Media Consumption and Our Mental Health
Manpreet Singh MS, MFT-LP
News coverage, social media, and the endless notifications, emails and pings, we receive each day can significantly impact our mental health. The disproportionate representation of negative events is part of a cycle that is feeding our innate self-protective nature and thus contributing to our heightened level of stress and anxiety. Such a chronic state of hyper-vigilance may contribute to mental health issues, including anxiety and depression, as individuals, each in their own way, grapple with the emotional toll of witnessing discrimination, injustice, and brutality. Families, especially children, are not immune to the effects of this collective trauma, which tends to hit minority communities the hardest as our negative bias, hyper-vigilance, and hard wiring will easily generalize the acts of an individual to an entire community or system—in essence, seeing any stick in our path as a snake.
So what do we do with these complex feelings of fear, helplessness, frustration, and anger that impact our self-esteem and mental well-being? And how do we safely navigate our families through this collective trauma, which can have intergenerational effects?
1. It is important to foster open communication in our families, with close attention to providing age-appropriate information. Consider a child’s ability for abstract reasoning, which fully develops between the ages of 11 and 17+, and how information and guidance must be simpler and concrete the younger they are.
2. Parents can encourage questions, validate feelings, and express empathy without oversharing or implicitly expecting a child to care for their sadness, pain, or other difficult emotions. Remember to use curiosity and investigation to gauge your child’s understanding, ensuring you meet them at their level.
3. Highlight efforts for peace and resolution. Discuss coping mechanisms and the role of family and community or other supports during these difficult and confusing times. Inspire agency and responsibility.
4. Maintain diverse perspectives and model responsible use of technology . Education is critical in combating stereotypes and prejudice. Take time to consider where you get your information, and do your best to minimize your own bias, which may be based on misinformation. Keep an open mind with a call to action fostering inclusivity and diversity.
5. Foster a philosophy based on the search for humanity in others. We must grow our relationships based on attraction and not fear. Be of service and continue to be curious (teach and learn) to find ways to move us all forward together.
Frequent exposure to traumatic events in the media can contribute to collective anxiety within families and communities. Seeing repeated stories of crises, whether local or global, can create a sense of shared trauma that affects broader society. This is especially true for younger audiences or those already vulnerable to mental health challenges. Addressing the impact of news on mental health requires responsible journalism, a balanced approach to reporting, and media literacy. Encouraging individuals to manage their news consumption and offering community support systems can help mitigate the negative mental health effects of today's media landscape.
References
Leiner, M., Peinado, J., Villanos, M. T. M., Lopez, I., Uribe, R., & Pathak, I. (2016). Mental and Emotional Health of Children Exposed to News Media of Threats and Acts of Terrorism: The Cumulative and Pervasive Effects. Frontiers in Pediatrics, 4, 26. 10.3389/fped.2016.00026
Murthy, R. S., & Lakshminarayana, R. (2006). Mental health consequences of war: a brief review of research findings. World Psychiatry : Official Journal of the World Psychiatric Association (WPA), 5(1), 25–30.
Pine, D. S., Costello, J., & Masten, A. (2005). Trauma, Proximity, and Developmental Psychopathology: The Effects of War and Terrorism on Children. Neuropsychopharmacology, 30(10), 1781–1792. 10.1038/sj.npp.1300814
Singh, S. J. (2022). The light we give: how Sikh wisdom can transform your life. First edition. New York, Riverhead Books.
