The first time I remember stress being transferred to me from watching television was during 9/11.
I am not talking about the kind of tension you get from watching a really good (not gory) suspense horror movie. When I watched The Changling (1980 version, a Canadian film directed by Peter Medak starring George C. Scott) I was tense throughout the whole film. I have always felt that a really good suspense, horror film is like riding a roller coaster. It scares the crap out of you while you are on the ride but when you are finished you say "that was great, let's do it again." I am not talking about the stress that comes with watching your favourite hockey team in game 7 of the Stanley Cup finals (oh ya, I live in Toronto so that doesn't happen), or when your favourite baseball team is in the World Series (oops Toronto again, not happening). How about the stress in the playoffs when your favourite NBA team drains a buzzer-beater to win the game (finally, thanks Kawhi!).
I am talking about the stress you feel because the television programming is communicating a situation that is creating a level of uncertainty or potential danger to you and your loved ones. The feeling that the world as you know it may change in a bad way and you have no control over it. There are no actions you can take to avoid it.
I had never felt like this before. I experienced 9/11 a little differently than many people. I was at a conference in San Antonio, Texas when the planes struck the Twin Towers. Being in the US, surrounded by Americans, listening to George Bush on TV that first night in the ballroom of the hotel with 300 people, many who were looking for revenge, created its own stressful environment. A colleague of mine and I then drove back to Toronto from San Antonio. We had a first-hand opportunity to listen to people's reactions to 9/11 (btw the vast majority of people were shocked and balanced in their reaction). They were also helpful. One store clerk gave me (for free) his personal cell phone charger because they did not have the model I needed in stock.
Although it is a long time ago now, I seem to remember that despite being drawn to the television, wanting to stay up to date with the latest news, I needed to limit my exposure to the messages. It was causing a level of stress and anxiety I did not want to experience. As an aside, I would say I am a relatively low-stress individual. Said another way, I think I have a high tolerance for stress. I had incredibly demanding and stressful jobs during my career at IBM. There was a saying at IBM where people would ask "What keeps you up at night about your responsibilities?" I would reply, "Nothing keeps me up, I sleep perfectly every night". (well at least almost every night). On the nights I could not sleep, it was because I was worried about the kids, wanting everything to work out for them. That is what kept me up a night. (good news, the kids turned out great and we have 5 amazing adult children).
This 9/11 experience was new to me. I don't watch tons of TV, but am definitely a regular watcher. I grew up like many of my generation with parental rules and restrictions around how much and when I could watch TV. These restrictions have stuck with me even as an adult. Despite owning my own home and TV, presumably able to do whatever I want, I still cannot sit down and watch TV for hours during the day (probably a good thing). There is lots of television programming that I don't like. I don't want to watch children (or really anyone) being abused. I don't want to watch sad depressing stories. I think of television as primarily entertainment. I want to laugh, watch sports, catch up on the news, or learn. I don't want to be stressed out. I have started to watch more documentaries, some of which are hard to watch but fit firmly into the learning category.
The next time I experienced this similar stress transfer was almost 20 years later, earlier this year as the COVID-19 pandemic exploded. Again, like 9/11, I experienced COVID-19 a little differently than others. Teresa and I were in Seoul, South Korea on the day that their number of COVID cases surpassed the number reported in China. It was tense in the city. You had the feeling people were anxious, even frightened, and the city was already taking precautions that we would not see in Canada for months (the hotel took our temperature every time we entered, we had to wear a mask for our city bus tour). As an editorial aside, I think the Canadian government was much too slow taking these kinds of actions in Canada. We left Seoul the next day and decided to quarantine for 14 days. This was our own decision as the government would not require Canadians returning from overseas to quarantine for weeks (another example of the government's slow reaction that in my view cost numerous Canadians their lives).
The messages I was receiving from watching the reporting on COVID-19 had many of the same characteristics of the 9/11 reporting. There was and still is a high level of uncertainty. No one seems to really know where this virus is going to take us. The uncertainty, the potential danger to our loved ones, the acceleration of the number of cases and deaths, the feeling that it was difficult to take actions that would have a significant impact on the outcome, all caused a level of stress I found uncomfortable. It is important to acknowledge that in the case of COVID, individual actions like limiting your social interactions, physical distancing and mask-wearing do make a difference. Given I am retired I had a lot of time to watch all of the reporting on COVID-19. I eventually landed on a routine that included reading online news in the morning during breakfast (not all of which was about COVID-19). At the height of the first wave, Teresa and I would watch the Canadian government and health agency update at noon. I initially was watching the news in the evening but eventually stopped, I just found it too much. As the pandemic progressed and the reporting changed I still continue to read the news in the morning, watch the noon news/reporting less often and still restrict my news watching in the evening.
Having gone almost 20 years between stress-inducing episodes from television I am concerned to report that it happened again last night during the first presidential debate between Trump (I refuse to refer to him as president) and Vice-President Joe Biden. Although I felt many emotions during the 90-minute debate mostly complete and thorough disgust in Trump's behaviour, it has caused a level of stress I don't want. Having the president of the United States refuse to condemn white supremacists is frightening in itself. But the fact that his words, "Stand down and stand by" have now been picked up by white supremacists is incredibly scary. The fact that Trump would not say he would support a peaceful transition of power. He would not tell his supporters to not engage in violence while waiting for election results. The fact that he said he has told his supporters "to watch" polling stations and voting. His constant false claims of fraud and election rigging. These again are messages that are terrifying and have the potential to cause harm to loved ones. During CNN's post-debate analysis, Gloria Berger a CNN political analyst continually described Trump's behaviour as frightening. She was right, it is very, very frightening.
I have already significantly reduced/eliminated my watching of CNN. I used to be a CNN junkie but I refuse to watch a network that has essentially become the Trump channel, reporting as if nothing else is going on in the world except for Trump. I acknowledge that his presidency is an important story and needs to be covered, but it is not the only news item. To me, the CBC news channel, Heather Hiscox in the morning, Vassey Kapelos hosting Power and Politics, the National in the evening is a great example of professional, complete, balanced news reporting. Not perfect, but very good.
So what to do. I don't intend to become a hermit and eliminate news reporting from my world. I intend to continue to try and stay up to date on news of the world. However, when I sense that a particular story or message is causing an unhealthy amount of stress or anxiety I am going to work hard to reduce or eliminate it. Again, I want to be informed but life is to short to be aggravated and stressed by an idiot like Trump.
Hopefully at some point soon the only stress I will be getting from television will be from watching the Leafs progress through the playoffs and winning the Stanley Cup. That, of course, will require Dubas to recognize that he needs to build and develop a team that can compete in the playoffs, which he has not done. I firmly believe he has built the best regular-season hockey team in the league (I don't mean this as a compliment) but will continue to lose in the playoffs until changes are made. But that is a topic of a whole other blog post.
Please let me know any comments at thethirdperiod.ca@gmail.com.
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