How to follow the news without the anxiety

The short answer: you can follow the news without the anxiety by changing how you take it in, not by switching it off. Choose when you check, pick sources that end, and focus on stories that explain what is happening rather than ones that only alarm you.

If the news leaves you tense, you are in large company. Here is what research says about why, and a practical routine you can try this week.

How common is news anxiety?

Very common. The Reuters Institute's Digital News Report 2025 found that 40% of people say they sometimes or often avoid the news. That is up from 29% in 2017 and, in the report's words, the joint highest figure it has recorded, along with 2024. The survey covered nearly 100,000 people across 48 countries, according to Statista's summary of it.

The report describes the reasons as many and interlinked. They include:

• News overload, and news that is upsetting
• A sense of powerlessness, which younger people mention more often, about issues such as economic insecurity and climate change
• A feeling that the news is not relevant to their lives
• Finding it too hard to follow or understand, more often among under-35s

A caveat on India. The report's India data comes from a survey of mainly English-speaking, online news users. It describes that group, not the whole country, and we could not find an India-specific avoidance figure in the report itself.

Does bad news actually change your mood?

Experiments suggest it can, at least for a while.

The best-known one is a 1997 study by Johnston and Davey in the British Journal of Psychology. Three groups watched 14-minute TV news bulletins, edited to be positive, neutral or negative. People who watched the negative bulletin became more anxious and sad. They were also more likely to catastrophise a personal worry. The authors concluded that negative news can make worries worse even when those worries have nothing to do with the stories.

That study is old, and its design was simple. A newer one looked at daily life. In a 2019 study in the British Journal of Psychology, de Hoog and Verboon asked 63 Dutch adults to report their news exposure and mood five times a day for 10 days. When people saw the news as more negative, they reported more negative feelings and fewer positive ones. The effect was stronger when the news felt personally relevant. The authors also note that their sample was a convenience sample, mostly people with higher qualifications.

So the honest summary is this. Negative news can dent your mood, in experiments and in everyday life. How strongly depends on the person and the story. Neither study shows long-term harm, and neither tells you how much news is too much.

For the wider evidence on scrolling, see our post on whether doomscrolling is bad for you.

Why does it feel worse than it used to?

Researchers did not measure these causes directly, so treat this as reasoning, not findings. But a few things stand out.

1. There is no end. A bulletin finishes. A feed does not. Nothing tells your brain it is safe to stop.
2. Alerts arrive without context. A push notification gives you the alarming part and none of the background.
3. You cannot act on most of it. Reuters Institute research with people who avoid news found many feel they can do nothing about the problems reported. Feeling informed but helpless is a recipe for worry.
4. It is mixed with everything else. Headlines sit between friends' photos and memes. Your mood swings on every swipe.

If you recognise the late-night version of this, our guide to doomscrolling at night is the place to start. For the psychology behind the pull, read why we doomscroll.

How to follow the news without the anxiety

None of the steps below come from a single study. They are practical ideas that respond to the reasons people give for avoiding news. Try them and keep what works.

1. Check at set times

Choose one or two windows a day. Late morning and early evening work for many people. Outside those windows, the news can wait. Almost nothing you read at 11 pm needs a decision from you before breakfast.

2. Turn off news alerts

Alerts are written to grab attention. Keep them only for the one or two things that truly affect you, such as weather warnings or your own city.

3. Choose sources that end

A morning newsletter, a short bulletin or a handful of short videos has a finish line. A feed has none. When you reach the end, you are done, and that is the point.

4. Prefer explanation over reaction

Ask what, why and what next. A story that explains how a rate cut works or why a merger matters leaves you calmer than ten hot takes. The Reuters Institute's five recommendations for newsrooms say much the same: avoiders want coverage that is less gloomy, easier to follow, and clear about how a story affects them and what they can do.

5. Pick a few trusted sources

Following ten outlets means seeing the same alarming story ten times. Two or three good sources, ideally one broad and one in your field, are enough for most people.

6. Pair worry with one small action

If a story bothers you, do one small thing. Read a second source, talk to a friend, donate, or note what it means for your own plans. Action turns helplessness into something smaller.

7. Keep a news-free hour on each side of sleep

Use the first hour of the day and the last hour for something else. If you want ideas for what to do instead, we listed seven in our post on an alternative to doomscrolling.

What if I just want to switch off?

That is fine. Taking a break from the news is common, as the 40% figure shows, and a short break rarely does harm. The Reuters Institute work on avoiders notes that many of them still see value in being informed, because it helps in conversations and decisions.

A middle path is to avoid the live, minute-by-minute version and catch up in a short summary once a day or once a week. You stay in the loop without living in it.

When is it more than ordinary stress?

Feeling unsettled by upsetting events is normal. If worry about the news is affecting your sleep, your work or your relationships, or you cannot stop thinking about it, speak to a doctor or a counsellor. This is not a weakness, and it is easier to sort out sooner than later.

A simple routine to try

Fifteen minutes a day will not make you an expert on everything. It will keep you informed enough to talk about what matters, and calm enough to enjoy the rest of your day.

Disclosure: we make Qrio, a free Android app of short videos on business, startups and the world. We built it because we wanted a way to stay informed that ends.

Sources

• Reuters Institute, Digital News Report 2025: Executive summary
• Reuters Institute, Digital News Report 2025: India
• Statista, why people actively try to avoid the news
• Johnston and Davey (1997), The psychological impact of negative TV news bulletins, British Journal of Psychology
• de Hoog and Verboon (2019), Is the news making us unhappy?, British Journal of Psychology
• Reuters Institute, Five things news media can do to respond to consistent news avoidance