50 Photos That Make You Wonder If We’ve Already Crossed The Point Of No Return

Arguably, the world is stuck in a permanent crisis or perma-crisis. Essentially, this refers to a prolonged period of insecurity and instability where crises are interconnected and overlap.

To be clear, this doesn’t mean that life is completely awful, there’s no hope, or that there’s no beauty or happiness to be found. Quite the opposite. But it would be naive to turn a blind eye to all the major challenges that people living in modern times face. Life is complicated, and problems are often intertwined with the positives.

Not to mention the fact that human beings are hardwired to pay more attention to negative news than to positive information, meaning that the extent of the dystopia you think you’re in is (probably) exaggerated.

Negativity bias means that people tend to dwell on negative events longer, and they register negative stimuli more readily.

According to Verywell Mind, this is why you might feel worse after being criticized than you feel good after being praised. In a nutshell, due to this bias, traumas have long-term effects, bad impressions are hard to overcome, and people tend to notice (and later remember) negative things much more.

Human beings tend to:

1. Pay more attention to negative events compared to positive ones
2. Learn more from negative experiences
3. Make decisions based on negative information
4. React more strongly to negative stimuli
5. Think about negative things more frequently than positive ones
6. Remember negative events more vividly
7. Be more motivated to avoid something negative than to gain something positive
8. Believe negative news to be more truthful

There’s an evolutionary basis for focusing on all the negative stuff so much. It’s basically your brain’s way of keeping you safe(r).

As per Verywell Mind, paying attention to negative, dangerous, threatening things found in the world “was literally a matter of life and death.”

Individuals who paid more attention to all the bad stuff in their environment were more likely to survive and procreate, passing on their genes.

So, how do you actually function properly when you’re constantly bombarded by stress and anxiety-inducing news? It’s not exactly rocket science, but it does require discipline. For one, you’ve got to reprioritize your well-being, getting your physical and mental health back in shape. And secondly, you’ve got to limit and recontextualize all the negative things you see online.

In terms of your well-being, make sure that you’re getting the basics right. Make sure that you’re getting enough sleep, water, and nutritious food. Spend time with your loved ones, friends, and coworkers who energize rather than drain you.

Get plenty of exercise. Spend time outdoors. Focus on your hobbies and other purposeful activities. Meditate. Avoid drinking alcohol, smoking, eating processed foods, and spending time with toxic people.

Naturally, if you’re constantly anxious, then you need to review your digital habits as well. If you spend a large portion of your day scrolling social media, browsing the news, and getting agitated, clearly, something needs to change.

That’s not to say that staying up-to-date with the news isn’t important. It is, very much so. But there’s a balance between staying informed and obsessing over every tiny update.

When every piece of new information is world-shattering Breaking News, nothing is. If you think everything is urgent and that your life depends on following every single social media post or bit of news that comes out, you’ll burn out sooner rather than later.

According to Search Engine Journal, the average person worldwide spends around 2 hours and 24 minutes on social media every single day.

The New York Times suggests that one of the ways you could cut back on screen time is to use apps that gamify how long you don’t use your smartphone. The goal is to turn time away from your phone into a habit.