For many years now, my husband and son have teased me about how I often get most of my "news" from social media. Occasionally, I get told by the hubby or the son about what is going on, but I haven't watched a news broadcast or read a newspaper in years. I don't feel like I'm missing out on much for having this attitude. And given the events of recent times, for the sake of my mental health, I need to even start cutting out some of the social media news too.

It's time to put a dose of sanity into the coo-coo of the world.

News and the negative drain

I have always said that I don't like watching the news, because I found it too depressing. And there have been several times over the years when I refused to go anywhere near the news because of how depressed it was making me feel.

In September of 2001, I switched off the coverage about the Twin Towers. Instead, I sat on the back doorstep, basking in the sunlight, blissful in the knowledge that I was going into the hospital later that day to be induced. My son was born nearly 48 hours later.

In September 2010, and again in February 2011, I didn't need the news to tell me how bad the Christchurch earthquakes had been. I was flipping living it! Every time there was another aftershock, there was this fear that it would be another big one, and screams would fill my ears. (And I'm fairly confident that at least some of those screams were my own.)

During August 2018, I deliberately walked away from the coverage of a snot-nosed teenager who was doing nothing but insisting that the world's climate change issues were all my fault—yet, zero solutions were coming out of her mouth.

In 2020, I watched the news long enough to know that the pandemic started in China and had spread so quickly around the globe. But if it wasn’t for my hubby calling me, I would have had zero clue that we were going into lockdown. He called me to tell me to make sure that we had supplies. But most of my news about the pandemic was again through social media as I watched long enough to appreciate the freedoms that I had in New Zealand as compared to so many other countries around the world.

AI-generated books exploded onto the scene with the introduction of ChatGPT in 2022, and the publishing industry is still playing catchup (three years later).

But now we have the war in Ukraine, the war in Gaza, a lunatic in position of significant power, a psychopath who is sitting back and calculating how to ensure that world governments fall over, and we have Big Tech companies flexing their muscles and holding everyone's data to ransom over the AI battle.

And now we have major earthquakes in Myanmar, Tonga, Panama, and New Zealand.

And we are only into the fourth month of 2025.

The world has simply gone insane!

But as much as it might be ideal to know what is happening on a global stage, I need to put on the blinders and focus only on what is directly in front of me.

Narrowing my field of view

I might sympathize with those suffering as a result of the natural disasters, but there is nothing I can do to help them.

I might be saddened by the wars in Ukraine and Gaza, but only because I wish that those who would insist on these insane wars would lock themselves in a room where they can duke it out, leaving the innocent alone.

And there is absolutely nothing that I can do about the political chest beating that is happening by parties in the US and Russia. I just hope that New Zealand stays as far away from the chaos as possible.

The actions of the Big Tech companies is pissing me off, because they are impacting me directly, infringing on my rights and my intellectual property. And I'm watching what is happening in the UK regarding their proposed changes to the copyright law, because again, this directly impacts me. (Some people might not see how a UK-based law would impact a Kiwi author, but my books are distributed in the UK, so yeah, this impacts me.)

But instead of spiraling into the depths of despair because of the global lunacy, it's best to ignore the world and focus my anxiety to sources that I actually have some influence over.

I can only control my actions, my reactions, and my responses. And I have a choice about the messages that I post on social media and share with others. What I do can influence people around me, particularly the other members of my household and members of my local community. But I can’t be held responsible for another person’s actions. Everyone is their own person.

So, instead of stressing out about things that are 100% out of my control, I’m going to turn my focus to the things that are directly within my immediate sphere.

Control the writing. Focus on the editing. Treat others like how I would like to be treated: with respect and integrity. Pay attention to what is going on elsewhere long enough to assess how it might affect me, influencing any decisions about future paths.

But in general, stop stressing about the crap that I have zero control over. Things will unfold the way they were meant to.