Same thing here. I’ve ended up with two places I exclusively check for news: AllSides [0] and a satirical news source of my choice.

AllSides helps me frame big events from multiple perspectives. I’ve always had a hard time seeing these perspectives, so having someone else do it for me helps.

The satirical site introduces me to assorted current events with a bit of lightheartedness. If it seems important enough, I’ll do a quick search to learn what the “real” news is.

With this setup, I am not as well-versed in all current events. However, it’s much less draining, and it also takes less time out of my day!

- [0] https://www.allsides.com/

I suffer from this conundrum too. One thing I did observe is that people who don't actively follow the 24/7 news and social media cycle are still are fairly aware of important major events (Ukraine, COVID, etc), as it would be hard to be completely ignorant without living under a rock, so maybe it doesn't have to be a binary thing.

Reading just the Sunday paper or a weekly magazine like The Economist is a happy middle ground, I think.

This is often the only choice when there is so much noise.

In the midst of an election a weekly (bi-weekly? monthly?) summary article of what happened, and what is important is more than sufficient for me.

IMO read the news about twice per week. But never watch the news on TV.

I haven't watched TV since the late 1980s, so that one is pretty easy.