There’s a lot to keep track of with the news cycle these days.

From the impeachment inquiry and all that has come with it so far, the recent wildfires raging in the West Coast, the ISIS al-Baghdadi announcements, and so much more, it can be hard to stay optimistic about the future of society, and even more to feel emotionally prepared to stay on top of it all.

Thanks to new technology and media, the news cycle is as fast as ever, causing society to learn about breaking events immediately but lose interest just as fast. Scandals that would have caused months of online discourse in 2016 would be over with in a matter of days in today’s climate.

With so much going on in our world today, trying to stay informed and on top of it all can seem like an uphill battle. Even when we feel like we’re finally keeping track of all these events, there’s always the lingering suspicion that you’re missing something else that you would know if you just spent a little longer reading more about it.

It feels like the finish line is always moving ahead, yet never quite in arm’s reach.

But that’s the thing about the news industry; there is no finish line. In the field known by documenting the world’s occurrences, those occurrences are never-ending; there is no finish line in life.

The problem occurs when the idea of “news” is stretched to be anything that can be labeled as “content,” and pushed out to audiences as crucial information over what can be deemed more important events. When presented with two articles, one about a new bill being presented to Congress or a story about the new “pumpkin-spice” product, it’s more likely that companies would push out the latter in order to get clicks rather than the more informative article that the public should be aware about.

But is this shameful?

In a world where trying to be involved in politics means being inundated 24/7 with one horror story after the next, is it wrong to take a break from the news? When phones constantly buzz with notifications, who can blame the people who would rather get notifications about Kim Kardashian than about the latest atrocity committed by the American government?

Overall, American consumers are getting too exhausted and too jaded of the news at the same time. The result is a market for content that protects the average citizen from needing to think too deeply about the world around them.

How does someone combat the fatigue of constant nightmare news? Close the damn computer.

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