Reading the news is the new smoking

A writer just compared doomscrolling to lighting up a cigarette, and the comments instantly turned into a group therapy session with side-eye. His big confession: he stopped mainlining outrage, stopped checking headlines every five minutes, and suddenly became calmer, nicer, and less likely to imagine strangling strangers over soybean tariffs. In his telling, the modern habit of waking up and inhaling bad news is less “being informed” and more emotional chain-smoking.

The crowd? Very divided. One camp basically yelled, “Finally, someone said it!” People shared their own post-news glow-ups: better focus, more peace, more books, more gardening, more actual life. One commenter said ditching the phone and TV led to a domestic paradise of painting, board games, and being present with family — a vibe so wholesome it almost sounded suspicious. Another said quitting the news from 2015 to 2019 was the most productive stretch of their life, until COVID dragged them back into the panic casino.

But not everyone was ready to toss the headlines in the trash. Critics pushed back hard, saying this flirted with “ignorance is bliss” energy. The sharpest rebuke came from readers arguing that if you live in a democracy, tuning out completely has consequences: voting, protesting, donating, and boycotting all require knowing what’s going on. The hottest compromise take? Don’t quit the news — quit the 24/7 phone drip. In other words, maybe the real villain isn’t journalism. It’s the tiny glowing rectangle screaming in your pocket.