ow more than ever, the current events we hear about on the news tend to be pretty depressing. Sure, itâs good to stay informed no matter how bad things may be, but it is possible to stay too informed. When youâre constantly plugged into current events through social media, news outlets, and word of mouth, it can cause real stress and anxiety.
But how does tuning into the news every day negatively affect your mental health and how can you deal with what it brings? In this post, expect to read about the following topics:
- Why is the News So Depressing?
- How and Why Does Media Overload Affect Your Mental Health?
- How To Deal with Media Overload Anxiety.
Why is the News So Depressing?
The main reason why being so active on social media and news platforms can make you stressed is because the news that youâre consuming is almost always negative. When we consume so much negativity on a daily basis, it starts to affect the way we think. If you only hear stories like 5 dead in highway car pileup or another species of bird has gone extinct, then your mind gets the idea that everything that is currently happening in the world is all horrible.
In reality, everything that is currently happening in the world is not all horrible. There are plenty of good things happening in the world, if not just as much as the bad stuff. But why donât we hear about it? This is a result of the competitive nature of the news system.
Because there are so many different news providers like MCNBC, Fox, CBS, The New York Times, and more, each provider has to find a way to get more clicks and views than the others. To do this, these news outlets focus on the bad news because it is better at getting peopleâs attention than good news. Â
Unfortunately, most news outlets are not concerned that the news they provide might make people feel stressed or anxious. What they do care about is that their news stories about death, conflict, and corruption are getting lots of attention because people are concerned.
Content creators on platforms like YouTube, Instagram, and X, employ a strategy called clickbait. This strategy involves prioritizing getting clicks by using subjects that get peopleâs attention like death, sex, drama, and so on. This is something that news suppliers employ very often and very well. This is the reason why so many of us find ourselves negatively affected by the news we hear every day. Bad news gets our clicks, so thatâs what social media shows us
How and Why Does Media Overload Affect Your Mental Health?
Technology is the coolest, but itâs important to acknowledge that it can have potentially negative effects on our mental health like laziness, loneliness, and media overload.
When you see a couple of stressful news stories every day, you may not feel like you are affected much. You may just be good at coping with the news, or you may be affected without even knowing. A recent increase in stress in your life may be linked to your media consumption without you knowing.
When you hear about concerning or tragic current events, they may seep into your subconscious. When this happens, youâll start to think about the stories throughout the day, causing what was once a small amount of stress to accumulate into something mood-changing. This plays into the idea that what we focus on dictates how we feel.
Your day-to-day mood is affected by a lot of things, but mostly it is affected by what you focus on. If you focus on the beauty of the world around you and positive ideas, you will generally be in a better mood. If you focus on negative things like bad smells, mean people, and horrible things that are happening in the world, you will be in a worse mood.
The constant influx of negative information through news stories contributes to this negative focus, causing stress, anxiety, and depression. This is especially true when you are going through something difficult in your own personal life. Youâre dealing with enough already, but when you open your phone to relax and end up learning about a mass shooting instead, this ends up contributing to your preexisting stress.
 A study done during the COVID-19 Pandemic showed that people who frequently consumed news about the virus online also were more likely to suffer from emotional problems. The study proves that there is a scientific association between the frequent consumption of news and increased emotional distress. This association is especially high during dangerous and stressful events like the following:
- Important elections
- Hurricanes
- Wars and international conflict
- Pandemics and widespread viruses
Another reason why media overload is detrimental to our mood is because humans did not evolve to process a constant stream of new information all the time. The fear and anxiety that we feel today originated from the feelings that helped us survive in our caveman days.
It was fear that made us hide from dangerous predators and anxiety that made us collect enough food for winter. These negative emotions once helped us survive, but now these emotions are being unnecessarily triggered by alarming news stories that arenât directly affecting us.
Our minds were not built to depend on the internet for entertainment and information, so the constant flow of information that we receive every day causes stress and anxiety when it doesnât need to.
Being too plugged into current events, especially through the internet is detrimental to our mental health. The negative news messes with our mood-regulation system, causing us to feel unnecessarily stressed, anxious, and depressed. But at the same time, it is important to stay informed about whatâs going on around us. How can we deal with these feelings and moderate our media intake?
How To Deal With Media Overload
We know that media overload is dangerous, but it isnât realistic to completely give up news or social media. So what can we do?
- Reduce news and media exposure
- Issue proactivity
- Explore context
The wisest thing to do in order to decrease the stress caused by media overload is to cut back on media in general. Of course, this is much easier said than done, so here are some strategies you can use to help yourself cut back on screen time.
- Turn off notifications - Constant notifications are a huge reason why we can't stay away from our phones. If you turn off notifications for your news apps and other social media then you wonât open your social media unless you actively want to.
- Set screentime limits - You can set screentime limits on your phone or on your own. Setting a limit to how much you use your phone or certain apps can be a great way to moderate your media exposure while not giving it up completely.
- Enforce daily tech-free periods - If setting screentime limits is difficult for you, then it may be easier to just designate certain times of day to be without news or social media. These times can be during meals, an hour before bed, or a designated work period.
If you canât avoid the bad news, then there are ways that you can moderate the anxiety you feel from the constant stream of negativity.Â
One of these ways is to seek out context. Often what clickbaity news stories like to leave out is crucial information that helps you understand the situation. For example, an article may talk about the terrifying story of a man getting struck by lightning, but it fails to mention that the chances of that happening to you are 1 in 15,000. If youâre getting worked up about a certain issue or story, then do some digging and you may find out that the issue at hand has a small chance of ever affecting you personally.
If youâre looking to take a more active approach to soothing your anxieties about the worldâs problems, then you can take an approach that many psychologists have suggested. This approach involves getting out in the world and actually working to help solve the issue at hand. For example, if you are especially concerned about nature and wildlife because of articles youâve been reading, then you can volunteer to clean up trash or help animals at a rescue center.
Why Worry About Media Overload?
Media overload can cause serious mental health problems, especially if you are frequently plugged into social media where you are bombarded with everything horrible about the world. But luckily, there are ways to moderate and deal with such things.
You may be reluctant to be less informed, but if you find yourself feeling increasingly stressed and anxious, do the right thing for yourself and maybe take a break from the news. There is always plenty happening in this wild wonderful world of ours, so you wonât miss out if you take some time for yourself.
