Week 1, Day 6

Week 1, Being Finite

Day 6, You can’t care about everything

Summary: The world has seemed dangerous for a long time and it’s easy to resort to doomscrolling. Burkeman says that we need to be careful not to start to live inside the news and to confuse consumption with doing something that may make a tangible difference. He suggests that we take a step back and decide which topics we want to pay attention to and leave the rest.

               As I have withdrawn from the news right now, this is another timely topic. As a former Political Scientist, I have long been a major consumer of news, and I do believe that it’s important to stay informed on what happens around the world as well as in the U.S. The problem with the endless news cycle is that it makes me feel powerless as I can’t actually do much to alleviate all the suffering or solve any problems. I can’t even donate money to every worthy cause. How do I even choose which cause is meaningful enough to me and how involved should I get? It’s easy to get stuck over the enormity of the problem.

Homework: Make a list of topics with which I want to engage.