This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t pay attention. Fascism thrives off of an uneducated public, and it is our civic duty to stay informed for the betterment of our communities.

Well-written and well-intentioned journalism does exist. Look for it. That’s what’s going to guide you through this era of unprecedented change — not disengaging. Reading and interacting with news intentionally will keep you informed without filling you with a rotting sense of dread. Dedicate 15 minutes of news time daily, and try to include one fun article from the entertainment section to keep your news palate balanced.

Value the article over the headline, vary your sources and remember to pick up your copy of City on a Hill Press at your college mailroom.