How to have a healthy relationship with the news
We all do it – pick up the phone first thing in the morning to check the news. No wonder with everything that has happened in the world in recent years. But could this habit harm our health? Medical news today reviewed the evidence and spoke to experts to find out what we can do to avoid being overwhelmed by the news.
There have been many global challenges in recent years. With political upheaval in many countries, a global pandemic, and armed violence across the world, many of us feel the need to keep up with what is happening around us.
And with 24-hour feeds for our smartphones, laptops and TVs, it’s easy. However, this very easy approach means it can be difficult to avoid those ominous headlines.
For many people this is not a problem – they can read the news and move on. However, a recent study from the United States has highlighted that obsession with news can affect both mental and physical health in some people.
“The use of news as a form of emotional regulation, as a form of life avoidance, the loss of control over how much and under what conditions and for what purposes you seek the news, and the interference they have in your life and the ability to rein it. That looks a lot like many forms of addictive behavior to me.”
– dr Steven C. Hayes, Endowed Professor of Psychology, University of Nevada, Reno
The study differentiated between people who consumed excessive amounts of news without causing problems and those who found news consumption problematic.
Researchers defined problem news consumption as follows:
- getting absorbed by news content and constantly worrying about news and stressful events
- compulsively checking the news
- intervene in everyday life through their news consumption.
dr Heather Sequeira, a consultant psychologist and chartered member of the British Psychological Society, who was not involved in the study, said Medical news today:
“Problematic news consumption can be particularly harmful because the news consistently focuses on negative and threatening topics and events. And the broader a crisis or disaster, the more attention it gets in the news.”
In the study sample of 1,100 adults, almost half had “moderately” or “severely” problematic news consumption. And for 16.5%, problematic news consumption affected other aspects of their lives.
Those with severely problematic news consumption had significantly better mental and physical health than those whose news consumption was minimal or not problematic.
Health symptoms such as stress, anxiety, trouble sleeping, fatigue, physical pain, poor concentration and gastrointestinal issues are some of the symptoms reported by those who tend to get overwhelmed by the news.
lead author dr Bryan McLaughlin, an associate professor in Texas Tech University’s College of Media and Communication, said MNT that he and his collaborators “believe that problem news consumption can negatively impact a person’s mental and physical health because the constant fixation on threatening information can create chronic stress.”
“Additionally, focusing on threatening information can activate physiological responses in the body that increase inflammation that can have bodily effects,” he added.
These findings are backed up by an earlier
dr Sequiera explained why this is happening. “The mechanism relies on activation of our natural physiological threat responses,” she told us.
“When we perceive something threatening, our stress hormones, adrenaline and cortisol, rise. This is a normal survival mechanism that has helped us physically survive as a species for thousands of years. The same mechanism is activated when we see or hear threatening messages,” she explained.
Some studies suggest that the media’s focus on sensationalist coverage of negative stories is partly to blame.
Sensational news content is designed to elicit an emotional response from the audience, thereby increasing viewership or reading numbers. These tactics were once limited to mass-market tabloids, but are now increasingly common.
“Visual images, particularly fast-moving, sensational images in news, will tend to be more addictive, and people are more likely to feel compelled to look further than to do something that is healthy and beneficial to their mental health. I think the difficulty is that it’s in the interests of the news networks to watch people.”
– dr Heather Sequiera
But stories written for maximum impact may not always increase adoption. An Australian study found that people are more likely to distrust and therefore avoid media that rely on sensational or fear-inducing headlines to attract audiences.
How we respond to messages depends to some extent on the nature of the messages.
According to a 2020 study, hard news covers topics like politics, economics, international conflicts and social issues that are current or urgent. Soft news covers lighter, less time-sensitive topics such as culture, entertainment, lifestyle and celebrity news.
It’s the hard news that is most likely to provoke an emotional response. Hard news, a study claims that “shocks, dismay, disruptions, and alarms can leave audiences feeling alienated, disempowered, helpless, and, worst of all, apathetic, insensitive, and even hostile to learning about our world.”
dr Hayes agreed: “Some of the dangers are that you become numb to the pain of others, or you become cynical or depressed about what’s happening in the world. They may become distant or have a sense of objectification or dehumanization of others, the ‘I don’t care, they probably deserve it’ sort of thing.”
One way to deal with this might be to avoid the news, but in our connected world where news is always available and available at the touch of a button, that can be difficult. And experts agree that this may not be the answer.
A US study conducted in the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic found that this is how some people coped with the constant stream of negative news.
However, curtailing news consumption, especially during an ongoing crisis, can lead to a lack of information about new developments.
“We certainly don’t want people to stop following the news, but we do want people to have a healthier relationship with the news. The most important thing is that people become more aware of how consuming the news they feel and the impact it is having on their daily lives.”
– dr Bryan McLaughlin
and dr Hayes agreed. His suggestion was “that people consume news that is relevant to who and how they are in the world [their] values and how [they] wants to be, to take the time to put the perspective of others who are in the stories and to feel what they are feeling.”
News that you can’t do anything about can be just as distressing as news that affects us directly, like Dr. Sequiera explained.
“Our threat mechanisms can likewise be activated when we see images of threatening events happening to other people, such as war in Ukraine, or when we hear news – the state of the economy or train strikes, etc. – affecting our comfort, our status and our… Threaten day – today life,” she told us.
“Because we can’t take direct corrective action on things we see on the news, our minds go into brooding or worry mode. This can further aggravate our stress and anxiety levels, leading to chronic stress. We know that chronic stress leads to psychological problems and is also linked to physical health problems.
One way to deal with this is to limit the frequency of access to the news, as Dr. Sequiera recommended.
“If you find that your mood or thinking is low or busy from the news, then it’s a good idea to take a break from it,” she said.
“Consider staying off all news outlets or channels for 3 or 4 days and see how it changes your mood and thinking. Then try to do something to replace that, e.g. B. going for a walk with a friend or reading a book,” suggested Dr. Sequeira before.
Or it can help to do something about the news you hear, no matter how small. If the constant coverage of an issue makes you angry or scared, perhaps the answer is to get involved and do something positive.
“Since we tend to get more traumatized by events that we can’t do anything about, it might help to do one small thing that might make a difference — like: B. Making a donation to a relevant charity – and remembering you did something small to help.”
– dr Heather Sequiera
Following the UK government’s controversial policy announcement to send some asylum seekers to Rwanda, said Kate, a mother of three from Bristol MNT she did just that.
“I was so angry at what I thought was an absolutely inhumane policy that I found a local charity that helps asylum seekers, which I now volunteer every week,” she told us.
“I realize I’m not making a huge difference, but I feel like doing something, however small, is a lot more useful than just being angry,” Kate said.
It’s all too easy to get caught up in the constant spiral of bad news, so it’s important to heed the good news as well and remember that knowing what’s going on in the world has its perks.
“Despite all the horrors we’re seeing, we’ve actually made progress,” said Dr. hayes While this may be hard to believe, he noted: “[t]There is less violence in the world now than ever before, there is less poverty, there is less hunger.”
And according to him, “It’s because people can see what’s going on around the world.”