Avoid Negative Media

Before reading this lesson, take a few minutes and complete this fun and easy action step.

  • Write a list of 10 things that you wish you had time to do, or wish you had more time to spend on.

Stop and write your list before moving on. Once you’ve written your list, go back to reading.

To have a healthy body, you eat healthy food and avoid putting toxins in your body. The same is true of your mind because your mindset is determined by what you consume through your eyes and ears. So to have a healthy and positive mindset, you need to fill your mind with positive inputs like personal and professional development reading and podcasts, and even more important is to stop putting negative inputs into your mind.

What are those negative inputs? Newspaper, TV news, talk radio, online news, and social media ranting (especially about politics). Your mindset and life will dramatically improve if you opt out of the destructive and time-consuming modern media complex that steals your time and sells it to advertisers.

Personally, I haven’t read a newspaper in 30 years, I’ve never watched TV news or listened to talk radio, and I don’t use social media at all. That’s right, no Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, or others that I don’t even know about. I simply refuse to waste my time and have my mind infected by all of the negativity, and I strongly advise you to do the same.

Here’s a truly staggering fact: The average American is spending over 5 hours per day on TV and social media – that’s spending about ⅓ of their waking hours on something that is actively bad for them.

So how much time do you spend on it? If you keep an accurate Time Log (covered in the full Be Happiful Course) you might be surprised to find out the truth.

What could you do instead with that time that would improve your life and help you achieve your goals? Take a minute now and look at the list you just made before reading this lesson, of the 10 things you wish you had more time to do. Now you know how to have more time for those things!

Reclaim your time and your life and improve your mindset by kicking the media habit. 

Experience the difference the same way as many others: Take the 1 Week Media Challenge. Go for one week without any newspaper, TV, or online news, and no social media whatsoever. If you get emails with negativity (news, politics, etc.), delete them without reading them.

Do you find yourself resisting this idea? That means you’re addicted. Don’t be surprised, nearly everyone in our society suffers from this addiction.

You may find giving up media to be the hardest thing to do in the entire Happiful program. Which almost certainly means you need it the most! But you don’t have to commit to giving up news and social media forever (although it would be best if you did that). For now, just take the 1 Week Media Challenge.

You’ll gain back time to do what matters, and you'll feel better, less stressed, and more positive about the world.

Here’s how to be successful in the 1 Week Media Challenge:

  1. Make a firm commitment to yourself. It’s just a week; you can do this!

  2. Tell your family and friends so they won’t undermine your efforts. Ideally, they will join you in the challenge.

  3. Remove the temptations: Delete all social media apps from your phone, unsubscribe from any online news emails, even unplug the TV and take the batteries out of the remote. If you’re not willing to remove the social media apps, at least turn off all the notifications, and move the apps off your home screen and hide them somewhere. (Another option is to subscribe to the Opal app, where you can block your phone’s access to apps during specified times.)

  4. Make a list of the specific things you want to do during your challenge week with all the extra time you’re going to gain. Start with the list you made previously, of things you wish you had time to do – because now you will!

  5. At the end of the week, ask yourself honestly how you feel. If you’re like most people, you’ll be happier, more positive, and less stressed. Then decide whether you want to let media back into your life at all, and if you do, what guidelines you want to establish for yourself. Examples would be no media during the work day, or switching from “doomscrolling” on the news to getting a news headlines service. Whatever you come up with, put them in writing and share them with your family and friends to keep you accountable.