In 2003 I got really depressed for a variety of reasons. The main culprit was my news obsession. People were dying, people were mean, people were crazy, the sky was falling and I just couldn’t handle it all. I was whining about my low spirits on an online forum and a few people suggested cutting out all media from my life, at least temporarily. I made all sorts of excuses in response to that suggestion: I need to read news to be a better student, the world will stop spinning if I don’t read the news, etc. But eventually I did cut out all media. The trigger was seeing the Hussein sons’ dead bodies splashed on every single media outlet. I quit reading the WSJ, the NYT, WAPO, slashdot, plastic.com, slate, the BBC and a host of other sites. My husband and I have never owned a television so television watching was never an issue.

But the world continued to spin and I filled the void by reading alot of books. I read fiction, books on various historical events, books on finance and a bunch of other topics. And I became my normal grouchy non-depressed self again. All was well. Reading history books and watching historical documentaries gave me a good perspective in reality, mainly: how to not get caught up in any sort of emotional chain reaction.

Not reading and watching the news (newspapers, television programs) hasn’t exactly kept me out of touch with what’s going on….but it makes me aware of how so much of what happens is cyclical. I’ve limited my information sources to books and blogs (most of which are listed on my own).

Yesterday my husband announced that he was going on a media fast as well. He didn’t want to hear any sort of political news. His reasoning was because the news tends to anger him, and since we’re both hot heads this would mean we have less things to get angry about.

I’ve been a bit more vigilant on how much information I am exposed to on a daily basis…that was part of the reason why I wanted to trim the fat.  I’ve been reducing my time spent online and consolidating my online tasks more. I think I am in a better mood because of it.