While it’s incredibly important to stay attuned to the goings on in the world around us, watching the news can actually have adverse effects on your health!
Researchers from Texas Tech University found that Americans who obsessively follow the news are more likely to suffer from both “physical and mental health problems, including anxiety and stress.”
According to Study Finds, those who constantly check the latest news headlines end up with “significantly greater physical ill-being” than those who tune in less often, and that constantly keeping on top of the latest developments can lead to “a vicious cycle where people always check for more updates, rather than tuning out after a quick read.”
Bryan McLaughlin, associate professor of advertising at the College of Media and Communication at Texas Tech University, said in a media release, “Witnessing these events unfold in the news can bring about a constant state of high alert in some people, kicking their surveillance motives into overdrive and making the world seem like a dark and dangerous place.”
Additionally, the study found that 16.5% of participants showed signs of “severely problematic” news consumption, meaning they constantly thought about and became so personally invested in news stories that current events “dominated their thoughts, disrupted time with family and friends, made it difficult to focus on school or work, and contributed to restlessness an inability to sleep.”
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