Obsessive News Consumption Leading to Physical and Mental Health Problems (03.16.23)

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Plain Bible Teaching Podcast

This week we’re talking about how obsessive news consumption can lead to physical and mental health problems. With a 24-hour news cycle and information about events around the world available to us instantly at our fingertips, this is something we need to be careful about. This does not mean we should ignore current events, but we do need to guard against certain things. We’re going to talk about those today.

STORY – Obsessively Watching the News Can Make You Mentally and Physically Sick

“Keeping up with the latest news can be very bad for your health, according to a new study. Researchers at 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.”

[…]

“Study authors found 16.5 percent of participants in their experiment showed signs of ‘severely problematic’ news consumption. That meant they often became so immersed and 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 and inability to sleep.”

[…]

“Almost three-quarters (73.6%) with severe levels of problematic news consumption experienced mental ill-being ‘quite a bit’ or ‘very much’ compared with just eight percent of all participants overall. The study also found that more than three in five (61%) news addicts experienced physical ill-being ‘quite a bit’ or ‘very much’ compared with just six percent of everyone else.” (Study Finds)