The previous year has been incredibly difficult for most of us. It surprised us with an excruciating global pandemic that took and continues to take the lives of many, trapped us inside our homes and inside our own heads. It continues to harm us every day with deaths occurring everyday, societies and economies being damaged and more. And, as if all of this wasn’t enough, it doesn’t seem to go away, at least yet.
While 2020 was absolutely torturous, 2021 is very much looking like its identical twin. Personally, I reached a point in which I avoided turning the television on. I’ve given up my usual habit of starting the day checking the news, and have even began avoiding social media accounts that I knew would be full with the top stories of the day.
As a journalist, my behaviour goes against everything that has been taught to me. But as a person, I was just feeling exhausted and emotionally drained. If all I could hear and see was bad news, then how was I supposed to stay positive? And most importantly, how was I able to survive through another lockdown without the hope of better days?
A recent study by the University of California points out the reason for my news fatigue. It found that news can sneak into our subconsciousness and meddle with our lives in surprising ways – from shaping our perception of risk, to causing anxiety or depression.
The emotional fallout of news coverage is affecting us more than ever, and that is where the idea for this one-off came from. We don’t want people to choose between being informed and protecting their mental health. While some news outlets may be reminding you, from the moment you wake up in the morning to the moment you close your eyes each night, about everything that’s going wrong in the world. We will tell you about all the things that are going well!
On the following pages, you will find exhilarating stories of people who worked their way to success, stories about businesses which have thrived, you will find out how human rights campaigns have made progress around the world and other inspiring accounts from the past year.
This is meant to be a collectible issue, which we hope you will save in your bookcase until someone, 10 or 20 years from now, says ‘do you remember the dreadful year of 2020?’ And then you will be able to respond that, actually, plenty of good things happened…
