Reading this is bad for your health
I've got bad news for you. Literally. (Photo: Workspace365)
It’s hard to keep up with everything that’s going on in the world right now. There’s worrying about inflation, a good thing about the youth being on the internet, making $40 million by doing nothing but playing video games, and the existence of Andrew Tate. Very complicated stuff.
And of course, this won’t be a health-related post if I didn’t mention COVID-19 or monkeypox right? Remember those? Just a few diseases that may or may not have caused a pandemic-level threat to the world that is still going strong today.
There’s a lot of information going around on a daily basis. The ones I mentioned are just the current flavors of the month for the most part. The best thing to do as individuals is to at least get up to speed with all of it right? Not exactly.
According to a new study, an abundance of news consumption has significant effects on both physical and mental health. Most of what you see in the news aren’t exactly causes for celebration. If anything, you’d be more surprised if there was actually good news being presented.
“For individuals who find themselves constantly thinking about and checking the news, news consumption may be having a more negative impact on their well-being than they realize,” said study author Bryan McLaughlin, an associate professor of advertising at Texas Tech University College of Media & Communication, in Lubbock.
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When all the information that your brain processes is negative, the more likely that it’s all you will ever think about. It increases stress levels that last longer than usual which is definitely not good for anyone’s mental health no matter how resilient they think they are.
If left unchecked, your body will produce high levels of inflammation. Your physical health will start to feel uneasy whether it be headaches, body pains, motor skills, etc.
McLaughlin's team surveyed 1,100 US adults in August 2021 where they were asked if they often find themselves lost in news consumption and how difficult it would be for them to disassociate from it when doing other tasks such as work or hobbies. It was found that 61 percent of people who get caught up in watching the news often feel “very sick.”
Similar results have been observed by clinical psychologist Amanda Spray, director of the Steven A. Cohen Military Family Center at NYU Langone Health in New York City, who believes that more serious global events happening alongside easier access to information than ever before are causing everyone to lose their minds.
I’m not gonna sit here and pretend I am any better. It’s basically my job to know what’s going on in the world and write about it. Bonus points if the news sucks. It definitely takes a toll if you let it get to your head more than usual. Sometimes you may feel guilty or upset that you can’t do anything about it no matter how much you want to.
According to Dr. Ami Baxi, a psychiatrist at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City, the key is moderation. “If watching the news—specifically difficult or traumatizing news—unnerves someone, it is okay to cut back on news intake and take breaks,” she said.
As someone who spends a good chunk of his day doomscrolling on Twitter, I definitely need to work on this. And as someone who is reading this right now (that’s you), this is a loving reminder to take it easy.
