The article looked interesting, so I clicked.
News Avoidance during the COVID-19 Crisis:
Understanding Information Overload
But look at the landing page, of which this is a small snippet . . .
Track every case of COVID-19 in Canada!
Compare and contrast provincial data against American states!
Track coronavirus vaccinations!
Monitor border restrictions!
Review transplant protocols with respect to vaccination!
And as if that weren’t enough . . .
Sign-up here to get the COVID-19 Brief sent to your inbox!
Stop. Just STOP. Does it seem at all odd that they put an article about the mental-health benefits of avoiding COVID-19 information overload on a page devoted to delivering excruciatingly detailed COVID-19 information?
i•ro•ny:
1) a state of affairs or an event that seems deliberately contrary to what one expects and is often amusing as a result
2) a literary technique, originally used in Greek tragedy, by which the full significance of a character’s words or actions are clear to the audience or reader although unknown to the character
Although irony is almost never used anymore in that second, literary sense, I think the Ancient Greeks would have recognized this one. Surely readers’ mental well-being played no part in this layout decision.
I am absolutely sated. And I am one of those who has paid very close attention to the pandemic, including its local ramifications. I care deeply for the continuing threat of this virus to loved ones, and to the world of loved ones. Perhaps the same thing has happened to the antivaxxers. Every new piece of information merely increases an unbearable overload.
Laurna – Yup, I think many folks are Done, in all the ways there are to be done. What a shame the virus doesn’t share our attention/toleration span.