SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
Submitted via IRC for TheMightyBuzzard
When we consider how much time young people spend on social media, negative news content may have a bad impact. And those already psychologically vulnerable may be particularly susceptible to the ill effects of a constant stream of negative news. This is because stress responses are often accentuated in those already suffering from symptoms of anxiety, depression and other mental illnesses.
So, it is encouraging to see some technology companies proactively showing concern about their users' mental health. For example, Twitter is teaming up with the youth mental health organisation ReachOut to provide resources to help young people learn about the possible negative impacts of social media, so they won't be overly consumed by it and know how to cope if they are.
This is a good start – Twitter is making more information available. But it can do more, and Twitter shouldn't be the only one doing it.
Yes, I'm certain this is exactly what is needed. Much better idea than shutting your Twitter app.
Source: The Conversation
(Score: 3, Insightful) by AthanasiusKircher on Friday June 02 2017, @07:20PM (4 children)
I frequently listen to the news while driving. Years ago, I used to drop my son off at preschool, and I'd just have the radio on in the car with news in the morning.
At some point, after a few days after some sort of natural disaster (I think it was flooding somewhere), my son asked me if we could turn the radio off. I asked why. He said, "Why are there always people dying on the news?" We talked about it, and I realized he was really stressing out about this. He was worried we could lose our house in a flood. He was worrying about people dying.
Until that point, I guess I never thought much about how the news impacts kids. (After that, we mostly started listening to music during our commutes.) I realize that news of disasters, shootings, horrible accidents, etc. has been a news staple forever, but it's nearly impossible to avoid news summaries that don't consist largely of dramatic sensationalistic portrayals of disturbing current events. For young kids in particular, such news summaries often immediately follow theme music that happens on the hour or half hour that can grab their attention. Local TV news frequently does the same.
I realize I'm talking about a young kid here, not teenagers on Twitter. But even as he got older, I'd notice my son would still obsess over certain news stories that seemed scary to him.
Obviously we can't hide from bad news, and kids need to learn to cope with bad news around them. On the other hand, the news industry obviously thrives on promoting fear and outrage (as well as virtual "rubbernecking"). It can be difficult to get "perspective" when surrounded by such negativity. Social media often magnifies these sentiments and makes the reactions personal. I don't have any good solutions, other than perhaps good parental support. That can be hard during teenage years, but if you're letting your kid on social media, you should have a sense of what's going on and how they're using it.
(Score: 2) by kaszz on Friday June 02 2017, @08:48PM (2 children)
Most news of disasters, shootings, horrible accidents etc are for the most part completely irrelevant but it plays into the morbid inclinations of people. And makes them feel it's important to listen into. It's important be updated on accident statistics to take proper preventive actions and accidents that actually affects oneself directly. Other than that it's just empty stuff to fill airwaves with.
When was the last time a program discussed that say these areas have a statistical higher risk for floods so you should not build there or so? ;) Or the non-PC horror of doing a statistical profiling of what kinds of people do crime and where it usually goes down.
It all boils down to what's important and relevant.
(Score: 2) by AthanasiusKircher on Saturday June 03 2017, @05:45AM (1 child)
I'm not sure if your entire post was intended to be sarcastic or not. But there's basically zero correlation between "accident statistics" in terms of what one should be aware of vs. what gets reported on the news. The news reports unusual or extreme events -- plane crashes, shark attacks, etc. -- not stuff that actually kills people regularly (e.g., single car crashes, not to mention stuff like heart disease). Yes, local news may also note fatal car crashes, but they'd only lead with that if there wasn't some scarier (and likely more improbable) scenario to cover.
(Score: 2) by kaszz on Saturday June 03 2017, @07:02AM
I meant that news usually gives a shewed picture of whats going on by emphasize on the unusual occurrences. It would be better if they put things in perspective.
(Score: 1) by Ethanol-fueled on Friday June 02 2017, @11:44PM
Bad news notwithstanding, it was the annoying blatantly partisan chirping and bleating of the NPR Jews that, after many years of dedicated listening, caused me to switch to sports radio.
And sports radio is awesome. They avoid politics like the plague (unless the politics are about which coach doesn't like which players) and since most of them are men who have played sports they have pleasing voices, great senses of humor, and don't pussyfoot around saying things that news outlets would never dare -- in fact, if you are a sperg with no social skills and you want to impress ladies talking about nothing, I suggest you listen to sports radio talk shows (the kind where 2 or more personalities are having conversations) and you get a good idea of rhythm, flow, when to talk and when to listen, it's just so goddamn comfortable. And unlike NPR they never, ever mention Trump -- not even once. And they're more than happy to have dissenting viewpoints and call out bullshit for what it is. The only mention of governmental politics you'll get out of them is when they lament that the injection of governmental politics is killing sports enjoyment, or talking about local governments financing stadiums or receiving teams.
I know a lot of you hate sports because the jocks bullied you in school, but sports radio is pretty goddamn interesting. You learn that your spinal discs start degenerating at age 29, athletes beating their wives and all the funny Manti Te'o kinda stuff, that sports teams hire private investigators to watch athletes during the draft so they won't get blindsided by any dirt later. But they say it all in a pleasant, informal tone of voice and in a conversational manner.
I'll probably make sports radio my permanent go-to listen to and from work everyday, even after NPR unfucks itself.