New Delhi: According to a study published in the journal Health Communication, individuals who have an obsessive desire to constantly check the news are more likely to suffer from stress, anxiety and physical illness.Also Read – Indians now spend 30 minutes per day consuming memes: Report
Over the past two years, we’ve lived through a series of alarming global events, from the Covid pandemic to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, mass protests, mass shootings and devastating forest fires. For many people, reading bad news can leave us feeling temporarily powerless and sad. Also Read – Bade Achhe Lagte Hain 2 Trending Big on Twitter, Nakul Mehta’s Intensity Wins Over Fans: ‘She Normalizes Men Crying…’
For others, exposure to a 24-hour news cycle of constantly evolving events can have a serious impact on mental and physical well-being—as these new findings, out today, show, those with high levels of news addiction report ” Significantly greater physical discomfort” Also Read – Explained: What is vasculitis? A rare disease that leaves actor Ashton Kutcher unable to see, hear and walk
“Seeing these events unfold in the news can put some people on a constant state of high alert, kick their surveillance motives into overdrive, and make the world seem like a dark and dangerous place,” says Brian McLaughlin, associate professor of advertising. College of Media and Communication at Texas Tech University.
“For these individuals, a vicious cycle can develop in which, instead of tuning out, they become more drawn in, obsessing over the news and checking round-the-clock updates to relieve their emotional distress. But it doesn’t help, and the more they check the news, the more it starts interfering with other aspects of their lives.
To study this phenomenon, colloquially known as news addiction, McLaughlin and her colleagues, Dr. Melissa Gottlieb and Dr. Devin Mills, analyzed data from an online survey of 1,100 US adults.
In the survey, people were asked the extent to which they felt “I am so absorbed in the news that I forget the world around me”, “My mind is often occupied with thoughts about the news”, “I find Agree it is difficult to stop reading or watching the news”, and “I often do not pay attention to school or work because I read or watch the news”.
Respondents were also asked how often they felt stress and anxiety, as well as physical ailments such as fatigue, physical pain, poor concentration and gastrointestinal problems.
The results showed that 16.5% of those surveyed indicated signs of ‘severely problematic’ news consumption. Such individuals often become so immersed and personally invested in news stories that the stories dominate one’s waking thoughts, disrupt time with family and friends, make it difficult to concentrate at school or work, and lead to restlessness and inability to sleep. contributes.
Perhaps not surprisingly, those with high levels of problematic news consumption were significantly more likely to experience psychological and physical distress than those with low levels, even when controlling for demographics, personality traits, and overall news use.
When asked how often survey participants experienced symptoms of mental health or physical illness in the past month, the results showed:
73.6% of those who were reported to have severe levels of problematic news consumption experienced mental illness “somewhat” or “a lot”—while frequent symptoms were reported by only 8% of all other study participants.
61% of those with severe levels of problematic news reported experiencing “very little” or “a lot” of physical discomfort, compared to only 6.1% for all other study participants.
According to McLaughlin, the findings show that focused media literacy campaigns are needed to help people develop a healthy relationship with the news.
“While we want people to be engaged in the news, it’s important that they have a healthy relationship with the news,” he says.
“In most cases, treatment for addictions and compulsive behaviors is focused on complete cessation of the problem behavior, as it can be difficult to moderate the behavior.
“In the case of problematic news consumption, research shows that individuals may decide to stop, or at least dramatically reduce, their news consumption if they perceive that it is having adverse effects on their mental health.
“For example, previous research has shown that individuals who became aware and concerned about the adverse effects on their mental health from constant attention to sensationalized coverage of Covid-19 reported making a conscious decision to tune out.
“However, not only does tuning result in the loss of access to information important to one’s health and safety, it also undermines the existence of an informed citizenry, which has implications for maintaining a healthy democracy. This is why a healthy relationship with news consumption is an ideal situation. .
Additionally, the study also points to the need for a broader discussion about how the news industry can fuel the problem.
“Economic pressures facing outlets, technological advances and the 24-hour news cycle have encouraged journalists to focus on selecting “newsworthy” stories that capture the attention of news consumers,” says McLaughlin.
“However, for certain types of people, the conflict and drama that characterize newsworthy stories may not only grab their attention and attract them but may lead to a negative relationship with the news. Thus, the results of our study emphasize that posits that the commercial pressures that news media face are not only detrimental to the goal of maintaining a healthy democracy, they can also be detrimental to one’s health.
Limitations of this study include reliance on data collected at one point in time, where the authors could not establish a definitive relationship between problematic news consumption and mental and physical illness.
(with ANI inputs)
