The Rise of News Avoiders

There was a time when the news didn’t chase you.

It showed up folded on the porch or waiting at the kitchen table. You sat down when you were ready, read what mattered, then folded it back up and went on with your day.

Growing up on a family dairy farm, we would milk cows around 6am, so the day would start around 5am getting the cows gathered up from surrounding pastures and setting up the milking parlor equipment. After milking and parlor cleanup, we’d head to my Papaw’s house where my grandmother would have breakfast ready for us around 10 a.m.

At the kitchen table, my Papaw would read the morning paper. Yes, I said the “mornin’” newspaper because after our afternoon milking, he’d come home and read the evening newspaper. Yes, young folks, there used to be home delivery of both a mornin’ and an evenin’ paper.

But in between those papers, there wasn’t any 24-hour news. No cell phones buzzing in your pocket. The local radio might give you a two-minute update on the hour, and that was about it.

My Papaw stayed informed. But he wasn’t overwhelmed.

These days, a whole lot of Americans are doing something that would have puzzled him. They’re stepping away from the news altogether.

The numbers tell the story. Back in 2016, about half of Americans said they followed the news most of the time. Today, that number has dropped to just 36%.
https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2025/12/03/americans-are-following-the-news-less-closely-than-they-used-to/

The shift is even sharper by age. Older Americans still seek out the news, but younger folks mostly just come across it if they see it at all, often through social media instead of a newspaper or broadcast. Research shows today only around 15% of young Americans follow what’s in the news at all.
https://www.pewresearch.org/journalism/2026/02/11/the-age-divide-in-how-americans-think-about-news/
https://www.pewresearch.org/journalism/2025/12/03/young-adults-and-the-future-of-news/

Think of this as a mental power-up.

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That’s not just a change in habit. That’s a different relationship with information.

So what’s driving it?

For a lot of folks, it’s simple. They’re worn out.

Roughly four in ten Americans say the news makes them feel angry or sad. Others say they avoid it because it hurts their mood or just plain exhausts them.
When every headline feels like a crisis, folks start protecting their peace.

Then there’s trust.

Trust in national news has dropped to around 56%, and in a lot of rural communities, the local paper or radio voice that people once trusted is gone altogether.
https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2025/10/29/how-americans-trust-in-information-from-news-organizations-and-social-media-sites-has-changed-over-time/

So people tune out.

Out here in rural America, that decision makes a certain kind of sense. People have always filtered what matters. You pay attention to your work, your family, your community. You don’t have time to chase every headline out of Washington or across the world.

But when people stop following the news entirely, something else fills that space. Social media chatter. Social media influencers. Word of mouth. Half-stories that travel faster than the truth.

And that’s where things can go sideways.

Maybe the answer isn’t dragging folks back into the same 24-hour cycle that wore them down in the first place.

Maybe the answer looks more like that kitchen table.

Slow news. Local news. News you can sit with instead of something that sits on your chest.

Because folks around here, especially young folks have never been against knowing what’s going on.

They just don’t see much value in being buried under it.

Be curious, not judgmental.

Till next time, that’s the story from the ‘Back Forty’. — John W. Peace II

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John W. Peace II is a fifth-generation farmer from Big Stone Gap, Virginia, where he grew up on his family’s dairy, Clinch Haven Farms, and still lives today. He’s a proud father to Trey and Shelby Peace, and partner in life to Cathy Swinney. A Virginia Tech graduate with graduate studies at Penn State, he served as the youngest Chair of the Wise County Board of Supervisors (2004–2008). John co-owns urTOPIX LLC (urTopixLLC.com), a Democratic campaign training firm focused on reaching rural voters that is sponsored by www.RuralAmericaRising.com PAC. He’s also a two-time Amazon bestselling author. Learn more at www.JohnWPeace.com.

Contact:  https://linktr.ee/JohnWPeace