Personal Literacy: Too much negative news can be harmful

"When you were a child, did you have a relentless little brother or sister who always begged for attention? This is the news in today's world. "

"Broadly speaking, uncertainty is “a difficult psychological state for us,” said Markus Brauer, PhD, one of the study's authors and a psychology professor at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Thus, seeking out information should “lead to a more positive psychological state,” he said."

"But when people feel like there is little they can do, ..., they can develop a feeling of learned helplessness."

"Instead of feeling informed after watching the news, I felt anxious, upset, hopeless, and sick. "

"The news increases depression and anxiety symptoms. One study found that people showed an increase in symptoms after only 14 minutes of news consumption. "

"Consider checking news only at specific times — like once in the morning and again in the evening instead of mindlessly scrolling through news updates on your phone."

"Scrolling through social media can feel like a nightmare these days."

"... 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."

"We are bombarded with dramatic news coverage and endless clickbait, which has more of an impact on mental health than we may realize."

"After being exposed to negative news reports, positive affect decreased, whereas negative affect, sadness, worries, and anxiety increased. "

"These findings demonstrate that watching the news on television triggers persisting negative psychological feelings that could not be buffered by attention-diverting distraction (i.e., lecture), but only by a directed psychological intervention such as progressive relaxation. "

"A concept that may be misunderstood, or unknown by many, involves the vulnerability of the human brain to be negatively impacted by traumatic events even if we haven't personally experienced them. This concept is called vicarious traumatization. "

"While negative news may influence our thinking through multiple mechanisms, one important consideration is how it interfaces with our cognitive biases, keeping our focus on everything that's going wrong while blinding us to all the good things around us. "