Coping 12: Reading the world instead of the news
Coping is short posts on Fridays about coping methods for doing creative and focused things in an unfocused world. In Coping 12, reading the world instead of the news when out and about.
I struggle sometimes to balance my desire to be engaged in the world, and my desire to not focus too much on things outside my sphere of influence. Like many people, this struggle sometimes results in wanting to minimize my news consumption. News reading, for me, often takes place on my phone, when I'm waiting somewhere, or when taking short trips on public transit. A healthier approach (for me, at least) is to read news more intentionally and less as a reflex. So what can I do instead?
One of the things I've been trying to do to replace reflexive news reading is noticing the world directly around me. I look, I listen, I smell. I still look at my phone, but with the intention of noting down some of the things I notice.
It looks something like the following, which captures a few minutes of waiting:
Music
Sound check
Knocking espresso out
People moving to tables they like better
Bar made of corrugated metal
Sun on the water
Industry across the way
People who look like people I've known
A table reserved by a book
Gentle murmur
Calm but busy
Artistically-rendered lizard
Big, re-used shopping bags
Speakerphone
Sticky floor
Sudden noises in my ear
The melding of different, liberally-applied perfumes
A gentle whirring sound
Mirrored sunglasses
Homogeneous crowds
Taking the time to make the world around me into the target of my attention takes the edge off of not doom-scrolling news. News consumption while waiting or en route is, after all, not something I'm doing with deliberate intention, but a kind of reflex. Paying attention to my surroundings is like a mental equivalent to nicotine gum in displacing the habit.
