Personal Piece: A Blog on Reading the News

How to Read the News Without Letting it Hijack Your Nervous System

By Rebecca Bogdon | Feb. 2, 2026

If you’ve ever opened the news and felt your jaw clench, your eyes widen, or your mood fluctuate before even finishing the first paragraph, you probably weren’t imagining it, and you are not alone.

Urgency, fear, joy, anger: these are the emotions proven to keep people clicking, sharing, and coming back. The reality is that most modern news is not designed to inform you calmly. It, like many content types across sharing platforms, is designed to activate you. Ultimately, it’s for outlets to get a basic result: popularity, better ratings, perceived authority, and your view counts.

However, being emotionally influenced is not the same thing as being well-informed. In our rapidly evolving world, part of what we need is more clear, sound minds, not more hot-and-bothered ones.

Be Vigilant With Headlines

Most headlines today aren’t, in fact, summaries of the article of which they entitle. They’re “hooks”—the industry terminology. They can leave out context, for our brains to then fill in a version of that short story that will oftentimes lead to a possibly dismal scenario of it.

On Our Nervous Systems

When us humans are anxious or angry, the brain doesn’t reason as well as it normally would. Primitively, it tends to look for threats, allies, and enemies, before evidence. However, in taking a few deep breaths after feeling an emotion based on an input, we force a momentary pause while relaxing our muscles and mind. 

Further, we can take it upon ourselves to ask ourselves and each other questions about the things we see and hear:

• What do we actually know?

• What’s still uncertain; what don’t we know? What wouldn’t we know?

• What was the reason for the outcome of this conclusion?

• What would change this conclusion?

Practical Habits to Build

• Read past the headline. Before thinking anything about a headline, we can at least scan the article for context

• Notice emotional language

• Ask oneself: “Is this evidence, facts, or an interpretation of those things?”

• Pause first—then react. 

The good news is, you don’t have to tune out the chaos of the world to protect your peace. You just have to read it with steadiness, and steadfastness. At the same time: you are allowed to feel your feelings—they are valid—but why not realize why you feel a certain way before deciding to go with what another person (or robot) without your best interests in mind has said.

It’s perfectly fine to leave room for uncertainty as you read, as you learn, and as you continue to grow. As with many aspects of thought and life: vigilance and resilience will be key.