How to stay informed without harming your mental health

Topics mentioned: worries about the news and the world, social media

About: Oluwaferanmi shares his experiences of trying to keep up with the news and world events without social media consuming him and damaging his mental health.

I wanted to stay informed.

That was how it started for me. When I first joined Facebook and Instagram, I thought social media was mainly a way to communicate with friends and loved ones. It felt harmless at first. But over time, I began to realise that we do not always understand how much social media can affect our mental health, especially when there is no real limit on how long we spend online.

Facebook was the first platform that made me notice this. I found out about the deaths of people I knew through posts online. I saw distressing images, painful details, and long explanations about what had happened. Instead of hearing the news privately or being allowed to process it properly, I was exposed to everything at once.

Then I found myself going back repeatedly, checking profiles and pages for hours. Sometimes I would spend four or five hours reading, scrolling, and revisiting the same painful posts. I know it is normal to mourn people we have lost, but when traumatic content appears online without warning, it can start to affect you deeply.

So, I deleted Facebook.

I thought I was finally free from all the bad news. But then I joined Instagram, and I realised the problem was not just one platform. Instagram created a different kind of pressure. It made me question whether I was living my life the right way.

Seeing my peers celebrating achievements made me start questioning my own progress. It was not jealousy. It was more about being constantly exposed to other people’s lives when I did not ask to know everything about them. One platform made me feel the pain of losing people. Another made me question whether I was behind in life.

That was not the way I wanted to live.

So, I deactivated Instagram too.

Then I joined Twitter because people told me it was the best place to stay informed. Around that time, the Russia-Ukraine war started, and I became addicted to updates. Before drinking water or getting out of bed, I would read almost everything I could find about the war.

Sometimes I would spend the first three hours of my morning scrolling, reading and trying to understand what was happening. But instead of helping me stay informed in a healthy way, it started affecting my ability to focus on other things. My curiosity slowly turned into something unhealthy.

I kept asking myself, is this really a healthy way to live?

Twitter can be extremely toxic. One day, someone can be trending, and suddenly the whole world becomes judge, jury, and executioner. People can be dragged publicly before the truth is even clear. I remember reading about someone whose life was badly affected by a serious false accusation online. Many people reacted before they knew the full story, and by the time the truth came out, the damage had already been done.

That made me think deeply about what social media has become.

Why do we treat online accusations like final judgments? Why do we consume other people’s pain as if it is entertainment? Why do we allow strangers’ lives to become public debates before the facts are clear?

I wanted to stay informed, but at some point, I realised that being constantly informed was costing me my peace.

The problem was not only that social media affected my mood. It started affecting my routine, my focus, and even the way I interacted with people around me. I could be having a conversation with someone, but part of my mind would still be thinking about something I had read online. I could open my phone to check one update and lose an hour without realising it. Sometimes it affected my academic balance too, because my mind was already tired before I even started doing anything productive.

That was when I realised the issue was deeper than just “being informed.” I was not only reading the news anymore. I was carrying the emotional weight of everything I consumed.

My phone was supposed to be a tool, but it had started controlling my attention, my mood, and my peace.

I still believe it is important to stay informed and know what is happening in the world. I do not want to live ignorantly or pretend that serious issues do not exist. But I am learning that awareness without boundaries can become harmful. I cannot say I have fully mastered it yet, but I know it is a gradual process, and I am trying to be more intentional about it.

I do not need to scroll every day, read every comment, watch every video, or follow every update before I can call myself informed.

Sometimes protecting your mental health is not ignorance; it is discipline. I am not saying social media is completely bad or that it is the enemy. Social media can be useful. But not being able to control your access to it can become dangerous.

I wanted to stay informed, but now I understand that information should help me live better, not make me lose myself in the process.