20: Taking Control: Be More Selective in Choice of Media

Every day we see negative headlines. Yet also every day, many stories about positive ideas and innovations go unnoticed. We need to be much more selective in our choice of media to be better informed in an environment where we are being swamped with negative news.

This chapter will answer three questions:

First, let's consider the argument that we are hard wired to be disposed towards bad news! Humanity evolved in Africa millions of years ago surrounded by a world of severe and immediate danger. To deal with this constant danger, our brains evolved the temporal lobe – the amygdala. It scans everything we see and listens for signs of danger and when it senses danger it puts us on alert. A consequence of this is that we are more likely to read negative news as it offers us more value.