Small and approachable ways to create change.
Political burnout is real, and you’re not alone in feeling that way. A recent poll by Pew Research found that about two-thirds of Americans feel exhausted when thinking about politics. As an Instagram influencer who covers politics on my platform (find me at @EmilyInYourPhone), I get DMs every single day from people who tell me they’re not voting in this election because they feel hopeless. Some say they’ve simply checked out of the news because they feel like they can’t do anything about it — so why even be informed?
What could be the culprit is that most of the content we consume is negative, outrage-inducing, or at the very least, emotionally draining: 2023 data from the American Survey Center found that 82 percent of Americans who like to consume news about politics say that the coverage is mostly negative, and a 2022 study that tracked news headlines over the last 20 years found that negativity in headlines (classified as words invoking anger, fear, disgust, and sadness) increased over time while ones with neutral emotions have decreased. This is intentional because publishers know that negative online news is attributed to higher engagement rates among readers.
The reality is the people I speak to are not imagining it: The vibes are real, and the vibes are bad. But I think they — and, by extension, all of us — can move from hopeless to hopeful. There are concrete steps we can take to protect against political burnout. We need to figure out lasting ways to engage in politics and with our communities and news because things will only improve if we all put in a concerted and sustained effort. Because on the other side of the coin is the attack on reproductive freedom, well-resourced forces trying to install minoritarian rule, dark money seeping deep into our political system, and other terrible scenarios you’ve probably encountered while doom-scrolling. At this point, I expect every election to be the *most important election of our time.* So, with that knowledge, we have to make political engagement sustainable for all of us.
As someone who’s been working in politics for nearly 20 years as a lawyer, journalist, and counsel to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, I’ve learned a few things about how to fight the pull of hopelessness when the news is overwhelming and things feel terrible.
I wrote a book called Democracy in Retrograde that helps you chart your journey to a joyful and hopeful lifetime of civic engagement. It’s a choose-your-own-adventure guide to finding your calling in this vast, complex political system. There are worksheets, a personality quiz, journal prompts, and more — I think you’ll love it. To get you started, here are my top five suggestions for avoiding political burnout:
Remember: You’re in control
You have the power to choose the news that you engage with. From the primetime talk show host you watch to the micro-influencer you follow on Instagram and the newsletters that hit your inbox every morning, the people you listen to and the news you digest have an impact on your day-to-day life.
Building an intentional news diet isn’t about avoiding the news altogether. It’s about finding a diversity of sources that will inform you without raising your blood pressure so much that you tune it all out. Staying up-to-date on what’s happening in your community is a civic action in itself.
You also have the power to choose how often you engage. The constant push notifications, opening every news email, and checking social media 30 times a day aren’t sustainable practices for most people. Imagine if a mailman showed up to your house and rang your doorbell 45 times a day — you’d be exhausted. The constant news cycle is the same thing. Coming up with a plan to consume content at a sustainable level, from sources that give you the info relevant to your interest and capacity, is a critical first step.
Figure out where you want to put your energy
I want civic engagement to turn from a biannual freakout to a daily habit. Even though the 2020 Presidential election had the highest voter turnout for a national election in the last 100 years, civic engagement overall continues to drop. The best way to find a civic activity you’ll consistently do is to find one that is connected to your values. Pursuing change in things that you’re passionate about is the most sustainable way to pursue civic engagement in the long term.
If you don’t know where to start, spend some time reflecting on what’s important to you and how you want your life to look. Think about your future goals, the issues that get you fired up, and the people most important to you. A lot of people I talk to feel an incredible sense of pressure to be involved in every issue and solve all of the world’s pressing problems at once. None of us can single-handedly solve climate change; that’s why we organize politically. But if it’s important to you, there are lots of groups working on it you can join. But maybe for you, it’s getting involved on your local library board, getting a speed bump placed on a street, or working to save a local wetland. No one can do it all, but we can all do something.
Start small
Hopelessness in the intransigence of it all is one of the most common issues I hear. Cruise-ship-sized political issues can’t be impacted overnight; they take coordinated efforts to build and wield political power. (Some even take replacing a few Supreme Court justices.) Action is the antidote to despair — and political action where you see results is incredibly motivating. You can volunteer for a local political campaign, spend time volunteering at a direct-services nonprofit, or work with your kids’ school. But for people who are raising kids, working busy jobs, and/or trying to get dinner on the table every night — that can be a lot. The steps you take to engage with others do not have to be big and extravagant. It can be as simple as inviting friends or people you’re just starting to get to know over for intentional conversations about local politics. It can be joining a backgammon league or just talking to someone in the grocery store line. Conversations are the cornerstone of political action.
Celebrate and find joy
At the end of the day, we are all just people trying to make it through this one precious life. To build a sustained practice of civic engagement, we need to find joy in the work. Gratitude for what is working is a great foundation for hope. Do you love your public school? Do you have a wonderful public library? Focusing on the positive doesn’t mean ignoring the negative, but it’s a component of how we rebuild civic life in America.
Build friendships and community
We have a loneliness epidemic in America, and the destruction of the public square and our shared civic life has gone hand-in-hand with the rise of loneliness. So has the growing ubiquity of social media (something we explore deeply in the book, especially because of my role as a social media influencer). I believe that civic engagement is one of the best solutions we have to fight the loneliness epidemic. But practically speaking, it’s also one of the best ways to fight burnout. A top motivation I hear from people on why they return to an advocacy group is that their friends will be there. Build your civic pod: Make calls to your reps or write postcards at a dinner party. Include a political book in your book club. Whatever this looks like for you, look to your village to fill your civic cup.
Interested in digging deeper into any of this? In Democracy in Retrograde, we go into much greater detail on all of these topics, and by the end of the book, you’ll have a civic action plan that reflects your values, availability, and interests. The solution to our problems is all of us, each stepping up in our own unique ways. You don’t need to do everything, but we really need everyone to do something.
Democracy in Retrograde comes out July 9.
