When you think of sad media, what comes to mind? Maybe it’s news about a war thousands of miles away, maybe a TikTok video that glorifies depression, maybe someone advertising their missing dog in the newspaper?
All of these are examples of sad media. Media that upsets us is all around, on our phones, on our TVs, in our schools, at our family dinners; it’s almost impossible to avoid.
According to Stanford Law School, “The use of social networking sites is associated with an increased risk of depression, anxiety, and psychological distress,” but the actual impact of the specific things you’re consuming is vastly underresearched as student’s perceptions of negative media is subjective and their reactions can differ. Would someone who watches cat videos on their phone all day be just as sad as someone who watches depressing news all day? Does it depend on the person watching the videos?
Teenagers and youth are largely at risk of being negatively affected by the media they see online. This is because their brains are still developing. “It can have an impact because I know at this stage, there is critical brain development,” school psychologist Alondra Anderson said.
In students’ personal experiences, they find that upsetting content affects their mental health. “Sometimes when I see depressing content being posted, it contributes to my mental health. Negative things being posted online are common to see, but I try to scroll past,” senior Zoi Bourazani said.
Although negative content can be detrimental to mental health, it’s hard to ignore. “When I see negative content on social media that I know will make me feel worse, I try to move on to the next post, but it’s hard sometimes as the negative content can often times be pretty intriguing,” senior Jeremy Shapiro said.
Avoiding media would benefit students’ mental health as social media is significantly associated with depression, according to the NIH. “The most efficient thing they could do to avoid negative content is to delete social media as a whole, but that is obviously unrealistic because people are so addicted to it. Maybe the best strategy is to not follow or engage with accounts that consistently post negative content,” Shapiro said.
Avoiding the media may not be realistic as students are dependent on social media to stay updated on their community, be creative, and connect with friends who live far away. Instead, students should aim to minimize their time spent on social media to mitigate the mental health crisis. “Students should try to not be on social media too much and try not to let unhealthy and negative things posted get to them,” Bourazani said.
As bad a reputation as social media and the internet have, they still have their positives. “I think it’s good to have a healthy balance; we can gain good information from social media and the internet, and we’re able to make social gains,” Anderson said.
A media landscape without negative media isn’t realistic because upsetting content gravitates towards receiving higher levels of engagement. “In theory, media news sources should post more positive, happy content, but it’s important to consider that posting negative content is more likely to increase the amount of engagement they get,” Shapiro said.
Others believe the media should include both positive and negative content. “I think it’s good to have a balance, good to be able to present good things, but also we need to be aware of things that are challenging for us,” Anderson said.
