A war before breakfast, a natural disaster by lunch, and a corruption scandal right before bed. Our phones have turned us into global witnesses while sitting in the quiet comfort of our rooms. But with the amount of news we consume, we see everything while feeling less than ever.
It is important to know what is happening in the world, but it can also get to be too much – too much heartache and tragedy to be exposed to on a daily basis.
While increased access to information was intended to better society, this overexposure has ironically desensitised us, creating a heavy burden of bearing witness to global trauma from the comfort of our screens.
Today, tragedies are found everywhere, from TikTok lives to X think pieces, sandwiched between dance trends and 10-minute recipes. According to the 2025 Digital News Report, 33% of South Africans now use TikTok as a primary news source, with 13% more attention given to content creators or personalities rather than traditional news media or journalists. This shift means worldwide sufferings are no longer filtered through traditional journalism and thoughtful teleprompted scripts. Instead, it forces viewers to confront the raw reality in 15-second clips.
Moreover, the emotional burden is compounded by the concern of misinformation. 56% of South African users express their concern over the accuracy of online news. Not only is there emotional exhaustion, there is also confusion, adding to the existing mental toll.
The world is facing endless disasters, mass genocides, wars, epidemics, and more. The repeated exposure has led to stress-induced burnouts. Constant exposure to stress leads to a decreased emotional response. People have grown callous as a defence mechanism. When there seems to be bad news coming in every direction, people harden themselves to survive the pressure. Thus, apathy replaces empathy. Someone’s life becomes just another body found, and a tragedy becomes just another statistic.
But in a society where we lose more and more of our community, it is important to care and fight to maintain our humanity. We can remain global citizens without disrupting our well-being by trying a few intentional strategies:
- Try replacing social media as the main news source with full-length articles to get rid of the shock. Long-form journalism provides context, history, and humanity. It replaces the clickbait and shock value with a deeper understanding. While TikTok videos may leave us feeling paralysed, a well-researched, long-form article might highlight the specific facts and local organisations where change is actually happening.
- Seek out reputable news sources, cross-check, and try not to take things at face value.
- Doing something about it also helps. Apathy thrives on helplessness. Sure, you will not solve world hunger in a week, but you can combat that apathy with small doses of empathy. Small acts such as donating, volunteering, or advocating for specific causes.
Change usually begins with local impact. By choosing depth over uncontextualised clips, we can start to soften and truly care again.
Visual: Mpho Makwela
