Many challenges have occurred because of the extreme popularity and uprising of social media in the past 20 years. Upon opening any social media app, users are met with thousands of forms of entertainment they could choose from.
In recent years, a lot of the entertainment users have the opportunity to consume is negative. It’s hard to consider this content “entertaining” at all when it’s actually not fun news to hear. Yet, we keep coming back for more as we are drawn to the glow of our screens.
When reading the latest headline or watch a video from a high profile account, it’s easy to get wrapped up into the dark and twisted world of the internet. Considering that lately, many events have brought hardships upon many people, it makes sense as to why most of the news we see or information we consume has an unfavorable undertone to it. And of course, we all know how the internet works, if one thing is brought to your attention and you respond or react to it in any way, then it will subsequently retrieve more content with similar topics. It’s an endless loop of negativity that users unknowingly trap themselves in.
Consuming all of this negative information really does take a toll on social media users. Especially users who already have pre-existing mental health struggles.
Author Jarret Bencks illustrates a study done by Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), “An analysis found that participants exposed to negative web pages reported to be in a worse mood than those who viewed neutral pages, and then subsequently visited more-negative pages when asked to browse the internet for 10 minutes,” Bencks said.
Negative content directly affects user’s brains and leads them into a more negative headspace. The long term effects of this are detrimental to society, especially as newer generations become more frequently present on social media. Being exposed to negative media constantly is not good for the developing brain and causes users to develop mental health issues at a much earlier age.
As stated before, it is not necessarily anyone’s fault for the sheer overwhelming amount of negativity in the media, but really just a reflection of the major events happening in the world. While, yes, these unfortunate issues are important, there are also many good things that happen everyday too. It is harder for these positive effects to catch users attention.
It is possible to find positive content out there, it just takes a little bit of re-wiring. Most importantly, a re-wiring of the brain is necessary. Since a lot of negative content uses attention catching buzzwords, it’s just more interesting to read, to put it simply. In order to be able to live a more fulfilling life, we must get rid of the negative perception of events displayed across many social media platforms.
Now this is not to say that one should completely cut themself off from the outside world, or that one should never learn anything new. One must still remain informed in order to prevent becoming ignorant. It’s a healthy balance that is needed.It is imperative to seek out the good in all situations. It may seem like there are too many problems to be solved or that all hope has been lost, but if you take the time to seek out that positive energy, then soon enough, it will become the majority of what one sees online.
Another great way to live a more positive life, is to actually get off of social media. Even though it is hard to do, even just a small amount of time away from the screen can reset one’s nervous system in the best way possible.
Positivity can change lives, and if the initiative is taken by choosing to consume more positive media, it will re-shape futures for the better.
