David Brooke wrote an article "The rising tide of global sadness". In it he quoted statistics from the Gallup survey that shows negative emotions on a rise over the years hitting a record high last year among an annual 150,000 people surveyed across 14 countries. Another research group which analysed 150,000 pop songs released between 1965 and 2015 found the appearance of the word "love" in the Top 100 hits roughly halved while words like "hate" rose sharply. Brooks also concluded that even for countries that have become much richer people surveyed there do not seem to feel happier.
It is tough to feel happy really. I turn on the bedroom TV when I wake up every morning while washing up. The main topics featured other than breaking news include Ukraine War, Adverse Impact of Climate Change, Threats be it economic or territorial from US, China and Russia, Covid, rising cost, stock market tumble etc etc. The bad news never stops coming and one is made never to rule out the unimaginable from happening in this world. It seems like the world is topsy turvy and the leaders turned crazy.
Perhaps the world always had various challenges over the centuries. Just that now we are so well informed by media, we are aware of all the woes in different parts of the globe in any single moment. A research suggests that almost half the UK population avoids the news.
Maybe I should stop the habit of tuning to news first thing in the morning. But isn't that some form of denial? Well maybe not, one doesn't have to be so well informed really. I guess personal accounts of people in distress affect me most and I should try to avoid watching such coverage. As for impact of climate change, instead of thinking about what the future beholds it is better to resolve to do my part for the day. If I am fretting over the market turmoil, I must remember Warren Buffet calls it the ''market noise". I must also remind myself that all media love to sensationalize. Didn't every era see its fair share of mad or ruthless kings and leaders over past thousands of years, so what's new? Of course if the news for the day is really bad or distressing I should spend some time on activities to rebalance my negative world view, like reading the section on travels and entertainment in the newspaper, watching some funny video on pets and children, admiring my plants and paying attention to the birds' call in the garden.
I should also always remember the phrase "Ten thousand joys and ten thousand sorrows". Acknowledging each as they come and go.
