Anxiety arises from knowing about something and being unable to do anything about it. And our globalized, always-on information era provides not just a deluge of information, but a deluge of anxiety as well.
In a speech given 30 years ago, the great culture commentator Neil Postman said, “The tie between information and action has been severed. Information is now a commodity that can be bought and sold, or used as a form of entertainment, or worn like a garment to enhance one’s status. It comes indiscriminately, directed at no one in particular, disconnected from usefulness; we are glutted with information, drowning in information, have no control over it, don’t know what to do with it.”
The purpose of information is action. We know in order to do. But we’ve created such a disconnect between our knowing and our doing that we’ve engineered an anxiety pandemic for ourselves.
The response to the novel coronavirus COVID-19 is a significant case in point. The more we hear about it without being able to do anything about it, the more anxious we become. It hasn’t infected our bodies, but it’s infected our minds, our imaginations.
This is why we can see videos of women fighting over toilet paper in a grocery store. They’re trying to do something with the information they’ve received. But they’re doing the wrong thing.
This is why passengers on an airplane freak out when someone starts sneezing. They’re trying to do something with the information they’ve received. But they’re doing the wrong thing.
Information calls for action. If we don’t act, our minds continue buzzing and buzzing and buzzing and anxiety results. But if we do the wrong things, hostility results.
Washing your hands and avoiding touching your face and distancing yourself from other people might be good precautions sanitarily, but they aren’t helpful either.
Two things are helpful.
1. Reduce the amount of information coming in. Really, how much is necessary? How much is truly useful? Not a lot. So one way to reduce the information-action ratio is by simply reducing the information coming in. It’s amazing how much it’ll reduce anxiety.
2. Increase the amount of directly related action. Stocking up on supplies is a good idea. But better than that is doing something for those who are directly affected by COVID-19. Pray for them. If you know someone infected by it (which is still rare at this point), give them a phone call. Really. Dial the numbers. Talk with them. Hearing what their experience is like and how you can support them will do wonders for your mental and emotional state.
Following the 2013 bombing of the Boston Marathon, people across the country experienced a form of post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) because of what they watched on TV. They saw the same images over and over again. But what the images showed them was only a small part of what was really going on. Those images showed mayhem. What they didn’t show was the thousands and thousands of people who were just fine.
People who witnessed the bombing first hand had a fraction of the PTSD of those who saw it on TV. The people who saw it were able to do something about it. They could help those who were injured. And many more saw that those who were injured were receiving plenty of care and knew that they didn’t need to do anything for them personally. Information led to action or it led to a real knowledge that their action was unnecessary.
So read less and act more. You’ll be more helpful that way and way less stressed out.