“Someone explain to me how you are dealing with the news because right now the news seems incompatible with life,” reflected Bárbara Arena (@BuArena) last week on Twitter, now X. And among the responses, many messages of empathy and a few recipes to face the situation. The most repeated: stop consuming information to take care of your mental health.
The deliberate evasion of news is an upward trend that was accentuated in Spain starting in 2022, the year in which the war between Russia and Ukraine broke out, at the same time that the global Covid-19 pandemic began to subside after sowing terror and death for more than two years. In 2015, 85% of Spaniards declared themselves totally or very interested in the news, while in 2022 that figure was reduced to 55% and, in 2023, to 51%, according to data from the latest Digital News Report prepared by the University of Navarra in collaboration with the Reuters Institute.
Information saturation, distrust in the news or the perception that information is negative or stressful are some of the causes that researchers highlight to explain this change in information consumption. “By silencing Gaza and Israel, life is more beautiful,” says @gdi_mai on Twitter. “I decided a long time ago not to watch the news. It's for mental health. They are not things that we can modify and the only thing that is achieved is that fear and unease settle in us,” writes Charo Ortega. “I ignore everything, at the end of the day, what I say or think on a social network will not have an impact. I better concentrate on what happens in my life and with that I have enough,” says Jesús A. Villarreal.
The American Psychological Association, the APA for its acronym in English, warns in a statement issued at the beginning of the conflict that people concerned about the effects of war may suffer fear, anxiety and stress, but turning off the television and silencing the words Israel and Gaza on social networks is the best way to confront the conflict? How to stay informed without falling into dismay? “Information is a right to act responsibly in our daily lives,” says Eva Herrero Curiel, graduate in Psychology and Journalism and professor at the Carlos III University of Madrid. “Escaping or fleeing from the conflict is not the solution and the information will end up reaching you through other means, such as WhatsApp,” she adds.
Instead of avoiding negative news, experts recommend a balanced and nutritious consumption of information:
1. First of all, you have to set a time for information consumption. “Each person has a limit of information saturation, but when someone detects that the information affects their mental health, they have to act,” says Ferran Lalueza, professor of communication at the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya and expert in social networks. “Journalistic culture has historically focused on bad news, while young people configure the algorithms of their networks to live in a sweetened and happy world. These two worlds collide very strongly and when a conflict occurs, some young people choose to disconnect. And it is not that they want to isolate themselves, but that they feel helpless in the face of the situation,” he adds.
2. Secondly, it is recommended to be proactive in searching for reliable sources instead of getting carried away by social media algorithms. “Technological platforms promote videos with fatalities, injuries, bombings, kidnappings, etc. because they are the ones that get the most clicks. In addition to disseminating large volumes of misinformation. In short, an information maelstrom to which we can dedicate a lot of time and, in the end, not be informed because the most important thing is missing: the context,” adds Lalueza.
3. You have to activate emotional barriers and get informed through the media instead of social networks. The media filter the information, while the networks offer it without any type of elaboration or context and immediately, establishing a greater empathy than when the information is consumed through the media, which is responsible for selecting, editing and prioritize the information. The infinite scroll, that is, the fact that the videos on Tik Tok or the messages and images on Twitter are endless and do not have a beginning and an end, as happens, for example, in a radio or television news program or any other media. Digital, also plays a decisive role in this excessive consumption of information.
4. “It is also advisable to read in depth instead of looking,” adds Herrero. “Citizens have to become aware that staying informed requires time and effort. A chronicle about the conflict between Israel and Hamas is not easy to understand. On social media, we often get sick rather than informed because the content we see is manipulated and created for polarization.”
5. It is recommended to pay special attention in the case of children, who must be accompanied in the consumption of conflict information, both from the family and at school. Experts point out the need for media literacy in classrooms, as well as the activation of critical thinking, since it is inevitable that from the moment they have their first mobile phone, around the age of 10 or even earlier, they access violent content that can be extremely detrimental to its development.
