There must be something better than doom scrolling

I just can't stand the news, and I know I'm not alone. For a long time, I avoided the news, and I still do, to be honest. It's exhausting, depressing, time consuming, and the very last thing I want to do when I am home trying to relax and enjoy my life. Watching or reading the news is simply not a relaxing or enjoyable activity to me. I understand that some people feel very differently, and that is just my point– we all consume media a little differently, and I know that I am not alone in being quite repulsed by basically any news outlet. I will never, and I mean never, browse news articles myself. I am the kind of person who only reluctantly clicks on links sent to me by others. These others know that I am living in the dark ages and desperately want to help me, bless their hearts.

But avoiding the news all together is not the thing to do. I just want to be informed, and I think that's a minimum standard we can all strive for. Feeling out of the loop is also anxiety and stress-inducing. I used to live in fear that someone will bring up something in conversation– a foreign government that recently collapsed, or a far-away natural disaster, or an on-going civil war that I somehow would be completely oblivious to.

I've come up with two solutions that actually work pretty well by keeping me informed and my blood pressure at a normal level. First, good old Wikipedia. A lot of people don't realize that Wikipedia has a homepage and a lot of neat features besides being the world's largest free online encyclopedia. The homepage has a convenient "in the news" box that gives you the major highlights, and, of course, links to the Wikipedia page on the event, which is always incredibly up to date and well-sourced. It's really remarkable. If you want to keep up with a major developing news story, you can't do much better than refreshing Wikipedia every few minutes.

The second is this service called "The New Paper" that sends me a simple text message every morning with 8-10 of the top global headlines for that day, and links to impartial, generally reliable (that I've found) sources for each story. I discovered this about two years ago. I saw an ad on Reddit and the concept immediately appealed to me. I singed up right away, and I'm still subscribed! The texts give me a simplified, facts-first approach to the news that keeps me appraised of major events and doesn't try to suck me in. It could not be more straight-forward and practical. The other reason I like it so much is because of the format- texts. It's impossible for me not to notice that I got the news that day. If it were an email newsletter, they would quickly pile up in the inbox, unread. But texts are more personal and direct. I can read my daily news brief basically anywhere because it's so quick and easily accessible. I don't have to wait for anything to load, or even click on anything. It's only $5 a month, and since it's impossible for me to leave a text message unread, I read it every single day. Check out my screen shots below of my text message from this morning, as an example.

So those are the two solutions that work for me. I'm curious if anyone else uses some alternative way to stay informed on world events that doesn't involve traditional media. Let me know!