News Addiction Linked to Not Only Poor Mental Wellbeing but Physical Health Too

hubie writes:

People with an obsessive urge to constantly check the news are more likely to suffer from stress, anxiety, as well as physical ill health:

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

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