Staying Informed Without Losing Your Mind: Informational Hygiene After 50

Have you ever felt more anxious but not more informed after your morning news routine? You’re not alone. It’s 7:00 a.m. and you sit down with a cup of coffee, phone in hand. Within minutes, alerts light up your screen, stock market worries, a political controversy, a distant tragedy, each headline more alarming than the last. By the time the coffee’s gone cold, you’re uneasy and feeling foggy. This isn’t the energizing start to the day you hoped for. Instead of feeling knowledgeable, you feel unsettled, distracted, and on edge.

For many men in their 50s and beyond, this experience has become increasingly common. We grew up in a time when news arrived at a measured pace: the morning paper, the 6 o’clock broadcast, the 11 o’clock late-night news that Dad stayed up for. There was space to absorb, reflect, and then move on. Today, information flows continuously. It’s always available, often emotionally charged, and it follows us everywhere. The information environment we’re navigating now is fundamentally different from even a decade ago.

Being well informed has always mattered. Paying attention, reading widely, and trying to understand what’s happening beyond our immediate lives is a mark of curiosity and responsibility. It’s one of the reasons many of you read 10,700 in the first place. You care about context. You don’t want slogans or shortcuts. You want to understand how things work.

That instinct hasn’t changed. The environment – the context that now feeds it – has. Information no longer arrives in discrete moments, at deliberate times, or in familiar forms. It flows continuously, often late in the day, often through voices and images that feel familiar and trustworthy, and often when we’re tired enough to let our guard down just a little. And it’s in those ordinary, unremarkable moments, not during careful reading or intentional learning, that the modern information ecosystem does most of its shaping.

Last night, I was relaxing, reading, and watching some YouTube videos when I came across one with a slightly sensationalistic title. It involved a prominent federal judge in the U.S. allegedly issuing a criminal referral related to ongoing activity in the White House. A well-known journalist was featured, not in video form exactly, but as a still image in the corner of the screen, with her voice narrating the story.

I watched for a few minutes before I had that familiar, hard-to-define feeling that something was off.

I paused the video and opened Safari on my phone. I searched for the creator of the video and downloaded a transcript. Safari suggested the creator might not be entirely above board. So, I opened ChatGPT, pasted in the name of the creator and the transcript, and asked whether the video appeared legitimate.

All of this is happening from my bed, at about 11 p.m., on my phone.

ChatGPT came back with a detailed explanation of why the video wasn’t legitimate at all. It outlined multiple red flags and described the video as “AI slop,” a term that’s emerged over the past year to describe low-quality, algorithmically generated content. It went a step further though and called the video “political fan fiction.”

Three things stood out to me.

First, I consider myself fairly savvy when it comes to online content. I’m well aware that, regardless of political leanings, you can always find a “news” source that reinforces whatever worldview you already hold.

Second, the claims in the video were sensationalistic enough that they didn’t really line up with anything else I knew to be happening in the world over the past few days. And yet, I wanted them to be true.

Third, and most unsettling, was just how convincing the video was. There is no evidence that this journalist ever said the things “she” said in the video. But if you’ve ever watched her on television, you know she has a very particular cadence, a recognizable voice, and clear political leanings. This video had all of it.

It would have been easy to accept the story, file it away as another data point that quietly reinforced things I already “know” and move on. To the next video. The next headline. The next piece of content the system predicts I’m likely to engage with.

What’s worth noting is that everything I just described took far less time to happen than it’s taken me to write these paragraphs.

As I tried to make sense of that experience, and why it worked as well as it did, I came across a term that was new to me: informational hygiene.

Here’s the core idea: In this era of infinite information and “infodemics,” we need a new kind of self-care. Think of it as informational hygiene, not tuning out but managing your media diet so you can stay informed and protect your mental well-being. This concept matters, especially for men 50+, because our clarity, judgment, and even physical health can suffer if we don’t recognize and understand what’s happening and then set boundaries with the barrage of news and notifications. Here, we’re exploring why too much information can spike anxiety and cloud your thinking, and how you can take simple, practical steps to stay clear-headed and calm in a noisy world. And yes, I grasp the irony of writing an informational (educational?) piece about too much information. 

The New “Infodemic”: Why Everything Feels Overwhelming

Insight: The World Health Organization coined the term “infodemic” to describe exactly what we’re living through: “an overabundance of information, some accurate and some not, that makes it hard for people to find trustworthy sources and reliable guidance when they need it.” In other words, we’re not just dealing with a lot of information; we’re dealing with too much information all at once, coming at us from all sides. For men in midlife, this can be especially overwhelming. We’re used to feeling like we’re in control, of our careers, our decisions, yet the endless news cycle can make anyone feel powerless and inundated, not just because of its volume, but because so much of it is now designed to provoke emotion rather than simply convey fact.

Illustration: Think back to how you got news in your younger years. Maybe you caught the headlines on TV after dinner or skimmed the morning paper. Now compare that to today: you unlock your phone and there are already a dozen notifications. Your brother forwarded a political article, your college buddy posted a shocking health rumor on Facebook, and your news app is pushing breaking news about a crisis on the other side of the world. By 9 AM you’ve consumed more reports (and rumors) than you used to in a week. No wonder it feels like too much. Our brains haven’t evolved to comfortably digest this volume of input without feeling stressed. In fact, researchers note that information overload, having more incoming data than we can process, often leads to a sense of loss of control and anxiety. Instead of quenching your thirst for knowledge, the volume alone leaves you scattered and overstimulated.

Action – Take Control of the Flow: You can’t stop the world from producing news, but you can control how (and how much) it reaches you. Start by auditing your information sources: How many news apps, social media feeds, and email newsletters are you checking daily? Consider pruning that list down to a few trusted sources. For example, pick one or two quality news outlets (or a curated daily digest) and silence unnecessary notifications from the rest. You might also designate specific times of day for news. Some readers only check news in the late morning and early evening, instead of grazing all day. Setting these gentle limits on when and where you consume information can immediately make the firehose feel more like a manageable faucet. Remember: staying informed doesn’t mean absorbing everything all the time, it means getting the right information at the right time. Here are a few tips to get started:

When Staying Informed Stokes Anxiety

Insight: It’s important to stay informed about the world, but what happens when the news starts to chip away at your peace of mind? Psychologists have observed a surge in news-related stress. In fact, one therapist even coined the term “headline stress disorder” to describe the anxiety and angst many feel from chronic news exposure. The truth is, constantly tuning into upsetting news can trigger our body’s stress response as if we were personally under threat. Over time, that can lead to chronic anxiety, poor sleep, irritability, and a sense of doom about the world. A recent study backs this up: people with an obsessive urge to check the news were far more likely to report stress, anxiety and even physical symptoms like headaches or fatigue. The study found that about 16.5% of participants fell into a “severely problematic” news consumption pattern, where news dominated their thoughts and disrupted daily life. And here’s a striking finding, nearly three-quarters of those heavy news-watchers said their mental well-being suffered, and over half said they felt physically ill from the constant stress. By contrast, among people who kept their news intake in moderation, only 8% experienced those kinds of mental or physical health issues. In plain terms: too much negative news can make you sick, mentally and even physically.

Illustration: Perhaps you’ve experienced a version of this. Let’s say there’s a major crisis unfolding, a pandemic, a natural disaster, or a political upheaval, and you want to stay updated. You start with a morning news clip, then check an online article, then another. By lunch, you’re refreshing a live update feed and scrolling through Twitter comments. Each new bit of information keeps you hooked (“Maybe the next update will clarify things.” Remember, this is by design). But instead of clarity, you feel your anxiety climbing. Your chest tightens with each grim statistic or sensational soundbite. That evening, when your spouse or friend asks how your day was, you’re mentally replaying distressing news footage instead of the enjoyable moments. It’s as if the bad news followed you home and is camped out in your head. This scenario is all too real, many of us got pulled into such cycles especially during events like the 2020 COVID-19 lockdowns or other crises. One qualitative study of people over 60 in Quebec found that, although they could often spot misinformation online, the sheer volume of upsetting news (and yes, misinformation) still generated fear, stress, and anxiety in their daily lives. We may think we’re tough or seasoned, but an endless stream of alarming information can rattle anyone’s nerves.

Action – Break the Cycle of Doomscrolling: The good news is, you can dial down this anxiety without totally unplugging from the world. The key is to be mindful and proactive about your news consumption, especially when you notice it’s stressing you out. Here are a couple of steps to try whenever you feel that knot in your stomach from the latest headlines:

By building these small habits, you’re effectively installing guardrails on your information highway. You’re still driving and seeing the scenery, but you’re far less likely to crash emotionally.

Mental Fog: When Information Clutters Your Brain

Insight: Ever walk into a room and immediately forget why you went there, because your phone buzzed with an update? Or find it harder to concentrate on a book than you used to? It’s not just you, and it’s not just age. Information overload can fog up our cognitive clarity. Our brains have a limited capacity for attention and working memory, and when we constantly split that attention, flipping between the news, emails, social media, and life’s tasks, we tax our mental circuits. Scientists sometimes refer to the cumulative effect as “digital overload” or, more colloquially, “brain rot” (a cheeky term for the mental fatigue that follows too much screen time). While “brain rot” isn’t a medical diagnosis, it points to very real effects: reduced attention span, difficulty focusing, memory slips, and mental fatigue. In a hyper-connected world, our minds are always juggling inputs, and that constant juggling can leave anyone, including normally sharp 50- or 60-year-olds, feeling scatterbrained and drained.

Importantly, older adults are not immune to these effects. A neurologist in one report noted that excessive screen time and poor digital habits may even exacerbate perceptions of age-related cognitive decline. That’s just a way of saying that the way we use technology can accelerate the “brain fog” we sometimes blame on aging. On the flip side, protecting your mental clarity by managing information flow can help keep your brain sharp as you get older. The strain isn’t dramatic. It’s cumulative. A gradual loss of mental quiet that makes it harder to hold a thought, follow an argument, or decide what deserves your attention.

Illustration: Consider a relatable scenario: You sit down to work on a household project, say, planning a trip or sorting out finances. You have a clear goal in mind. But you also have your laptop open, with news sites a click away, and your phone next to you buzzing occasionally. In the span of 15 minutes, you read a few paragraphs of an article, then hop to check a news alert about something completely unrelated. Then an email comes in and you glance at that. A half-hour later, the project you intended to finish is only half done, and worse, you feel frazzled. Your brain was pulled in multiple directions, and it’s having trouble filtering what’s important right now. Studies show that constantly shifting focus in this way can undermine our ability to retain information and even interfere with memory formation. In one tongue-in-cheek but apt description, your mind becomes a “click-and-enjoy” system (skimming lots of trivial stuff) instead of a deep-thinking system. You might joke about “senior moments” of forgetfulness, but how many of those moments are really due to age, and how many are due to overloading our attention with digital distractions? The line can blur.

Action – Reclaim Your Focus and Clarity: The mental fog from information overload doesn’t have to be your new normal. With a few conscious, mindful practices, you can clear the haze and find it easier to think and remember. Try incorporating these strategies into your daily routine to give your brain some clarity:

By treating your attention as a valuable resource (which it is!), you’ll find that you can still absorb new information, just in a more sustainable, less overwhelming way. A clear head not only feels good, it also means you can engage with the news or any input more critically and thoughtfully, rather than feeling like things are just flying at you.

Practicing Informational Hygiene: A Plan for Clarity and Calm

Insight: Just as we maintain physical hygiene for our bodies, maintaining informational hygiene is essential for our minds. This means being intentional, mindful, and disciplined about what we read, watch, and listen to, much like being mindful of what we eat. It’s not about ignoring the world or sticking our heads in the sand, it’s about setting healthy boundaries so that information serves us, so it does not overwhelm us. Interestingly, many older adults have already developed coping strategies for today’s info overload. In the Quebec study mentioned earlier, participants didn’t just throw up their hands; instead, they set up routines for consuming information, carefully choosing when and whereto get their news. They might, for example, watch one trusted newscast in the evening or read the paper with lunch, and avoid constant channel flipping or clicking throughout the day. By doing so, they reclaimed a sense of control and calm. We can learn from this approach.

Think of informational hygiene as designing your own “media diet.” Just as a balanced diet keeps your body healthy, a balanced media diet can keep your mind healthy. That means mixing in positive or constructive content (like learning a new skill, reading about scientific discoveries, or enjoying a humorous podcast) rather than consuming only the upsetting headlines. It also means knowing your limits. If you know that reading about certain topics (say, extreme political rants or graphic crime stories) will just disturb you without providing useful knowledge, it’s okay to skip or skim those. One author described how she started scanning certain depressing news stories, just to get the gist, rather than diving into every tragic detail, because she realized “There is no more information I need. I want an understanding without being paralyzed by the information.” That’s a powerful insight: being informed enough to understand the world, but not so inundated that you’re paralyzed by it.

Illustration: Let’s return to our friend from the opening scene, sipping coffee and feeling anxious from the news. What would informational hygiene look like for him? First, he decides to revamp his morning routine. Instead of scrolling through every feed at dawn, he starts his day tech-free for the first 30 minutes: stretching, showering, maybe a little music or light reading. Then with breakfast, he allows himself to read a single morning briefing from a reputable source (for example, a morning email newsletter that sums up the top 5 things to know). He notices that this alone cuts down the noise significantly. Later in the day, perhaps after lunch, he allocates another short block to catch up on any news developments and then logs off. In the evenings, he swaps TV news for a sitcom with his spouse, or reads a novel, to ensure he doesn’t go to bed with his head full of alarming reports. Over a few weeks, he feels notably different, less on edge, more present, and even sleeping better because his mind isn’t racing with news updates late at night. The world didn’t fall apart because he wasn’t checking constantly; in fact, he realizes he didn’t miss anything crucial, and what he does learn, he has the mental bandwidth to process. This is informational hygiene in action: simple changes, big benefits.

Action – Your Informational Hygiene Toolkit: Ready to craft your own plan for a healthier information intake? Here are some practical steps and habits to consider as you fine-tune your media diet. None of these are rules. Think of them as ways to reduce background noise so your attention has somewhere to land.

By following these steps, you’re effectively crafting a personalized “wellness plan” for your mind in the digital age. It might feel a bit strange at first (after all, we’re so used to being always on), but soon you’ll likely notice that you feel more in control, less anxious, and more focused on the things that truly matter to you.

Conclusion: Clarity, Calm, and Confidence in the Information Age

In a world that often seems to shout at us from every screen and corner, choosing what not to pay attention to is just as important as choosing what to pay attention to. Informational hygiene is about making those choices in a way that safeguards your mental health. It’s not a retreat from reality; it’s a way to engage with reality on your own terms. By filtering out the noise, managing the flow, and focusing on quality information, you’re effectively saying, “My peace of mind is valuable.” And it is!

Remember that your curiosity and desire to stay informed are strengths, they keep you learning and connected. The goal of practicing informational hygiene is to make sure those strengths work for you, not against you. Instead of being buffeted by every breaking news push notification or social media frenzy, you become the curator of your information life. You decide, “I’ll learn about this issue, but I won’t let it hijack my whole day,” or “I’ll follow the news, but I’ll also make time for joy and personal connection.”

For men in the second half of life, this balanced approach can be truly empowering. It means you can step into each day with a clear head and a steady heart, ready to engage with the world wisely. You’ve seen a lot in your lifetime; you know what matters to you. With a bit of mindful media consumption, you can stay informed without losing your sense of self or serenity. In short, you can be both knowledgeable and at peace.

When you pick up the phone tomorrow morning or turn on the radio, take a moment. Recall that you have a choice in how you consume information. You can catch up on the world’s events and then gently close that tab, turn off the TV, or put the phone down. Take a breath, sip your coffee, and step into your day knowing that you’re in control of your attention and your mindset. The world will keep spinning and sending news our way, but with good informational hygiene, we can meet it with clarity, calm, and confidence.

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