At this time in history, millions of people saturate themselves in a barrage of sensationalized news content daily. Addiction to news increases the propensity toward viewing and rehashing information that affirms one’s opinions and beliefs. Reading or listening to content that carries an emotional charge affects our physiology. These physiological responses sound an alarm and release the neurochemicals that cause us to react. Our reptilian brain interprets this as a matter of life or death! However, it does not prime us to consider the integrity of the source (Use Higher Knowledge: A Rare Credible Source), contemplating another’s perspective, or any form of critical thinking.
Neurochemicals like dopamine reward the finding of ‘facts’ that confirm your beliefs.
Addiction to fact-finding, like addiction to news, is also rising. News sources and groups with particular vested interests have exploited this increasing phenomenon. Whatever you seek, you will find. Everything we hold in thought and emotion carries a vibration. This vibration is our attractor point, and it will bring the data, facts, and experiences to confirm any bias.
What’s driving this addiction? The events of 2020 spilled over and continued into 2021; the confusion, fear, and division have many people in a sea of frontal lobe-suppressing hormones! Making sense of a rapidly changing world and an evolving self has left many in an almost frantic search for truth. Not surprisingly, most sources of information will spoon-feed their followers with facts that fit with one’s already adhered-to beliefs and assumptions about people, politics, and what the consensus deems as right or wrong. Our brains are lazy and love to have mental shortcuts. Why read the book or engage in a tough conversation when you can easily collect and share memes?
Published in 2021, I wrote this blog when this phenomenon spiked over the science of the pandemic. Facts unfolded and what we were told was true changed, but those with vested interests refused to come clean. People became strangely divided, hostile, and mean. Similar challenges are present again in the 2024 political season. Once again, people are falling down nonsensical rabbit holes of emotionally weighted topics of universal insignificance. News sources pattern their content to keep your nervous system activated. It drives your consumption and it will continue until you decide to make healthier choices.
Addiction to News Releases Feel Good Chemicals
Addiction to news is congruous to engaging in addictive substances and behaviors that ease an activated nervous system. A subsequent release of dopamine and other neurotransmitters causes stress hormones to subside. One-sided evidence floods social media news feeds to give you your fix because it feels so good to be ‘right’! Pass it along, and you will feed your fellow addicts, who feel validated and more sure about their opinions about the world around them. If this isn’t enough to confirm your biases, the social media platforms will help you out! Each time you click, you’ll get bombarded with more of the same. It must be a sign.
Not the world, not what’s outside of us, but what we hold inside traps us. We may not be responsible for the world that created our minds, but we can take responsibility for the mind with which we create our world. Gabor Mate
Be in your body, see through a compassionate lens, and feel ‘the truth.’
Uncertain times cloud our thinking and perceptions. Now more than ever, we benefit from activities that ground us and increase body awareness. If you want truer answers, seek them within you, not online. Seeking external information while functioning with an activated nervous system skews your perceptual lens. It pulls you further from your innate ability to discern truth based on how it feels. Reclaim the energies of self. Refuse to be dulled by the lure of instant gratification from consuming divisive rhetoric.
Are you looking to quell those gnawing inner sensations you feel when you go on social media or listen to news updates? Do you or someone you love have an addiction to news consumption?
Pause, breathe, feel the earth beneath your feet, and give thanks for the opportunity to be alive at a time that beckons us to dig a little deeper. Wake from your cerebral fixation and know that all earth’s inhabitants are your family. Rest deeply in the real world, not the media one, and when you rise, feel the sun upon your face and know that the reward of this drug is better than any other.
Please visit my Coaching Service’s page for more information or contact me to book an appointment for support with changing media consumption habits that have become more detrimental than rewarding. May you experience greater empowerment and mastery as you shift toward meaningful ways of being and consuming.
