Ignorance is the bliss I need

I know this is not the first time I’m talking about this, but ever since Covid hit, I find myself anxious whenever I read about Covid surges, wars, climate disasters or basically anything that can upend the order in my life. As a child, being up to date on current affairs was considered a mark of intelligence (also meant you were being productive reading newspapers and watching news in your spare time), so I have always strived to keep myself well-informed…Except that these days there is information overload, and inadvertently half of the information comes from highly sensationalized, and polarized sources, which tends to evoke stronger emotions. Now limiting news consumption is suggested as a strategy for stress management indeed..

I have a troubling confession to make

There is this sense of unease hard to shake

When news I consume from sources varied

My anxiety goes up a few notches indeed..

*

Under a rock it is impossible to stay

When you have been hardwired to pay

Close attention to current events

Even when you try to limit the extent

Of exposure to media, you still hear

The most negative news loud and clear..

There’s a lot going on in the world that isn’t right

The worst of it unfortunately steals the limelight

Of course there are positive developments in the world too

But they don’t invoke the same emotion as negative ones do

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Coming back to my lament, each time I hear

About COVID, climate change, wars, healthcare etc. my fear

Of loss of control tends to have a resurgence

And despite having feelings of anxiety intense

I have an inexplicable urge to consume

More negative news, my mind seems to assume

That imbibing more knowledge would be

Somehow a good thing for me..

My mind has been conditioned from childhood

That learning more about a problem is good

Because that is the first step to finding a solution

It does not understand what this profusion

Of negativity does to my emotional state

The less I know, the more I can separate

Myself from its negative effects, the converse is also true

Therefore limiting consumption of news is what I should do….

*

If I am not well-verses in current affairs, let me be

Sometimes ignorance is a good place to be