Amidst a news cycle that seems more terrifying than usual, we hit the streets of Manhattan in order to ask people two questions: What current news story has you most upset? And when you feel yourself getting especially worked up, what do you do to calm yourself down? We mostly got the answers we were expecting: Ebola. Airplanes. Gaza. Eric Garner. But what took us by surprise was the wide variety of ways people coped with the glut of bad news.
Some people told us they responded by avoiding the news entirely, for example. But just as many others had the opposite impulse — to seek out as much information as they could about, for example, exactly how Ebola spreads and why a New York City outbreak is very, very unlikely. Some eased their anxiety with healthful hobbies like yoga or long-distance running; others went for the other extreme, stress-eating chocolate and ice cream. And one young man, who was upset over the death of Eric Garner, told us he creates music to help him escape when the world seems bleak.
So, now we turn to you: What news stories have you most anxious lately? Does it make you feel better to seek out more information, or to shut it all out? And what other ways do you have of coping with news anxiety? Leave a comment letting us know.