Radio Sweethearts

Here’s what my news consumption looks like on a typical day:

Every morning, Matthew and I wake up to three different alarms and Morning Edition. It’s usually turned on by whoever wakes up first and stays on until we leave the house. I listen to more Morning Edition in my car on the way to my job at the Web site.

Once I get to work, I’m surrounded by news. It’s a newspaper’s Web site, so of course there’s tons of news. For the most part, my job deals with our audience and our advertising, but I still read through the site a few times a day. While I’m at work, I alternate between listening to old episodes of This American Life and the Moth and playing loud rock’n'roll on my iPod.

Then I drive home, listening to All Things Considered or Marketplace, depending on when I leave. Then I post here.

The point of all of this?

I’m getting severely bummed out. Every morning, more bad things have happened – stocks have tumbled, companies have let workers go, and no one knows how to fix all of this. The world is in a bad place right now, and I hear so much news every day that I’m starting to get in a bad place, too. And maybe this is selfish of me, but I don’t want to spend another week completely bummed out by what’s going on.

I’m getting married. I have an awesome job doing what I love and amazing friends who are, incidentally, incredible cooks. I’m young, I’m healthy, and I’ve got my whole life ahead of me, yet I can’t stop worrying about the economy, the government, and a bunch of irrational what-ifs.

So I’m taking a break. I’m going to take a one week long break from hard news programming (barring work, of course) to see if it improves my mood. I’m not sure if it will, but anything to get me out of this weird, constant funk is worth a shot.

Is anyone else having the same problem? What’s working for you?