How often do news stories haunt you?

Pretty much every time I watch the news. I have always been very sensitive to the suffering of others, and there is a lot of that on the news, unfortunately. For whatever reason, I always take it very personally. My heart goes out to the people who may be suffering through whatever story I happen to be catching at the time.

It’s an awful feeling, isn’t it? I wish I could desensitize myself a little.

@Taciturnu I agree. I often go through long phases where I avoid watching or reading the news entirely. it is bizarre to not know what is going on in the world, but I think I need that sometimes.

I usually am very hurt by a few stories every week while reading about them, but then once I’m done, I move on within a couple minutes. Every few months, one will really stick with me for much longer. But I consume tons of tons of news like it’s freaking cocaine, and almost all of it is sad news, not fluff pieces. If I ignore the news, I’m rarely bothered by it.

I, too, have had to put myself on a news diet in the past because of this exact thing. I would cry all the time. Now I try not to obsess, but sometimes it’s just so damn sad.

Haunted? Never, really. Not like you describe, anyway. Do some ever linger on my mind and get me all mopey for a time? Sure, occasionally. A very rare occasion, but sure.

Rarely, and not because I am a psychopath, but I have trouble feeling anything for news stories – they feel too far away, too foreign, even if they happen in my own city.

Yes,A sad tragedy, isn’t it? But just think: If the crisis weighs heavily upon the human heart, how must it feel to the One who created “the seas and all that is in them”? (Nehemiah 9:6) Surely, the time must be fast approaching when he will “bring to ruin those ruining the earth.”—Revelation 11:18.

I have certainly had to limit my engagement with news stories about things like the bush fires in Victoria, the floods in Queensland, the earthquakes in Christchurch and Japan. It is too much to constantly watch this news content. However, I would never want to see our news sanitised. These things are happening to real people and so I feel it is important for us to see these stories (I do feel news organisations go overboard in their constant repetition of footage though).

Very rarely, though any horror stories involving cruelty & neglect of kids stays with me for a while.

It is why I limit my news watching.

At times I think we are not meant (actually built) to know more than what might happen in a small village of people where we have been born. Pre-this era, if something happened in the world, we would never know of it, or know only if a survivor managed to get all the way to our village. So, what we know would just be what happens to a small number of people who we actually know. Much more manageable for our brains. There seem to be some people who can inure themselves to the enormous suffering that is going on all the time in the world and just carry on with their lives happily. Or, as some have indicated, others who just choose not know what is going on, even though the information is available. All this seems to require a recalibrating of our emotional responses to what we learn—so we can be sympathetic as well as go on and live our own lives.

And by the way, the story you linked to stayed with me all night, and is still in my head. That poor baby. :(

@augustlan I know. It’s local here, so everyone’s been talking about it. I can only imagine how terrified she was. It breaks my heart.

The Tuscon shooting in Arizona disturbed me a lot. I’m still following the story now, mostly to know about the congresswoman’s progress in therapy. It’s really sad knowing she was super smart and an overachiever, and now she struggles to sing the ABC’s. Gah. Or at least last I read. They’re not saying very much about her progress. It’s awesome she survived, but hopefully she won’t be a vegetable. Apparently not, but as I say, tight lipped.
A lot of ’‘good’’ seems to have been drawn from this event, like people finding a sense of togetherness and community, and all the events that were created from the tragedy. On the other hand, does it really take a whole massacre, including the death of a little girl for people to act? Well, easy to say, but I’m no different. It’s depressing.

The recent events in Libya. It’s getting scary. The dude who runs the place was all like, oh so you guys wanna fuck around? Let’s fuck around. Now whether he means it or not, I see nothing but more death and war in the future. I guess this is a human thing, never stopped before, I don’t see why it would now. But these rising conflicts are really freaking me out.

The Gulf War in the early nineties. Haha I remember, I was pretty young back then, and for months this is all that was on the news. I remember watching it a lot, seeing live footage of piles of bodies everywhere, crammed in pickups and even tractors to be carried away. I think that left a scar in my brain to this day.

You know if you think about, there are 6,907,454,143 people in the world. So today, 6,900 people had days so bad you could accurately describe them as one in a million. Damn, there would be a job – going through all the worst stories and figuring out which one is going to get you the most viewers.

Experts in such things say don’t watch. It isn’t good for you. If it did some good for THEM you might be able to argue for it. But it doesn’t. So don’t hold your hand over an open flame, don’t stay out in the sun until your skin turns red, and don’t watch the evening news. That’s my motto.

@6rant6 The population is not 6,907,454,145. The Andersons had twins today!! One boy and one girl. Their parents named them Andy and Andi. Chris and Kris are so proud they just want everybody to know!

@12Oaks, I’m so sorry. I guess you didn’t hear. Darlene and Frank went to the counselors today. The session was “very productive” and on the drive home Darlene started doing “her homework” on Frank. Well, a couple of passing Episcopalians saw it and died of apoplexy right there. So back to 6,907,454,145.