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My friends have deserted me.

At least when it comes to avidly following the news. It was just a few short weeks ago, namely before Nov. 5, that we were all on text chains analyzing minute details in the latest polls, offering each other running commentary on each twist and turn of the presidential campaign, assuaging each other’s fears that what we viewed as an existential threat would not happen.

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It’s probably no secret to anyone who knows me that most of my friends are liberal to moderate Democrats. To keep the peace, I usually don’t discuss politics with my Trump-supporting friends and family members. Although the journalist in me does at times try to find common ground with them.

In these quieter weeks of waiting for the transfer of power after Donald Trump’s decisive win, those friends have turned to other pursuits. Enjoying the holidays. Binge-watching TV shows. Drinking, perhaps?

“I am just not going to pay attention to the news for the next four years,” one friend told me. “I can’t take it anymore.”

Another friend, who convinced me last summer that it was important to add a bit of Fox News to my main media diet of PBS and NBC, has quit cold turkey.

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