Having worked in PR for 13 years, it was the norm to scout through the dailies, watch every news bulletin and become au fait with what was going on globally. I was a typical news-junkie, thriving on the negativity or every opportunity of nailing the competition (how fucking nasty).
When you are reading a new news article, or this article now, your brain releases a neurotransmitter called dopamine. Dopamine doesn’t produce the ‘feel good’ people normally associate with it, but it causes the craving for the ‘feel good’. This craving can even continue when the pleasurable effects of a stimulus are non-existent. The effect of reading small sensationalist stories that bear little relevance to our daily lives and don’t require any critical thinking is threefold.
#1 Desensitization
Over time you will crave more and intense stimulation. Desensitization is to make (someone) less likely to feel shock or distress at scenes of cruelty or suffering by overexposure to such images.
#2 Sensitization
You are much more likely to crave for a moment to check your e-mail if you spot a phone – over time you are more likely to check your phone than to engage in conversation. Sensitization often is characterized by an enhancement of response to a whole class of stimuli in addition to the one that is repeated.
#3 Hypofrontality
Both desensitization and sensitization causes atrophy of the frontal cortex, whereby the activity of the frontal lobes of the brain decreases – in turn making it harder to control your cravings. Going to the bathroom solely to check your Facebook. Hypofrontality is symptomatic of several neurological medical conditions, such as schizophrenia, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), bipolar disorder, and major depressive disorder.
News only shows the exception to the rule, never the rule itself.
We never hear how many people love their spouses, yet we get bombarded with how many are murdered or raped.
We only hear about war, never about peace.
Almost all of us never experienced a terrorist attack, yet we find it normal to give up all my privacy at the airport and on the internet in the name of preventing one.
We overrate terrorism and airplane crashes, we underrate noise pollution and chronic stress.
And because the media never shows their self-reflexive activity, it never writes about itself, we overrate their importance and underrate their negative effect on the collective consciousness of our world.
Needless to say, during my 13-year corporate “Devil Wears Prada” stint; I lived on anti-depressants. Negative, food for thought. When people “crave” dopamine or “feel-goodness” they become depressed, suicidal and miserable. They start ‘searching’ for more and believing that their life sucks. Does it really? They have a home, a job, a car, family etc- no war or poverty, yet they are Les Mis…Hmmm what could be the trigger for this endless despair?
After my “PR era”, I worked in Super-yachting where I lived in a little bubble of bliss. Everything was perfect, nothing was wrong outside of my navigational radar. I definitely became less aggressive, angry or sad and there was ‘less drama’ within my $65m bubble. I NEVER watched the news. I quit the meds, I was happy and I lived my life. The happier I was, the more of the happy shit, I attracted.
Nowadays, my “daily news” turns up, not as a newspaper on my doorstep, but on my feed- Facebook, Insta or Twitter. My wall is now consumed with negativity, sadness and aggression. I’m a firm believer that “misery breeds contempt” or “misery loves company”.
I’m not asking anyone to stop watching the news- if that’s your gig, then enjoy the show. What I am suggesting is to spread more positivity. I used to gag at feeds of friend’s badly photographed dinners (I take first place for that- not the photography, the dinners); baby pictures (week 1, week 2, week 3 and so on) and the “I’m in love, this is my new lover” shit that made me want to throw up in my mouth. But after months of ongoing political bashing (I’m not a supporter of anyone with orange tans or toupee’s) and political dramas showing up in my social feeds, I now long to see stupid cat photos, pathetic lover’s selfies and burnt creme brulee (badly presented in dark lighting.)
Social Media, should be a place where we are “the social”.
Can we not leave the negative news to the news channels that already monopolize our tangible newsstands, primetime TV stations (which we pay for via TV licenses) and airwaves?
Whatever happened to being social (party, gathering, social gathering, social occasion, social event, social function, get-together, celebration, reunion, festivity, jamboree), on social media?
Should we change the platform from “Social Media” to “Newsfeed” and forget why we all actually signed up to “TWIT-IN-your-FACE” altogether?