During the last two years we have lived through a series of worrying global events, from the COVID pandemic to Russia invading Ukraine, large-scale protests, mass shootings and devastating wildfires. For many people, reading bad news can make us feel temporarily powerless and distressed.
For others, being exposed to a 24-hour news cycle of continually evolving events can have serious impacts on mental and physical wellbeing – as these new findings, out today, show, with those who have a high-levels of news addiction reporting "significantly greater physical ill-being".
"Witnessing these events unfold in the news can bring about a constant state of high alert in some people, kicking their surveillance motives into overdrive and making the world seem like a dark and dangerous place," says Bryan McLaughlin, associate professor of advertising at the College of Media and Communication at Texas Tech University.
"For these individuals, a vicious cycle can develop in which, rather than tuning out, they become drawn further in, obsessing over the news and checking for updates around the clock to alleviate their emotional distress. But it doesn't help, and the more they check the news, the more it begins to interfere with other aspects of their lives."
[...] "In the case of problematic news consumption, research has shown that individuals may decide to stop, or at least dramatically reduce, their news consumption if they perceive it is having adverse effects on their mental health.
[...] "However, for certain types of people, the conflict and drama that characterize newsworthy stories not only grab their attention and draw them in, but also can lead to a maladaptive relationship with the news. Thus, the results of our study emphasise that the commercial pressures that news media face are not just harmful to the goal of maintaining a healthy democracy, they also may be harmful to individuals' health."
Journal Reference:
Bryan McLaughlin, Melissa R. Gotlieb & Devin J. Mills (2022) Caught in a Dangerous World: Problematic News Consumption and Its Relationship to Mental and Physical Ill-Being [open], Health Communication, DOI: 10.1080/10410236.2022.2106086
(Score: 4, Funny) by choose another one on Tuesday August 30 2022, @10:00AM (4 children)
Reads summary, skips to comments, no comments - neat, everyone's fine.
'cept me.
Maybe
(Score: 2, Spam) by BlueSpottedOctopus on Tuesday August 30 2022, @10:39AM (3 children)
This is why I never read SoylentNews anymore. Just not worth the headache, the paranoia, the drama, and having to listen to Redneck Paul.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 30 2022, @01:14PM (1 child)
I only come to correct the errant Spam mods. And check on 1-2 things, every couple minutes. WHY IS NOONE POSTING>>>!!!!???
(Score: 0, Flamebait) by multiaristarchus on Tuesday August 30 2022, @09:59PM
Banned they all are. Post, or post not. There is no SoylentNews.
(Score: 3, Funny) by Reziac on Wednesday August 31 2022, @02:22AM
"No one goes there anymore. It's too crowded."
-- Yogi Berra
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
(Score: 2) by BsAtHome on Tuesday August 30 2022, @10:03AM (16 children)
One has to appreciate the irony of this article being brought on a news aggregator site. Soylent thrives on a broad audience using the site extensively (and then subscribing or donating). What does this say about the wellbeing of the readership? Or are Soylent people immune and unique; the statistical outlier?
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 30 2022, @10:05AM
It's a gateway drug, no doubt about that.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by JoeMerchant on Tuesday August 30 2022, @01:02PM (8 children)
There's only so much time you can spend on Soylent News... I find that the majority of the time I spend related to SN is spent in deeper dive research of topics or tangents of interest, usually in information that's at least 5-10 years old.
When you start learning the candidates and elected officials the way that sports fans learn their favorite team's players and coaches, that's a sign.
When you start diving into proposed legislation and teasing out who's getting the pork and possibly why, that's a bigger sign.
When you start traveling to national protest events because you just can't take it anymore... more than once in a decade... seek counseling, and consider disconnecting from the news.
Україна досі не є частиною Росії Слава Україні🌻 https://news.stanford.edu/2023/02/17/will-russia-ukraine-war-end
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 30 2022, @01:17PM (4 children)
Definitely a rich man's hobby. Perhaps that's why there's such a skew towards absolute assholery and I gots mine fuck yall.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by JoeMerchant on Tuesday August 30 2022, @01:44PM (3 children)
>I gots mine fuck yall.
That's been the way of the world since before the Pharaohs erected the pyramids - I wonder if the actual symbology of the pyramids is an org chart? See: I'm here at the top, and you're UNDER me.
Україна досі не є частиною Росії Слава Україні🌻 https://news.stanford.edu/2023/02/17/will-russia-ukraine-war-end
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 30 2022, @01:54PM (2 children)
For about 5 seconds after WW2 it seemed another way was possible. Perhaps "That's How It Is"(TM) or perhaps that's a consequence of a system that we have a hand in designing via laws and elections.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Tuesday August 30 2022, @09:01PM (1 child)
We _can_ do anything. Small scale communes and intentional communities (the ones that are sustainable, at least) are proof. We, collectively, choose to live the way we live. Some of us have more say in the choice than others, but the rest of us letting that happen is also a choice.
Україна досі не є частиною Росії Слава Україні🌻 https://news.stanford.edu/2023/02/17/will-russia-ukraine-war-end
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 31 2022, @12:21AM
I think it doesn't operate on the individual scale. More of a "thousands of years" kind of effect where by the outside starts to look like the inside.
Probably evolving faster due to the invention of elections, which are akin to sexual reproduction. Rather than hundreds of years to "turn the boat around" it now maybe only takes 4-8 years. This responsiveness to external circumstances outcompetes the asexual random mutation evolution of dictatorships. The next stage is everyone becomes a transexual and Republicans lose their minds ;)
(Score: 2) by vux984 on Tuesday August 30 2022, @08:10PM (1 child)
You don't want to look too close to what they do, because then you'll know things, and knowing things will stress you out. Why don't you take a Soma vacation instead..."Halfe gramme for a half-holiday, a gramme for the week-end,..."
Surely that's not what you're saying here?
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Tuesday August 30 2022, @09:03PM
I subscribe to my rep and Senator's weekly feed of "I'm so great, you just can't help but vote for me next November", I usually don't even open the e-mails, but when I do, it's pretty scary what they're feeding their base.
Україна досі не є частиною Росії Слава Україні🌻 https://news.stanford.edu/2023/02/17/will-russia-ukraine-war-end
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 30 2022, @10:08PM
When this happens (and especially on Jan 6) just stay out of the Congress building and refrain from throwing fire extinguishers on the head of policemen - doing so is insurrection.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Phoenix666 on Tuesday August 30 2022, @01:44PM (3 children)
I enjoy SN for funny quips, and for news that comes from sources I don't usually read. But SN is also a bit of a sanity check. When your usual read of the news is scanning headlines and skimming through opening paragraphs it's easy to do that with your own filter on, looking for confirmation of pre-existing biases. But when read discussion on SN about a story you see different perspectives from intelligent people that tend to scour away the spin that every media story has now. That's true of technical topics, social topics, and everything else, too.
I had a good friend in the 00's (lost touch with her nowadays) who was a mid-level executive at PR Newswire. That's one of the news wires like Reuters or the AP Wire that "journalists" repackage their stories from now, instead of doing original reporting. She explained once how companies pushing new products or services pay PR Newswire to publish "stories" about how "more and more people are discovering this great new Widget (tm)!" as part of their marketing push. It's shockingly cheap, like $2500 cheap. So, for a pittance a company or organization pushing some scheme can wrap it in an air of legitimacy, as a fact, and deceive the public.
So having a community like SN is helpful in countering that.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by JoeMerchant on Tuesday August 30 2022, @01:47PM
>news that comes from sources I don't usually read
The Google news feed on my (droid) phone usually shows the stories that appear on SN a couple of days, sometimes a week or more, later. SN is more fun for the "people's" reactions to the stories, as opposed to the stories themselves which are usually pretty frustrating in their lack of content, rambling presentations, ads, not-so-hidden agendae, etc.
In other words: why RTFA when you can just stake out an opinion and start a debate?
Україна досі не є частиною Росії Слава Україні🌻 https://news.stanford.edu/2023/02/17/will-russia-ukraine-war-end
(Score: 4, Interesting) by JoeMerchant on Tuesday August 30 2022, @01:53PM (1 child)
>companies pushing new products or services pay PR Newswire to publish "stories"
We'd do this about twice a year on average in the first small company I worked for (market cap ~$10M, $20M after a good press release...) They're most effective when they get picked up off Newswire and re-broadcast closer to your target audiences.
> for a pittance a company or organization pushing some scheme can wrap it in an air of legitimacy, as a fact, and deceive the public.
You can fool some of the people all of the time...
One of the best news releases we did was to the TV station (conveniently located right across the street from our offices...) I don't think we paid them anything and they came out and did a 3 minute "Medical News Update" video story about our new device. That was like gold on our website, potential investors would play and replay that thing - while mostly ignoring the company produced informational videos.
Україна досі не є частиною Росії Слава Україні🌻 https://news.stanford.edu/2023/02/17/will-russia-ukraine-war-end
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 30 2022, @07:07PM
> You can fool some of the people all of the time... and all of the Trump supporters all of the time.
FTFY - your welcome Soylent community.
(Score: 2) by legont on Tuesday August 30 2022, @10:44PM (1 child)
Text only news are orders of magnitudes less dangerous than audio, photo and video. Overall, getting news from a text only place like soylent improves ones health I belive.
"Wealth is the relentless enemy of understanding" - John Kenneth Galbraith.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 31 2022, @12:28AM
We are coming for you too... [github.com]
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 30 2022, @01:32PM
(A) Caught in a Dangerous World: Problematic News Consumption and Its Relationship to Mental and Physical Ill-Being
or
(B) Caught in a Dangerous World: Mental and Physical Ill-Being and Its Relationship to Problematic News Consumption
or
(C) Caught in Consumption: Mental and Physical Ill-Being and Its Relationship to Problematic News
Problematic news is just a symptom. We essentially have a lottery society that showers rewards on a random set of people, who go on to believe they earned every penny themselves and lecture on the virtues of hard work, honesty and loyal servitude. Yeah, suck my dick.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 30 2022, @06:08PM (1 child)
Right, so news causes ill health? Figures. I read slashdot and I've got hemorrhoids. I knew that site was a pain in the ass!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 30 2022, @07:16PM
> I knew that site was a pain in the ass!
Those stuck up biotches thought they were too good for us. Well look at them now: 300K monthly visitors, 500K+ monthly page views, cashflow. Nothing.