Don Grant, a media psychologist who has long contributed to processing the negative effects of digital media in her daily life, has recently heard it has heard of everyone.
The early weeks of 2025 – with non -stop messages about the agenda of President Trump, the devastating forest fires in Los Angeles and an endless series of other things – were a lot.
“You can't take it. They are overwhelmed. They just give up, ”he said. “You are stressed and cannot sleep and think catastrophic about the future.”
Ariel Hasell, assistant professor of communication and media at the University of Michigan, who studies the interaction between news media and emotions of the people, said that it was an increasing feeling in today's media landscape.
“People are fighting the desire to stay up to date and know what happens, and this bourgeois duty that many people feel in order to stay up to date, and which stands that can be informed in digital environments”, ” said Hasell.
Both said it was no wonder that people feel like this, especially in view of the fact that many news about social media platforms, which should play on their fears and fears, to draw them in and scroll them more and more .
But there are also ways to act from the constant flood of information – and not to save – they said.
Grant said that news consumers should restrict their time on devices, in particular the scrolling of social media.
“Don't do it all day. Say: “I will check everything that is going on a few times a day or beginning of the day and at the end of the day,” he said. “Place a timer on it.”
People should also “trim” the fat by cutting out platforms that are not healthy for them and turn to more trustworthy news sources. Apply “no screens” rules for any time when you are “with other people in real life”, especially with meals. And canceling automatic warnings that send you information if you don't want it.
“If you don't want the pizza, tell the Pizza suppliers to stop delivering them,” he said.
Parents, he said, should also be vigilant about the way and the amount of the media that they consume in front of their children – as some of his customers recognized during the fires, as their own obsessive consumption of updates led to their children and observed next to them. be scared.
“Your brain is underdeveloped and overexposed,” said Grant, “so the parents have to be very careful.”
Hasell said that news fatigue “can really lead to avoiding and solving messages and even defeat.
With security information – including fires and evacuations – the clear exception is “You don't necessarily have to know everything that happens, exactly when it breaks,” she said. “If you take temporary breaks out of the news or limit the time in which you consume political content, especially on social media, it can lead to more well -being.”
People who are susceptible to fear should concentrate on reading news articles that tell them how they take measures in their community, help their neighbors or tackle local problems that are important to them – which Hasell as “utilitarian or implementable information ”.
People should also rely on trustworthy news sources instead of getting involved in endless, fear -driven scrolls, she said, since such sources give an overview of topics and can give them before “what every single person says”.
Both Grant and Hasell said that the consumers should take into account messages that if they use a “free” service online, such as a social media platform, actually paid for their time and “attention” -one of the most valuable online Were out there and one that they said that people should protect more closely.
“If it's free,” said Grant, “you are the product.”