Protecting your Mind in the Age of Information 

Article written by Denver therapist, Meghan Stetson

No matter your political ideology or leanings, the American political & news landscapes right now contain enormous challenges for each of us as individuals.

While it’s essential in these times to retain your civic engagement, there is some balance between being informed and being overwhelmed that it seems like we are all navigating at this moment in time. 

The news and social media cycle has been picking up speed and intensity for many years now due to the proliferation of technology, types of media, and devices that now allow us to be forever-connected, forever-pinged, and forever hyper-vigilant. 

That intensity has somehow ratcheted up to some next level in the last days and weeks.  

Being inside of this environment is a challenge for each of us – for so many reasons. 

We can no longer keep up with the speed and intensity of the news and social media cycles. 

Read More: “What Is Your Relationship With Social Media Like? Want A Better One?

We may feel helpless in the face of the sheer pace and intensity of decisions and orders that may impact our day-to-day lives, livelihood, or that of those we love.

We no longer know what news outlets or social media platforms we can trust. The line between truth and conspiracy theory is more blurred than ever before.  

It’s all too much for one person to take in, and it’s all too dizzying. 

A Note on Privilege and Ignorance

Each of us is affected differently by political news, and each of us has different capacity and resources in our lives to deal with how we are uniquely affected.

For some of us, physical and other types of safety feel threatened by political actions.

For some in America and around the world, there are no choices about how to take in political news; some are entrenched in its realities with no way out, and with life-or-death consequences. 

It’s an important thing to acknowledge.

Each of you reading this will have different intersectional identities, different associated privileges, and different resources and capacities (time, money, energy, health, community/social support, and much more) in your life at this moment in time.  

Take what is helpful here.  

The intention behind this exploration is NOT to encourage you to “bury your head in the sand.”

It is to call out the importance of protecting your mind and your life force to the extent that is available to you so that you can use your precious mind and energy to act in the world in effective ways at this moment in time.

The intention here is to bring into awareness that over-consumption of news and media is not always helpful, and that engagement and action are better uses of our resources and capacities when we have them. 

Human Physiology & The Age of Information

Simply put, the speed of information and technology has outpaced human evolution, to an extent that we might not think about on a day-to-day basis.

The human brain evolved in response to the natural environment – the rhythms of the sun and moon, the sounds of the forest and water, and the pace of the natural world. Slow.

Digital input for our systems is incredibly new in the full span of human existence and is *much* faster.

Read More: “Learn to Manage Election Anxiety for your Mental Health”

Consider what it might be like for one day of your life to be outside for most of the day, and for the stimulation that your brain takes in to come in the form of the sights & sounds of the natural world, the needs and prodding of your peers, and the cues from your body of its needs (okay, and also the occasional predator – snake, bear, etc…). 

Consider now how different the pace and quality are of our modern-day stimuli.

The constant sound (or anticipation) of your phone, a ping on your watch, a never-ending flow of emails.

News headlines that just won’t stop; an actually never-ending channel of television coverage for every breaking detail.  

Over-Consumption Paralysis

This constant barrage of information consumption at such a fast pace and with such intensity can end up backfiring.

We go to the news or social media out of concern for the world; we sometimes leave paralyzed and overwhelmed.

It’s so tempting (through platforms that thrive off of addicting us!) to consume and consume and consume more. 

The challenge for us all in this moment is to take back control and protection of our own minds.

To notice what is happening inside of ourselves.

As you think about your news consumption and before you reach for your phone, tablet, remote control, ask yourself these questions:

What is your intention in taking in news?

How does your news consumption habits impact you?

Are you living out what your intentions are, or are your consumption habits veering you off course?

How do you want to act on the information you take in?

Are you doing that, or are you too overwhelmed? 

The Impact of News Consumption on your Mental Health

We’ve all experienced what it’s like to doomscroll through social media looking for the latest news, or what it’s like to watch extremely upsetting news shows for long periods of time.

We all have a general sense for how we feel afterwards: anxious, stressed, hyper-vigilant, depressed, even numb. 

Now there is research on this as well.

A 2022 study (McLaughlin et al) found that higher levels of news consumption are indeed correlated with lower levels of mental and physical health.

There is also a large body of research on the negative effects of technology overall on the human brain.

Just a sampling of its documented negative effects includes: 

• Structural changes in the brain including diminished gray matter
  

  Read More:”Prioritizing Self-Care. Take Time Off For Your Mental Health”

• Reduced attention span and increased attention deficit symptoms 

• Over-stimulation of pleasure center (which dulls our pleasure response in other areas of life) 

• Increased sedentary lifestyles and diminished physical activity 

• Decreased long-term and working memory 

• Increased social isolation and decreased emotional and social intelligence 

• Less sleep and poorer sleep quality, with associated increased risk for mental health issues such as anxiety and depression 

All this to say, here are some exercises you may find helpful in supporting your emotions and overall mental health when it comes to your consumption of news.

Ways to Support your Mental Health with News Consumption

Reflective Exercises:

An exercise for you as it relates to news consumption specifically: 

1. First, name 3 or 4 qualities that you can feel in your mind & body. Qualities are adjectives that might be things like the speed you feel inside of yourself, temperature, texture, color, specific sensations. 

1. Then, pick a common way you tend to consume news. Is it scrolling social media? Looking up a specific website? Turning on a specific show? Consume how you normally do and for the length of time that is normal for you. 

1. Now, name 3 or 4 qualities that you can feel in your mind & body. What are they now? How have they shifted or not from your first check-in? What does this tell you? 

Some thoughts to consider:

• Begin to consider the length of time you spend consuming news and give yourself a time limit. 

• Begin to consider the type of media that you use. There are a lot of different ways to take in information. Are you constantly seeing images? Are you constantly scrolling? Are you constantly reading inflammatory headlines? Maybe try some new things like a daily morning audio summary, or a daily e-mail summary and see how those feel. There are a lot of options out there if you are intentional. 

• Which site and/or platform provides you with the information you need, in a manner that feels the most sustainable for you? 

• Read primary sources – if you want to know what an executive order is, for example, read the executive order itself 

• If you have the resources and capacity, put that towards engagement and action in the world in a way that you believe in 

Right now, there are many reasons for all of us to bring more awareness to our news consumption.

Yes, it’s essential to be informed, but it’s also essential to stay healthy and to engage in the world with all of its challenges in ways that you consciously choose. Therapy can also be helpful. 

***

Denver Therapist, Meghan Stetson

Meghan is a Denver therapist who specializes in combining mind and body approaches to understanding the delicate and fascinating experience of being human.

Meghan graduated from Naropa University where she studied Mindfulness-Based Transpersonal Counseling Psychology.

She incorporates Polyvagal theory in her transpersonal approach of blending ancient wisdom traditions with Western psychology in working with her clients.

Meghan supports people who suffer with chronic illness, chronic pain, trauma, cult and religious recovery, sports performance, and entrepreneurial types who experience burnout and want more grounded connections to self and others.

To learn more from Meghan, check out her bio on our website, read her blog posts, or find her on instagram @meghanstetson

Citations

McLaughlin, B., Gotlieb, M. R., & Mills, D. J. (2022). Caught in a Dangerous World:
Problematic News Consumption and Its Relationship to Mental and Physical Ill-Being. ,(12), 2687–2697.
https://doi.org/10.1080/10410236.2022.2106086

Pepperdine. (2020, August 11). Technology’s Effects on our Brains & Bodies – Relationship IQ Blog | Boone Center for the Family | Pepperdine University.
Boonecenter.pepperdine.edu. https://boonecenter.pepperdine.edu/relationship-iq/blog/posts/technology_effects_on_our_brains_and_bodies.htm

Small GW, Lee J, Kaufman A, Jalil J, Siddarth P, Gaddipati H, Moody TD, Bookheimer SY.
Brain health consequences of digital technology use
. Dialogues Clin Neurosci. 2020 Jun;22(2):179-187. doi: 10.31887/DCNS.2020.22.2/gsmall. PMID: 32699518; PMCID:PMC7366948.