Too Much News Is Bad News

Have you seen too much news on TV , the computer, newspapers and magazines. I mean, is there too much news hitting us, and is it a bad thing if we are saturated with news every waking minute of our lives? I think seeing too much news is like eating too much chocolate cake. It's not a good thing for us.
There is a human price to pay for living in a world where the news never stops. But I don't recommend disconnecting CNN or never watching your local TV news cast or reading a newspaper. What I think is better is to recognize that we may be addicted to news, and hence, may exaggerate the importance of it- particularly when being informed of an unusual or dramatic story.
What has happened to us because of this informational overload is that we have become compelled not so much by legitimate thirst for information as by an addiction to technology and impulses that make us think we have something to fear every second every day. It's the mentality people have that they are unsafe from "terrorists" or that "global warm will destroy us". So our mind is fed a series of histrionic news stories that fills us with distorted and exaggerated anxieties about what is happening in the world and what might happen to us.
Ha! Remember the ridiculous Y2K fears that all computers would crash when 2000 came? How about the Bush imagination that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction that could harm the U.S.? There are countless more reactions to the informational overload of today. After a "disaster" (at least as defined by the media) TV news shows the same images with no additional information. The horror is beaten into the public and a false message is imparted on our brains- that the world is big, dangerous, scary and completely out of control.
Because of the communication and technological mediums we are bombarded by negative news reports we tend to overestimate the amount of violence and evil in the world. I think the obsessive and overly dramatic coverage of the 911 event showed the media that ratings are best obtained by saturating us with endless and exaggerated stories of tragic or dangerous events. They crank up their doom tone now, even when the event they cover is really not one to merit such a tone. We have been inundated with more news, from more sources, and some of these put a rather "creative" spin on their reporting to keep our attention.
Much of the news, particularly on TV, the "entertainment" source of our news, is speculative, repetitive, and is a phantom news of sorts. That is, the event being covered (the runaway bride story or the Michael Jackson trial, for instance) is much less important and relevant than the amount of coverage given. And by inundating us with coverage the media makes a trivial event significant for us. So be being over exposed to news have we lost our ability to distinguish the important from the mundane?
Maybe some people are. the best way to fight this news assault is through education. In particular, kids need to be taught about news- how it differs from opinion and entertainment, how it's source can drive its content, how current technology has altered it's reality. As for we adults, maybe stopping to think and evaluate a story is our best weapon against news overload. if the story isn't relevant, forget it. Evaluate every story the media gives to separate the real news from the entertainment, and ignore the latter.
Hehe By the way ..did you hear the news about..... Ok, here is my trivial news story of the day. But I promise, unlike media outlets, to make this a one time disclosure.