People with an obsessive urge to constantly check the news are more likely to suffer from stress, anxiety, and physical ill health, finds a new study published in the peer-reviewed journal Health Communication.
During the last two years we have lived through a series of worrying global events, from the COVID pandemic to Russia invading Ukraine, large-scale protests, mass shootings and devastating wildfires. For many people, reading bad news can make us feel temporarily powerless and distressed.
For others, being exposed to a 24-hour news cycle of continually evolving events can have serious impacts on mental and physical well-being—as these new findings, out today, show, with those who have a high-levels of news addiction reporting “significantly greater physical ill-being.”
“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,” says Bryan McLaughlin, associate professor of advertising at the College of Media and Communication at Texas Tech University.
“For these individuals, a vicious cycle can develop, in which rather than tuning out, they become drawn further in, obsessing over the news and checking for updates around the clock to alleviate their emotional distress. But it doesn’t help, and the more they check the news, the more it begins to interfere with other aspects of their lives.”
To study this phenomenon, known colloquially as news addiction, McLaughlin and his colleagues, Dr. Melissa Gotlieb and Dr. Devin Mills, analyzed data from an online survey of 1,100 US adults.
In the survey, people were asked about the extent to which they agreed with statements like “I become so absorbed in the news that I forget the world around me,” “my mind is frequently occupied with thoughts about the news,” “I find it difficult to stop reading or watching the news,” and “I often do not pay attention at school or work because I am reading or watching the news.”
Respondents were also asked about how often they experienced feelings of stress and anxiety, as well as physical ailments such as fatigue, physical pain, poor concentration, and gastrointestinal issues.
The results revealed that 16.5% of people surveyed showed signs of “severely problematic” news consumption. Such individuals frequent