The Virtue of Tuning Out

“The world is too much with us,” William Wordsworth wrote in 1802.

It’s undeniably still true today. But many are trying to do something about it.

While there’s always a drop-off in interest in politics after an election, in the past two months it seems like everyone is “tuning out”: disconnecting –- or at least trying to –- and getting away from the daily political circus.

Donald Trump’s 2016 victory spawned marches, protests, and skyrocketing news subscriptions. This time around, among the losing side, it’s mostly head-shaking and grumbles of “here we go again.”

By and large, people are supportive of the idea of tuning out. Today’s media environment can take a toll on anyone’s mental health. If you need to log out of social media, switch off the cable and go touch grass to keep from being overwhelmed with hopelessness, exasperation or despair, more power to you.

But there’s also been a growing backlash to the trend, with Trump opponents begging folks to stay plugged in.

“The desire to turn inward is understandable, and human. It’s a form of self-protection,” writes Miriam Elder in a New York Times opinion piece, to give one example. “It’s also a delusion.”

Elder then quotes a phrase she says made the rounds in Russia upon Vladimir Putin’s return to the presidency in 2012: “You may not be interested in politics, but politics is interested in you.”

I’m here to say: don’t listen to the naysayers. Now is the perfect time to take an indefinite time-out.

I’m interested in this for a few reasons. First of all, it’s something I’m struggling with, just like everyone else. At a time when I need to be focusing on my own life (new job starts Monday!), the histrionic lure of politics constantly beckons. It’s hard to shake the impression that we’re all living in a Yeats poem, unmoored, desperately searching for any footing to reconstruct a universe that makes sense.

I have no idea what the next four years will bring, and the gut instinct to uncertainty is to keep your eyes wide open. Most days I can fight this back to a standstill, but on others it’s no contest.

But I’ve also always been fascinated by the effects and implications of this Age of Information Overload — how constant cascades of media bits not only warp our perceptions but fundamentally change who we are. As a journalist who committed his professional life to the notion that people always need more information, it’s been tough to reckon with the possibility that more information may not always be good — that it actually may be hurting people.

Confused and overwhelmed, news consumers of all stripes and education levels are looking to opinion-shapers to make sense of it all, and instinctively gravitating towards the ones that are most provocative, incendiary and entertaining. It not only makes for poor national dialogues, but can be disastrous for personal happiness and mental health. (And that would be true even without the digital wizards and all of their tricks to keep us clicking and scrolling.)

Even if you aren’t falling for hoaxes or outright disinformation, keeping things in proportion can be impossible in this environment. It can seem like certain problems are surging, when the only variable that’s really changed is our awareness of them.

Not letting the deluge of news overwhelm and demoralize you is a challenge of this age — but not an insurmountable one.

True, lots of things Aren’t Right. But there have always been lots of things that Aren’t Right. I realize it takes some privilege to be able to say that (guilty), but it’s also a sign of privilege to see this all as new and unprecedented. Most of what’s bothering you isn’t as new as it seems, and if you could live with it before you could probably live with it now.

Behind all of the noise, do we really live in unprecedented and incomprehensible times? Both sides in the 2024 election felt they were facing the death of democracy. And who knows, maybe we are living through some historic shift. (Though it’s worth remembering that everyone in history thinks this.) I’m not trying to say that everything will be fine.

A second Trump term brings with it a vast range of possibilities. But at this point, they’re just that: possibilities, not realities. Any therapist will tell you, it’s best to deal with what’s in front of you, than let your brain run wild with what could happen. If you’re as prepared as you need to be, that excess worry isn’t doing you any good.

Because the truth is, unless you are going to channel it into constructive action, being miserable doesn’t help anyone. It won’t make the world a better place, and it doesn’t mean you’re a better person, either.

We political junkies (I’m obviously one of them, and since you’re reading this you probably are too) like to think we’re fulfilling our democratic responsibilities by staying glued to the news. But let’s face it, we’re not doing this for any altruistic reasons. We’re hooked. We’re following impulses. We’re drunks proclaiming the civic virtue of going to the neighborhood pub every night.

That divide between the well-informed news consumers and casual or intermittent news followers is probably the biggest in politics right now, if not America as a whole. It can be hard to imagine how the world looks to your political enemies, but it’s harder still for partisan combatants to understand the views of folks who form opinions of Trump or Kamala Harris based on vague impressions and vibes.

Political junkies experienced the first Trump term as an unpredictable parade of news — maybe thrilling, maybe exhausting, but always transfixing. The casuals, though, blissfully ignorant of the outrage du jour, remember it as being mostly a pleasant period. (Except for the pandemic and lockdown, which no one can agree who is at fault for.) The latter view was big enough to decide the election — Trump was both the disruption candidate and the normalcy candidate, and a large portion of Americans wanted at least one of those.

While I wish everyone kept a healthy news diet, I’ve never judged anyone for focusing their attention on other things. It’s actually a pretty rational, sensible way to live in an advanced democracy and a confusing world. To the extent there’s been a failing, I blame elected leaders who haven’t crafted messages able to break through to them.

When you’re consumed with the news, it’s easy to get over-invested in the outcomes — a bad loss becomes gutting. It can be difficult to sort out what affects you from what offends you, but once you have done so, the former group may be easier to weather than you first thought.

We’re in a transition period where the upcoming Trump presidency is very theoretical and abstract. When it becomes real, I have no doubt that people will re-engage. The gears of democracy will continue to turn, no matter what its future holds.

So, if you feel like tuning out, go ahead. Take a break. Step away from the madness.

I promise you, it’ll be here when you get back.