the news and us: it’s an interesting cycle

In 2017, the US boasted 1,761 commercial television stations on the air (“Number of commercial TV stations in the United States from 1950 to 2017”). This quote can give you a scale of how many newspapers are printed and are in circulation in the US:

“The estimated total U.S. daily newspaper circulation (print and digital combined) in 2018 was 28.6 million for weekday and 30.8 million for Sunday, down 8% and 9%, respectively, from the previous year.”

This is a lot - overwhelming to some. First, how do we choose which ones to read? Companies, like The Factual, claim to help readers sort through the deluge of news, but even that is one more thing to read through. Second, not knowing the news and current events, especially in younger generations, makes people jump to false conclusions about a person - that they don’t care about what’s happening to others, that they have fallen to ignorance, that they -

The list can go on of the accusations one can face if they’re not so up to date. Third, there is the news itself. Besides the number and the pressure to read the news, news presents often grim, questionably realistic snapshots of the world. Tragic one time stories don’t get follow ups, leaving readers hanging; did it get better? or did they get help? A more recent example, many are writing how the media manipulated the story around the Black Lives Matter protests. Misinformation about what the protestors were doing and pictures and words depicting violence that never happened at protests were spread around social media, like Twitter and Facebook. Media, in short, focused on violence and destruction.

So here’s the cycle:

One. You do read the news. It’s upsetting. To take a break for your mental wellbeing, you step away from news.

Two. Being uninformed leads to unwanted comments of you ‘not caring’.

Three. Feeling pressure to stay informed, you go back to the news.

Please note that I am not saying that talking about current events is bad. Talking about what is important is a good conversation. Acting on things you learn about is awesome! Yes, we should care, and we should inspire others to care. But when we act negatively towards people who aren’t as involved as we are, it may push them away from the conversation than towards it. Or it may lead to the unhealthy cycle above. Either way, we can learn about the impact news has on mental health and support our causes and care about world events in a more healthy way.

Please share your thoughts on this below! We take anonymous or named comments. Please keep your comments structured for a constructive conversation and appropriate. Thanks :)

I remember at the beginning of quarantine and the pandemic, I was reading the news everyday for quite sometime per day. I would fall into rabbit holes, searching up one particular story, and the internet would take me round and round until I felt exhausted and helpless. I felt that there was nothing I could do to help leaders make the right decisions or stop people from going out to crowded places and spreading the infection.

Nowadays, I still read the news, but for considerably less time per day. It has done benefit for my mental wellbeing, but I still stay informed. I switch it up - I watch a video from the Daily Show, where news is delivered through satire, I scroll through an infographic from Vox, I read something from a news site that isn’t lined with my political views. Changing where and how I get my information stops me from sliding back into depressing and endless headlines.

Those are my experiences. The science shows that headlines are made to keep people coming back. Minute-by-minute refreshes are designed to keep people on the app, waiting for the next news update.

“According to a survey by Digital Third Coast, 68% of people said the news has left them feeling anxious during the pandemic. Meanwhile, 65% and 67% of respondents reported feeling overwhelmed and burnt out by the news respectively. 54% even said they were cutting back on their news consumption to escape these feelings” (Collins).

Research shows that constant exposure to negative news causes negative consequences for our brains. Read:

• “Three ways negative news engages cognitive biases, trapping us in negativity." - Psychology Today

• Effects of chronic stress on brain

As discussed in a previous ‘closer' look’, media can perpetuate stigma around mental illness. News stories can do that, too. Read:

• The Effect of News Stories on the Stigma of Mental Illness