Covid 19 Infodemic

  

I am struggling with the amount of Covid-19 news and information I am bombarded with every day.  I don’t mean because I can’t absorb it.  I mean because I don’t want to.  It’s driving me mad! I am constantly being told about infection rates, death rates, tiers, vaccines, bla bla bla.  And when it’s not on the radio, telly or social media, we talk about it.  It’s depressing.  It’s toxic. And the fact that I can do very little about the situation anyway apart from avoid people, wear a face nappy and wonder at the ineptitude of the Government and many people, makes it doubly depressing.

With everything running at such a fast pace, facts, theories and studies are being churned out and interpreted - often very badly- by ‘covidized’ journalists.  One would think Covid-19 is the only major story in the news media today.

The internet and social media has pressured me into thinking that I should constantly be checking what’s happening and that any failure to do so means I am complacent or selfish or I may even die due to my ignorance.  Like many people, I have been guilty of addictively surfing through the news on my phone to gauge just how bad things are and will get. Apparently this is now officially known as ‘doomscrolling’ or ‘doomsurfing’ and is seen as a serious risk to people’s mental health.

I try to switch tv channels when the news repeats stuff or the discussion is pointless or just conjecture but my wife says I’m sticking my head in the sand and that I need to know – well, everything.  (She has a notebook and records the daily yoyo stats in Greater Manchester.)

The only facts that I am focussed on are that:

1.      I will, regardless of tier, have a nice family Christmas; and  

2.     There will be a third wave of the Pandemic very soon afterwards.

So, news-wise, I’m sorry but I need to tune out a bit. I need to unplug myself from what’s happening in the covid world - for a while at least.  Do I feel guilty?  No!  Someone prod me when my vaccine arrives.