Media Fueled Anxiety: Quarantine Thoughts Part 1
Updated: Apr 17, 2020
The first weekend of March my wife and I started driving from Phoenix to Los Angeles. By the time we returned to Phoenix we were in a rental car and the vehicle we headed West in was being shipped back and headed for a replacement transmission - a story for another time. Simultaneously (and more importantly for today’s topic) the word about Covid-19 was spreading and we were unknowingly heading back toward the announcement of a nationwide pandemic.
Two weeks later we decided, since the airlines weren’t shut down, we didn’t want to miss out on flying to Oregon for a very close friend's wedding. It was an incredible, intimate experience in a park. On account of the venue having to cancel, it took place in the same location where he had proposed months earlier, with a total of about 20 people. We were honored to share in such a special experience, but I don’t believe we yet had any grasp on the seriousness of this virus.
As we made our way back South, we went through PDX security and a TSA agent took the time to express his thankfulness for my wife and I because of our simple, smiling faces. He pointed out the fear and stress he watched consistently flow through the airport recently and what a relief it was to see just a glimpse of joy. Circumstances have led to the rearranging of everyone's greatest fears, with other human beings now topping that list. In fitting eeriness we next found ourselves on a plane with 180 seats taken up by a total of 25 passengers (Left Behind?).
I am thankful for the fact that a majority of people are taking the situation seriously. Conversely, there are two dangerously unhealthy sides to this situation; apathy and narcissism. First, apathy, (where I and many others began), says, “I can just go about what I’ve been doing, it can’t really be that serious”. Repeating unqualified lines plagiarized from Facebook or Twitter, “it’s basically just the flu” and, “there’s no reason to be worried”. To be fair, we are fed a constant stream of horrifying news daily and expected to forget it almost immediately. Because of this, the news doesn’t typically have an immediate effect on us as individuals. This becomes catastrophic when we are all affected but don’t, or can’t, grasp it. If we are ignorant to this reality, we devalue other human beings. Suddenly each one of us holds an incredible amount of influence on the health of society, for better or for worse.
This reactive nature I believe is driven largely by the constant barrage of readily available news. We are, hour by hour, minute by minute even, taking in reports from across the entire world. Certainly this magnifies the scope of danger and horror. When we accept the mass media as absolute truth and the best description of our individual realities we can easily be sucked into rampant anxiety.
Escaping collective anxiousness can be as simple as turning off the updates on your phone and going out to get some fresh air. When we disconnect for a moment it becomes possible to see that, in fact, most of our lives are still intact and the majority of us are still healthy. This is not to say don’t take the virus seriously; be aware, stay home as much as possible, wear a face mask, do your part to be respectful and loving towards others. I simply want to point out that it appears we are collectively being physically impaired by Covid-19 whether or not we actually have it. Our immune systems are suppressed by prolonged stress. Leaving ourselves vulnerable to the ever changing tide of 24 hour news is simply dangerous to our mental, emotional, even physical health. Choose a time maybe once or twice a day to check on what’s happening. I personally get all my news from my wife, I know I will be aware enough and don’t need to subject myself to excess fear. A great idea is to check out “The New Paper” email subscription (where TaylorRae gets most of her news), for bulleted, unbiased, news points from each day. There is still a world of glorious creation all around us to be appreciated. Even if it may be through a closed window for a time. Reactivity quickly leads to widespread chaos as well as contained insanity. From personal experience, I guarantee you will find a sense of freedom in turning off the phone for a little while.
Neil Postman published a fascinating book in 1985 called “Amusing Ourselves to Death”. It is a commentary on entertainment culture, news, television, schools, etc… Postman writes about the fact that everyone was in fear of “big brother” becoming an actuality. The government mind control displayed in the novel “1984”. He argues however that the reality is much closer to that of the hedonism that’s presented throughout Aldous Huxley’s “Brave New World”. The final page of Postmans’ book is chillingly insightful. It reads;
“For in the end, [Huxley] was trying to tell us that
what afflicted the people in Brave New World was
not that they were laughing instead of thinking, but
that they did not know what they were laughing
about and why they had stopped thinking”.
During quarantine it takes no effort to be glued to our devices and let the day dissolve around us. There may be some value in developing human connection through social media, but I hope we find a time to step away. We cannot become so reliant on Youtube, TikTok, DisneyPlus, for entertainment that we let time roll by in a daze, ignorant to the beauty of the world and relationships around us. Are we becoming more thoughtful, loving, relational, and present; or fearful, mindless, and numb?
