#media-consumption — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #media-consumption, aggregated by home.social.
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DATE: August 5, 2026 at 12:00PM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG** Research quality varies widely from fantastic to small exploratory studies. Please check research methods when conclusions are very important to you. **
-------------------------------------------------TITLE: Democrats and Republicans show different reactions to unfavorable news
URL: https://www.psypost.org/how-partisans-change-their-news-habits-when-the-headlines-look-bad/
People actively alter how much and what kind of news they read depending on whether the day’s headlines are favorable or unfavorable to their preferred political party. New research published in the American Journal of Political Science demonstrates that news consumption is highly dynamic, with both Democrats and Republicans shifting their browsing habits in response to negative coverage. These shifts can include avoiding hard news, ending a reading session early, or retreating to ideologically aligned outlets.
In the modern media environment, people face an overwhelming amount of information and almost limitless choices about what to read. Researchers have studied how this abundance affects political knowledge, often focusing on two broad behaviors. The first is selective exposure, where individuals seek out news outlets that confirm their existing political beliefs. The second is news avoidance, a behavior where people disengage from current events entirely, often due to feelings of anxiety or information overload. Both behaviors carry implications for a functioning society, as avoiding the news entirely can lead to lower levels of civic engagement and public knowledge.
These behaviors are frequently treated as stable traits, categorizing people as either constant news avoiders or loyal consumers of partisan media. But human behavior is rarely so static. People might feel motivated to read the news during major political events but choose to tune out when the headlines become upsetting or challenge their worldview. When people encounter information that contradicts their core values, they experience a form of psychological discomfort known as cognitive dissonance. To restore mental balance, an individual might actively avoid the source of that discomfort or seek out information that reassures them.
A team of researchers led by Michael Heseltine, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Amsterdam, investigated whether news consumption fluctuates based on immediate political developments. Heseltine, along with political scientists Hennes Barnehl at the University of California San Diego and Magdalena Wojcieszak at the University of California Davis, proposed a concept they call partisan temporal selective avoidance.
They hypothesized that people dynamically adjust their news habits to avoid cognitive dissonance based on whether the current news cycle reflects poorly on their own political party or their opponents. The researchers wanted to know if partisans completely stop reading the news, switch to entertainment stories, or retreat to friendly news outlets when their party faces a scandal.
To test this idea, the researchers analyzed the online browsing histories in a large study of 2,462 adult internet users in the United States over a nine-month period in 2019. The dataset included more than 27 million individual web visits, which the researchers filtered using a comprehensive list of over 5,000 national and local news domains. The researchers used machine learning tools to categorize the visited news articles. They distinguished between hard news, which covers politics and economics, and soft news, which covers topics like local crime, sports, and entertainment.
To accurately assess the political tone of millions of articles, the researchers built two automated text classifiers. They trained these machine learning models using thousands of social media posts from mainstream news organizations like The Associated Press and Reuters. Human coders manually labeled a subset of these posts to teach the software how to identify negative sentiment toward Republican or Democratic politicians. Once trained, the software scanned the titles of the articles in the participants’ browsing histories to determine the political tone of each visit.
The research team evaluated the data on two levels. First, they conducted a macro-level analysis to see how the overall daily news environment affected reading habits. They assigned a daily sentiment score based on whether the dominant news stories of the day were negative toward Democrats or Republicans. By averaging the sentiment of major news coverage over a rolling three-day period, the researchers created a snapshot of the general political climate. Then, they compared these daily scores to the actual browsing behaviors of the study participants.
On this daily level, the researchers found that partisans reacted to unfavorable news cycles in different ways. When the daily news environment was negative toward their own party, Democrats did not decrease their overall news consumption. Instead, they reduced their consumption of hard news, pivoting toward soft news topics. When the news was negative toward Republicans, Democrats consumed more news articles overall.
Republicans exhibited a different pattern in response to the daily news cycle. When the news was negative toward their own party, Republicans slightly increased their overall news consumption. However, this increase was primarily driven by a shift toward ideologically aligned, conservative news outlets. When the daily news cycle was negative toward Democrats, Republicans did not make statistically significant changes to their news consumption.
The researchers also conducted a micro-level analysis to see what happens within an individual browsing session after a person reads a specific article. They tracked users sequentially to measure the immediate effect of reading a negative political story. This allowed the team to see if encountering an unfavorable headline prompted users to abandon the news entirely or seek out different types of content in real time.
At this granular level, reading a negative article about one’s own party reduced the length of the remaining news browsing session. For both Democrats and Republicans, encountering a story that cast their preferred party in a negative light made them more likely to stop reading the news shortly afterward. If Democrats were browsing a mainstream or non-aligned outlet and encountered an unfavorable article, they were slightly more likely to switch to a left-leaning outlet for the remainder of their session. Republicans also exhibited an increase in reading negative news about their own party after an initial exposure, though this often occurred on ideologically aligned platforms.
Encountering negative news about the opposing party also shaped subsequent behavior. For Democrats, reading an article negative toward Republicans slightly decreased the length of their overall reading session. Yet for both groups, exposure to a negative story about the opposition prompted them to seek out a higher proportion of hard news and additional negative news stories before they closed their browsers. This suggests that reading bad news about a political rival can be highly engaging, motivating partisans to dive deeper into political coverage.
The study relies on browsing data from 2019, a period dominated by the first impeachment proceedings against Donald Trump. During this time, the overall news environment was consistently more negative toward Republicans than Democrats. The differences in how Democrats and Republicans adjusted their reading habits might reflect the specific political dynamics of that year rather than permanent psychological differences between the two groups. Future research will need to examine whether these specific partisan differences persist under different political administrations.
The findings are based solely on desktop and laptop web browsing. This data collection method misses news consumed via smartphones, television broadcasts, print media, and radio. As a result, the study captures only a portion of the participants’ total media diets. The research also focuses entirely on the two-party political system of the United States. It remains unknown how people in countries with multiparty systems adjust their news consumption when faced with unfavorable coverage of their preferred political groups.
The study, “Partisan temporal selective news avoidance: Evidence from online trace data,” was authored by Michael Heseltine, Hennes Barnehl, and Magdalena Wojcieszak.
URL: https://www.psypost.org/how-partisans-change-their-news-habits-when-the-headlines-look-bad/
-------------------------------------------------
Private, vetted email list for mental health professionals: https://www.clinicians-exchange.org
Unofficial Psychology Today Xitter to toot feed at Psych Today Unofficial Bot @PTUnofficialBot
-------------------------------------------------
#psychology #counseling #socialwork #psychotherapy @psychotherapist @psychotherapists @psychology @socialpsych @socialwork @psychiatry #mentalhealth #psychiatry #healthcare #depression #psychotherapist #PartisanTemporalSelectiveAvoidance #NewsConsumption #SelectiveExposure #NewsAvoidance #CognitiveDissonance #PoliticalNewsBehavior #Democrats #Republicans #MediaConsumption #PoliticalPsychology
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DATE: August 5, 2026 at 12:00PM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG** Research quality varies widely from fantastic to small exploratory studies. Please check research methods when conclusions are very important to you. **
-------------------------------------------------TITLE: Democrats and Republicans show different reactions to unfavorable news
URL: https://www.psypost.org/how-partisans-change-their-news-habits-when-the-headlines-look-bad/
People actively alter how much and what kind of news they read depending on whether the day’s headlines are favorable or unfavorable to their preferred political party. New research published in the American Journal of Political Science demonstrates that news consumption is highly dynamic, with both Democrats and Republicans shifting their browsing habits in response to negative coverage. These shifts can include avoiding hard news, ending a reading session early, or retreating to ideologically aligned outlets.
In the modern media environment, people face an overwhelming amount of information and almost limitless choices about what to read. Researchers have studied how this abundance affects political knowledge, often focusing on two broad behaviors. The first is selective exposure, where individuals seek out news outlets that confirm their existing political beliefs. The second is news avoidance, a behavior where people disengage from current events entirely, often due to feelings of anxiety or information overload. Both behaviors carry implications for a functioning society, as avoiding the news entirely can lead to lower levels of civic engagement and public knowledge.
These behaviors are frequently treated as stable traits, categorizing people as either constant news avoiders or loyal consumers of partisan media. But human behavior is rarely so static. People might feel motivated to read the news during major political events but choose to tune out when the headlines become upsetting or challenge their worldview. When people encounter information that contradicts their core values, they experience a form of psychological discomfort known as cognitive dissonance. To restore mental balance, an individual might actively avoid the source of that discomfort or seek out information that reassures them.
A team of researchers led by Michael Heseltine, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Amsterdam, investigated whether news consumption fluctuates based on immediate political developments. Heseltine, along with political scientists Hennes Barnehl at the University of California San Diego and Magdalena Wojcieszak at the University of California Davis, proposed a concept they call partisan temporal selective avoidance.
They hypothesized that people dynamically adjust their news habits to avoid cognitive dissonance based on whether the current news cycle reflects poorly on their own political party or their opponents. The researchers wanted to know if partisans completely stop reading the news, switch to entertainment stories, or retreat to friendly news outlets when their party faces a scandal.
To test this idea, the researchers analyzed the online browsing histories in a large study of 2,462 adult internet users in the United States over a nine-month period in 2019. The dataset included more than 27 million individual web visits, which the researchers filtered using a comprehensive list of over 5,000 national and local news domains. The researchers used machine learning tools to categorize the visited news articles. They distinguished between hard news, which covers politics and economics, and soft news, which covers topics like local crime, sports, and entertainment.
To accurately assess the political tone of millions of articles, the researchers built two automated text classifiers. They trained these machine learning models using thousands of social media posts from mainstream news organizations like The Associated Press and Reuters. Human coders manually labeled a subset of these posts to teach the software how to identify negative sentiment toward Republican or Democratic politicians. Once trained, the software scanned the titles of the articles in the participants’ browsing histories to determine the political tone of each visit.
The research team evaluated the data on two levels. First, they conducted a macro-level analysis to see how the overall daily news environment affected reading habits. They assigned a daily sentiment score based on whether the dominant news stories of the day were negative toward Democrats or Republicans. By averaging the sentiment of major news coverage over a rolling three-day period, the researchers created a snapshot of the general political climate. Then, they compared these daily scores to the actual browsing behaviors of the study participants.
On this daily level, the researchers found that partisans reacted to unfavorable news cycles in different ways. When the daily news environment was negative toward their own party, Democrats did not decrease their overall news consumption. Instead, they reduced their consumption of hard news, pivoting toward soft news topics. When the news was negative toward Republicans, Democrats consumed more news articles overall.
Republicans exhibited a different pattern in response to the daily news cycle. When the news was negative toward their own party, Republicans slightly increased their overall news consumption. However, this increase was primarily driven by a shift toward ideologically aligned, conservative news outlets. When the daily news cycle was negative toward Democrats, Republicans did not make statistically significant changes to their news consumption.
The researchers also conducted a micro-level analysis to see what happens within an individual browsing session after a person reads a specific article. They tracked users sequentially to measure the immediate effect of reading a negative political story. This allowed the team to see if encountering an unfavorable headline prompted users to abandon the news entirely or seek out different types of content in real time.
At this granular level, reading a negative article about one’s own party reduced the length of the remaining news browsing session. For both Democrats and Republicans, encountering a story that cast their preferred party in a negative light made them more likely to stop reading the news shortly afterward. If Democrats were browsing a mainstream or non-aligned outlet and encountered an unfavorable article, they were slightly more likely to switch to a left-leaning outlet for the remainder of their session. Republicans also exhibited an increase in reading negative news about their own party after an initial exposure, though this often occurred on ideologically aligned platforms.
Encountering negative news about the opposing party also shaped subsequent behavior. For Democrats, reading an article negative toward Republicans slightly decreased the length of their overall reading session. Yet for both groups, exposure to a negative story about the opposition prompted them to seek out a higher proportion of hard news and additional negative news stories before they closed their browsers. This suggests that reading bad news about a political rival can be highly engaging, motivating partisans to dive deeper into political coverage.
The study relies on browsing data from 2019, a period dominated by the first impeachment proceedings against Donald Trump. During this time, the overall news environment was consistently more negative toward Republicans than Democrats. The differences in how Democrats and Republicans adjusted their reading habits might reflect the specific political dynamics of that year rather than permanent psychological differences between the two groups. Future research will need to examine whether these specific partisan differences persist under different political administrations.
The findings are based solely on desktop and laptop web browsing. This data collection method misses news consumed via smartphones, television broadcasts, print media, and radio. As a result, the study captures only a portion of the participants’ total media diets. The research also focuses entirely on the two-party political system of the United States. It remains unknown how people in countries with multiparty systems adjust their news consumption when faced with unfavorable coverage of their preferred political groups.
The study, “Partisan temporal selective news avoidance: Evidence from online trace data,” was authored by Michael Heseltine, Hennes Barnehl, and Magdalena Wojcieszak.
URL: https://www.psypost.org/how-partisans-change-their-news-habits-when-the-headlines-look-bad/
-------------------------------------------------
Private, vetted email list for mental health professionals: https://www.clinicians-exchange.org
Unofficial Psychology Today Xitter to toot feed at Psych Today Unofficial Bot @PTUnofficialBot
-------------------------------------------------
#psychology #counseling #socialwork #psychotherapy @psychotherapist @psychotherapists @psychology @socialpsych @socialwork @psychiatry #mentalhealth #psychiatry #healthcare #depression #psychotherapist #PartisanTemporalSelectiveAvoidance #NewsConsumption #SelectiveExposure #NewsAvoidance #CognitiveDissonance #PoliticalNewsBehavior #Democrats #Republicans #MediaConsumption #PoliticalPsychology
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"At the bare minimum, try to take the things you see online with a grain of salt. Verify your sources before accepting anything at face value. If you see something that immediately fills you with rage, maybe fact-check it before flying off the handle and spreading it around to the dumbest people you know."
—Nicole
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DC4GwPPmTc8 -
"At the bare minimum, try to take the things you see online with a grain of salt. Verify your sources before accepting anything at face value. If you see something that immediately fills you with rage, maybe fact-check it before flying off the handle and spreading it around to the dumbest people you know."
—Nicole
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DC4GwPPmTc8 -
DATE: July 31, 2026 at 05:00AM
SOURCE:
NEW YORK TIMES PSYCHOLOGY AND PSYCHOLOGISTS FEEDTITLE: In a World of Mirrors, Everything Is Strange
URL: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/31/opinion/face-self-reflection-technology-video.html
Staring at ourselves on screens, on video and on social media is taking us to a dark place.
URL: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/31/opinion/face-self-reflection-technology-video.html
-------------------------------------------------
Private, vetted email list for mental health professionals: https://www.clinicians-exchange.org
Unofficial Psychology Today Xitter to toot feed at Psych Today Unofficial Bot @PTUnofficialBot
-------------------------------------------------
#psychology #counseling #socialwork #psychotherapy @psychotherapist @psychotherapists @psychology @socialpsych @socialwork @psychiatry #mentalhealth #psychiatry #healthcare #depression #psychotherapist #InAMirrorWorld #EverythingIsStrange #SelfReflection #Screens #SocialMediaDarkness #DigitalIdentity #SelfImage #MediaConsumption #TechAddiction #VisualCulture
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DATE: July 31, 2026 at 05:00AM
SOURCE:
NEW YORK TIMES PSYCHOLOGY AND PSYCHOLOGISTS FEEDTITLE: In a World of Mirrors, Everything Is Strange
URL: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/31/opinion/face-self-reflection-technology-video.html
Staring at ourselves on screens, on video and on social media is taking us to a dark place.
URL: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/31/opinion/face-self-reflection-technology-video.html
-------------------------------------------------
Private, vetted email list for mental health professionals: https://www.clinicians-exchange.org
Unofficial Psychology Today Xitter to toot feed at Psych Today Unofficial Bot @PTUnofficialBot
-------------------------------------------------
#psychology #counseling #socialwork #psychotherapy @psychotherapist @psychotherapists @psychology @socialpsych @socialwork @psychiatry #mentalhealth #psychiatry #healthcare #depression #psychotherapist #InAMirrorWorld #EverythingIsStrange #SelfReflection #Screens #SocialMediaDarkness #DigitalIdentity #SelfImage #MediaConsumption #TechAddiction #VisualCulture
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DATE: July 15, 2026 at 07:00AM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG** Research quality varies widely from fantastic to small exploratory studies. Please check research methods when conclusions are very important to you. **
-------------------------------------------------TITLE: Short-video viewing temporarily shuts down cognitive control networks, study finds
Watching preferred short videos may temporarily quiet brain regions involved in self-control and monitoring, and this effect could be linked to levels of the brain chemical glutamate. This research was published in NeuroImage.
Short-video platforms are built around quick, engaging clips that users can continue or skip within seconds. These platforms can be entertaining and harmless for many people, but researchers have become increasingly interested in why some users find them difficult to stop using. One possible explanation is that immersive, pleasurable viewing may reduce the need for active monitoring and self-control.
The new study focused on two brain regions: the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex and the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. The dorsal anterior cingulate cortex helps detect conflict, monitor behavior, and decide when more mental effort is needed. The dorsolateral prefrontal cortex is involved in applying control, such as staying focused or resisting distraction. Together, these areas help people regulate behavior in situations where attention and self-control are required.
The researchers also examined two brain chemicals. Glutamate is the brain’s main excitatory neurotransmitter, meaning it helps increase neural activity. Gamma-aminobutyric acid, or GABA, is the brain’s main inhibitory neurotransmitter, meaning it helps reduce or regulate neural activity. The team wanted to know whether these chemicals, measured at rest, could help explain why people differ in how strongly their cognitive control network responds during short-video viewing.
Led by Tiantian Hong of Zhejiang University in China, the researchers recruited 66 young adults. After excluding participants because of excessive head movement or poor-quality brain chemistry scans, the final sample included 56 people with an average age of about 23 years. The sample included 19 females.
Participants first underwent proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy, a brain imaging technique used to estimate glutamate and GABA concentrations in the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex. They then completed a short-video viewing task during functional magnetic resonance imaging, which measures changes in brain activity. Participants watched two six-minute blocks of videos and could press a button to skip to the next video whenever they wanted. Videos watched to the end were treated as “liked,” while videos skipped before halfway were treated as “disliked.”
The main finding was that liked videos were associated with significant deactivation in both cognitive control regions. In other words, when participants watched videos that they allowed to continue, activity in the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex fell below baseline.
Disliked videos demonstrated a different pattern. During these videos, activity in the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex did not significantly differ from baseline, while the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex was still suppressed. The visual cortex, which processes visual information, was active during both liked and disliked videos, suggesting the results were not simply because participants were looking at a screen.
Hong and colleagues also found that people with higher resting glutamate in the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex showed less suppression of both cognitive control regions during video viewing. GABA was not significantly associated with activity in these regions. The authors concluded that immersive viewing of preferred short videos deactivates the cognitive control network, and individual differences in this deactivation are linked to glutamate metabolism.
Interestingly, connectivity between the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex increased during short-video viewing, especially for liked videos. The authors caution that this does not necessarily mean stronger self-control. Instead, they suggest the two regions may be jointly downregulated during preferred viewing, producing a more coordinated pattern of reduced activity.
Some limitations are to be noted. For example, the study did not assess short-video addiction or compulsive use in detail, and “liked” videos were defined by whether participants kept watching rather than by explicit post-viewing ratings. In addition, the study only recruited young adults with a predominantly male makeup, which limits the generalizability of the findings.
The study, “Brain activity inhibition during Short Video Viewing: neurochemical insights,” was authored by Tiantian Hong, Conghui Su, Hui Zhou, Fengji Geng, and Yuzheng Hu.
-------------------------------------------------
Private, vetted email list for mental health professionals: https://www.clinicians-exchange.org
Unofficial Psychology Today Xitter to toot feed at Psych Today Unofficial Bot @PTUnofficialBot
-------------------------------------------------
#psychology #counseling #socialwork #psychotherapy @psychotherapist @psychotherapists @psychology @socialpsych @socialwork @psychiatry #mentalhealth #psychiatry #healthcare #depression #psychotherapist #ShortVideoViewing #CognitiveControl #DorsolateralPrefrontalCortex #DACC #Glutamate #GABA #NeuroImage #BrainChemistry #MediaConsumption #SelfControl
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DATE: July 15, 2026 at 07:00AM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG** Research quality varies widely from fantastic to small exploratory studies. Please check research methods when conclusions are very important to you. **
-------------------------------------------------TITLE: Short-video viewing temporarily shuts down cognitive control networks, study finds
Watching preferred short videos may temporarily quiet brain regions involved in self-control and monitoring, and this effect could be linked to levels of the brain chemical glutamate. This research was published in NeuroImage.
Short-video platforms are built around quick, engaging clips that users can continue or skip within seconds. These platforms can be entertaining and harmless for many people, but researchers have become increasingly interested in why some users find them difficult to stop using. One possible explanation is that immersive, pleasurable viewing may reduce the need for active monitoring and self-control.
The new study focused on two brain regions: the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex and the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. The dorsal anterior cingulate cortex helps detect conflict, monitor behavior, and decide when more mental effort is needed. The dorsolateral prefrontal cortex is involved in applying control, such as staying focused or resisting distraction. Together, these areas help people regulate behavior in situations where attention and self-control are required.
The researchers also examined two brain chemicals. Glutamate is the brain’s main excitatory neurotransmitter, meaning it helps increase neural activity. Gamma-aminobutyric acid, or GABA, is the brain’s main inhibitory neurotransmitter, meaning it helps reduce or regulate neural activity. The team wanted to know whether these chemicals, measured at rest, could help explain why people differ in how strongly their cognitive control network responds during short-video viewing.
Led by Tiantian Hong of Zhejiang University in China, the researchers recruited 66 young adults. After excluding participants because of excessive head movement or poor-quality brain chemistry scans, the final sample included 56 people with an average age of about 23 years. The sample included 19 females.
Participants first underwent proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy, a brain imaging technique used to estimate glutamate and GABA concentrations in the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex. They then completed a short-video viewing task during functional magnetic resonance imaging, which measures changes in brain activity. Participants watched two six-minute blocks of videos and could press a button to skip to the next video whenever they wanted. Videos watched to the end were treated as “liked,” while videos skipped before halfway were treated as “disliked.”
The main finding was that liked videos were associated with significant deactivation in both cognitive control regions. In other words, when participants watched videos that they allowed to continue, activity in the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex fell below baseline.
Disliked videos demonstrated a different pattern. During these videos, activity in the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex did not significantly differ from baseline, while the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex was still suppressed. The visual cortex, which processes visual information, was active during both liked and disliked videos, suggesting the results were not simply because participants were looking at a screen.
Hong and colleagues also found that people with higher resting glutamate in the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex showed less suppression of both cognitive control regions during video viewing. GABA was not significantly associated with activity in these regions. The authors concluded that immersive viewing of preferred short videos deactivates the cognitive control network, and individual differences in this deactivation are linked to glutamate metabolism.
Interestingly, connectivity between the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex increased during short-video viewing, especially for liked videos. The authors caution that this does not necessarily mean stronger self-control. Instead, they suggest the two regions may be jointly downregulated during preferred viewing, producing a more coordinated pattern of reduced activity.
Some limitations are to be noted. For example, the study did not assess short-video addiction or compulsive use in detail, and “liked” videos were defined by whether participants kept watching rather than by explicit post-viewing ratings. In addition, the study only recruited young adults with a predominantly male makeup, which limits the generalizability of the findings.
The study, “Brain activity inhibition during Short Video Viewing: neurochemical insights,” was authored by Tiantian Hong, Conghui Su, Hui Zhou, Fengji Geng, and Yuzheng Hu.
-------------------------------------------------
Private, vetted email list for mental health professionals: https://www.clinicians-exchange.org
Unofficial Psychology Today Xitter to toot feed at Psych Today Unofficial Bot @PTUnofficialBot
-------------------------------------------------
#psychology #counseling #socialwork #psychotherapy @psychotherapist @psychotherapists @psychology @socialpsych @socialwork @psychiatry #mentalhealth #psychiatry #healthcare #depression #psychotherapist #ShortVideoViewing #CognitiveControl #DorsolateralPrefrontalCortex #DACC #Glutamate #GABA #NeuroImage #BrainChemistry #MediaConsumption #SelfControl
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Yesterday before dozing off I cranked out something - inspired by the prompt at IndieWeb Nürnberg 2026!
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The sessions were wonderful as always and it was so great to meet cool folks virtually...!---
#indieweb #indiewebcamp #remote #neocities #mediaconsumption #intentionalliving #slowliving #weekend
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Yesterday before dozing off I cranked out something - inspired by the prompt at IndieWeb Nürnberg 2026!
---
The sessions were wonderful as always and it was so great to meet cool folks virtually...!---
#indieweb #indiewebcamp #remote #neocities #mediaconsumption #intentionalliving #slowliving #weekend
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ICYMI: News sites are dying - social media and chatbots are eating the audience: Oxford's RISJ 2026 Digital News Report finds social media beats publisher websites in 30 of 48 markets while AI chatbot news use climbs to 10%, up from 7%. https://ppc.land/news-sites-are-dying-social-media-and-chatbots-are-eating-the-audience/ #DigitalNews #SocialMedia #AIChatbots #NewsTrends #MediaConsumption
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ICYMI: News sites are dying - social media and chatbots are eating the audience: Oxford's RISJ 2026 Digital News Report finds social media beats publisher websites in 30 of 48 markets while AI chatbot news use climbs to 10%, up from 7%. https://ppc.land/news-sites-are-dying-social-media-and-chatbots-are-eating-the-audience/ #DigitalNews #SocialMedia #AIChatbots #NewsTrends #MediaConsumption
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BEST MAGAZINE OFFERS UNPACKED AS CONSUMER HABITS SHIFT
BEST Magazine offers 51 weekly digital issues for a year. Find out how this deal reflects changing media habits and what it means for readers.
#BESTMagazine, #DigitalSubscription, #EntertainmentNews, #FashionTrends, #MediaConsumption
https://newsletter.tf/best-magazine-weekly-digital-delivery-subscription/
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BEST Magazine is now offering weekly digital deliveries for 51 issues over one year. This is a new way to get your favourite entertainment and fashion news.
#BESTMagazine, #DigitalSubscription, #EntertainmentNews, #FashionTrends, #MediaConsumption
https://newsletter.tf/best-magazine-weekly-digital-delivery-subscription/ -
ICYMI: Smart TVs overtake computers as Britain's second podcast screen: 45% of UK monthly podcast consumers now watch on smart TVs, Signal Hill finds, with 84% already watching video - far ahead of the US at 62% and Canada at 75%. https://ppc.land/smart-tvs-overtake-computers-as-britains-second-podcast-screen/ #SmartTVs #Podcasting #VideoStreaming #UKPodcast #MediaConsumption
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ICYMI: 94% of Americans now listen to online audio weekly - what it means for ads: Edison Research data shows 94% of monthly online audio listeners now tune in weekly, up from 57% in 2006, a shift advertisers cannot ignore in budget planning. https://ppc.land/94-of-americans-now-listen-to-online-audio-weekly-what-it-means-for-ads/ #OnlineAudio #DigitalMarketing #AdvertisingTrends #MarketingStrategy #MediaConsumption
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ICYMI: 94% of Americans now listen to online audio weekly - what it means for ads: Edison Research data shows 94% of monthly online audio listeners now tune in weekly, up from 57% in 2006, a shift advertisers cannot ignore in budget planning. https://ppc.land/94-of-americans-now-listen-to-online-audio-weekly-what-it-means-for-ads/ #OnlineAudio #DigitalMarketing #AdvertisingTrends #MarketingStrategy #MediaConsumption
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ICYMI: Podstock data: Spotify drives 1.5x more podcast listening time than YouTube: Podstock benchmarks show Spotify podcast streams generate 1.5x more minutes than YouTube views, but discovery spikes push average time spent down across shows. https://ppc.land/podstock-data-spotify-drives-1-5x-more-podcast-listening-time-than-youtube/ #Podcasting #Spotify #YouTube #Podcasts #MediaConsumption
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ICYMI: Australians spend 21 hours a week streaming - and the data shows where: Ipsos iris and IAB Australia's March 2026 Digital Landscape Report maps 22.66M online Australians, their devices, and streaming habits across all age groups. https://ppc.land/australians-spend-21-hours-a-week-streaming-and-the-data-shows-where/ #StreamingAustralia #DigitalLandscape #OnlineHabits #MediaConsumption #StreamingReport
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FYI: Irish digital audio hits COVID-era highs, and advertisers are noticing: IAB Ireland's Listen Up 2026 finds 76% weekly reach, 16.6 hours consumed, and digital audio ads ranked second for claimed attention across all media in Ireland. https://ppc.land/irish-digital-audio-hits-covid-era-highs-and-advertisers-are-noticing/ #DigitalAudio #COVID19 #Advertising #IABIreland #MediaConsumption
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ICYMI: 96% of advertisers back audio as Bauer study exposes glaring investment gap: Sound Check Europe 2026: 96% of advertisers will hold or grow audio spend, yet audio captures only 5% of ad investment despite one-fifth of media consumption. https://ppc.land/96-of-advertisers-back-audio-as-bauer-study-exposes-glaring-investment-gap/ #AudioMarketing #Advertising #MediaConsumption #DigitalMarketing #AdSpend
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ICYMI: 96% of advertisers back audio as Bauer study exposes glaring investment gap: Sound Check Europe 2026: 96% of advertisers will hold or grow audio spend, yet audio captures only 5% of ad investment despite one-fifth of media consumption. https://ppc.land/96-of-advertisers-back-audio-as-bauer-study-exposes-glaring-investment-gap/ #AudioMarketing #Advertising #MediaConsumption #DigitalMarketing #AdSpend
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Zap! What television programmers invented and Silicon Valley perfected - part 2 www.linkedin.com/pulse/zap-what… #history #mediaConsumption #television #SocialMedia #moralPanics
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Zap! What television programmers invented and Silicon Valley perfected - part 2 www.linkedin.com/pulse/zap-what… #history #mediaConsumption #television #SocialMedia #moralPanics
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Americans Spend an Average of 6.3 Hours Daily on Mobile Devices; Older Users Log Up to 358 Minutes Across 17 Apps By Adam Blacker | Apptopia We took a look at Apptopia’s U.S. consumer panel data ...
#apps #Business #chart #Consumer-Behavior #ConsumerTrends #Internet #media-consumption #news #Social-Media #Technology
Origin | Interest | Match -
Media producers have a #bias. Would be nice to have a #tool that assists with our #mediaconsumption. Not so much as a #censor, but as an informer. An #app that pre-digests #content, and then serves it with additional information to understand what and why something is presented to us, in a specific manner. All with the aim to reduce #cognitiveload and supporting #criticalthinking powered consumption of media consumption, in a #content #saturated #environment.
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Media producers have a #bias. Would be nice to have a #tool that assists with our #mediaconsumption. Not so much as a #censor, but as an informer. An #app that pre-digests #content, and then serves it with additional information to understand what and why something is presented to us, in a specific manner. All with the aim to reduce #cognitiveload and supporting #criticalthinking powered consumption of media consumption, in a #content #saturated #environment.
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Broadband TV News: Older viewers drive YouTube’s long-form growth. “Based on a 56,000-respondent global tracker, Ampere says 85% of internet users now watch YouTube each month, with 18% of users reporting that they watch full-length movies and TV shows on the platform. The strongest engagement with this long-form catalogue sits among 35-64-year-olds, challenging perceptions of YouTube as a […]
https://rbfirehose.com/2025/11/12/broadband-tv-news-older-viewers-drive-youtubes-long-form-growth/
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Here is my #MonthlySummary with the media I consumed during July.
Also my second post for #Blaugust2025, or maybe the first, besides the introduction/announcement, I guess
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Here is my #MonthlySummary with the media I consumed during July.
Also my second post for #Blaugust2025, or maybe the first, besides the introduction/announcement, I guess
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»#Meta is reportedly working on an #ultralight #VRheadset that is specially designed for #mediaconsumption and #immersivevideos and is set to be launched in 2026.« https://www.heise.de/en/news/Report-Meta-plans-lightweight-premium-VR-glasses-for-media-consumption-10429842.html?Metaver.se #Metaverse #VirtualWorlds #XR #VR #MR #AR #BeyondPictures
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»#Meta is reportedly working on an #ultralight #VRheadset that is specially designed for #mediaconsumption and #immersivevideos and is set to be launched in 2026.« https://www.heise.de/en/news/Report-Meta-plans-lightweight-premium-VR-glasses-for-media-consumption-10429842.html?Metaver.se #Metaverse #VirtualWorlds #XR #VR #MR #AR #BeyondPictures
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🎭 "I Am an Audience"—the gripping saga of a man who heroically conquers the monumental task of consuming media without actually producing anything. 🎬 Spoiler alert: After a marathon of indecision and #procrastination, his magnum opus remains a figment of his #imagination. 📚🤯
https://ratsfromrocks.substack.com/p/i-am-an-audience-first-and-foremost #IAmAnAudience #MediaConsumption #CreativeStruggles #HackerNews #ngated -
🎭 "I Am an Audience"—the gripping saga of a man who heroically conquers the monumental task of consuming media without actually producing anything. 🎬 Spoiler alert: After a marathon of indecision and #procrastination, his magnum opus remains a figment of his #imagination. 📚🤯
https://ratsfromrocks.substack.com/p/i-am-an-audience-first-and-foremost #IAmAnAudience #MediaConsumption #CreativeStruggles #HackerNews #ngated -
Tubefilter: Two-thirds of U.S. consumers see YouTube as a “realistic destination” for movies and TV shows. “YouTube‘s success on TV screens is legitimizing it in the eyes of the average American consumer. That’s the main takeaway from a survey conducted by Looper Insights; the firm found that two-thirds of respondents agreed with the idea that YouTube is a ‘realistic destination’ for […]
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Global Media Consumption Will Decline This Year For First Time Since 2009 – Study
#News #Media #Mediaconsumption #PQMedia #Research #Televisionhttps://deadline.com/2025/04/global-media-consumption-will-decline-2025-study-1236370369/
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Global Media Consumption Will Decline This Year For First Time Since 2009 – Study
#News #Media #Mediaconsumption #PQMedia #Research #Televisionhttps://deadline.com/2025/04/global-media-consumption-will-decline-2025-study-1236370369/
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Put guardrails on your news intake! Consider your media diet an intentional choice.
Don’t let the 24-hour news cycle dictate your day.
Choose your medium and dedicate a specific time to consume news.
For me, it means zero news on social media during non-working hours.
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Put guardrails on your news intake! Consider your media diet an intentional choice.
Don’t let the 24-hour news cycle dictate your day.
Choose your medium and dedicate a specific time to consume news.
For me, it means zero news on social media during non-working hours.
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When news is stressful, how do you balance staying informed with ‘doomscrolling’?
#SocialMedia #News #Doomscrolling #MentalHealth #Internet #StayInformed #Mindfulness #SelfCare #DigitalWellbeing #ScreenTime #Media #MediaConsumption #Balance #HealthyHabits
https://the-14.com/when-news-is-stressful-how-do-you-balance-staying-informed-with-doomscrolling/ -
I have to admit that in the last few years I have been watching quite a lot of videos on YouTube, but I am growing more and more tired of these 10 minute chunks of unrelated stuff that are not going anywhere. Not sure whether I have changed or the YouTube community, but I guess it frees me up to seek some longer videos, video series, and books. Anyone feeling the same?
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I have to admit that in the last few years I have been watching quite a lot of videos on YouTube, but I am growing more and more tired of these 10 minute chunks of unrelated stuff that are not going anywhere. Not sure whether I have changed or the YouTube community, but I guess it frees me up to seek some longer videos, video series, and books. Anyone feeling the same?
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We need to talk about Fiji
It’s 1995. A momentous event is about to rock the lives of the inhabitants of the island of Fiji, in the South Pacific: the arrival of television.
The island has enjoyed the convenience of electricity for only 10 years up to that point. And in the mid 1990s, it is one of the last so-called “media naive” societies in the world.
Things are about to change. Dramatically so.
Why am I turning my attention to Fiji and the profound changes brought by the arrival of television? Because what happened in Fiji – the speed of change and (spoiler alert!) the worsening of mental and physical well being of its inhabitants – is disturbing. It is the quintessential example of the tremendous influence and impact of media on people’s lives.
Let’s frame the story of Fiji through the lens of our present world. Because in hundreds of countries around the world, the arrival of smartphones and social media platforms brought cataclysmic changes – just like in Fiji in 1995.
Let’s think about Fiji first. And then let’s turn our attention to the present world – especially the lives of teenage girls.
The Fiji Study: Mass Media and Beauty Ideals
Dr. Anne Becker, a researcher from Harvard University, has been conducting groundbreaking studies about the body image of Fijians since the early 1980s.
When she first arrives on the island, in 1981, she is struck by how, traditionally, the ultimate beauty ideal in Fiji – for both men and women – is to have a robust body. Being thin is seen as a negative attribute – something to be avoided at all costs.
I interviewed Dr. Becker for my documentary The Illusionists but the footage ended up on the cutting room floor – I couldn’t find a way to organically include her testimony in the film, as I felt she deserved her own documentary. I am now resurfacing the transcripts from our interview for this story.
Dr. Becker:
So for women and men there was definitely an overarching theme that characterized beauty across both genders in Fiji. There was an appreciation of a robust body size. So people would refer to a woman, or a man, or a child as being chumubina which meant robust and having grown very well. And that really connoted a strength to work in physical labor, which is of course demanded in the village. Most of the villagers are farmers they have plantations which they farm every day, and it’s grueling work. It’s very hard work and in order to do it you need to be strong.
Television arrives on the island of Fiji in 1995. Initially, there is only one TV channel that broadcasts shows from 4pm until 11pm. Aside from one locally produced program about current affairs, all the other shows come from abroad: Beverly Hills 90210, Melrose Place, ER and Seinfeld.
Fast-forward to 1998: Dr. Becker returns to the island just three years after the arrival of television and finds that traditional values and aspirations have been completely upended.
The island’s beauty icon is now Heather Locklear.
Teenage girls suddenly aspire to be thin – and many of them develop eating disorders.
Dr Becker:
Probably eating disorders were non-existent or very rare in Fiji prior to the introduction of television. When we did our study between 1995 and 1998 our study found about 11 percent of girls admitted to having purged to lose weight – which really stunned me actually. It didn’t just surprise me, it stunned me. That to me was very similar to what I would expect to see in a secondary school in Massachusetts. We did go back in 2007 and the prevalence of numbers had gotten so high that it was beyond what I would see here in the United States, and it really struck me as that there was this epidemic of symptoms. That was a quiet epidemic… nobody was talking about this. We looked at how frequently the girls themselves viewed TV. We looked at how frequently their parents viewed TV. And of their five best friends how many of them have a TV in their home? And I had this nagging feeling, if this is a direct exposure of TV on body image and behaviors that lead to dieting. If you look at all the scientific literature on the relation of television to eating pathology or body dissatisfaction, in aggregate there’s a undeniable relationship.
The Present-Day Parallel: Social Media, Unattainable Beauty Ideals and Anxiety
Fast-forward to the present day: from Los Angeles passing through London, Mumbai and Sydney, Australia, most teenagers own smartphones and spend up to 7 hours a day consuming digital content. Numerous studies have shown a teen mental illness epidemic, starting around 2012.
Whereas watching television is a passive endeavor, smartphones and social platforms are fully interactive. Algorithms learn about what interests us (via clicks and pauses over the screen) and keep serving us content that will keep us hooked. Paraphrasing the words of Tristan Harris, co-founder of the Center for Humane Technology, there are now thousands of people behind the screen, whose job is to keep us connected and scrolling for as long as possible.
In September 2021 Frances Haugen, a former Facebook employee turned whistleblower, made headlines by leaking internal documents that shed light on how Facebook (now Meta Platforms, Inc.) prioritized user engagement and profit over user well-being.
A Wall Street Journal report – a series called “The Facebook Files” – featured internal documents that showed an awareness by Facebook/Meta that their platform Instagram was “toxic” for teenage girls.
The article is now behind a paywall, but according to this summary by CNBC:
The Journal cited Facebook studies over the past three years that examined how Instagram affects its young user base, with teenage girls being most notably harmed. One internal Facebook presentation said that among teens who reported suicidal thoughts, 13% of British users and 6% of American users traced the issue to Instagram.
“Thirty-two percent of teen girls said that when they felt bad about their bodies, Instagram made them feel worse,” the researchers reportedly wrote. Facebook also reportedly found that 14% of boys in the U.S. said Instagram made them feel worse about themselves.
Haugen’s disclosures indicated that Facebook’s algorithms were designed to prioritize content that garnered more user engagement. The whistleblower’s revelations briefly sparked discussions about the need for increased transparency, regulation, and responsible content promotion on social media platforms – in order to mitigate the adverse effects on users’ mental health and body image.
And yet.
Today, two YEARS later, not much has changed. We are still witnessing lots of resistance establishing a link between the rise of anxiety and depression and screen time (especially time spent on social media).
The Fiji study was a symbol of the immense power of media and media representation.
The negative effects happening today due to unbridled smartphone and social media use go much further. Today we are constantly exposed to unattainable body ideals AND unattainable life ideals. The pressure to be good looking, in a good job, in a good relationship offline – and to constantly share and be seen online. Younger generations feel this pressures more intensely, as they have “grown up online.”
New York Times: Being 13
I invite you to read Jessica Bennett’s superb piece “Being 13” in the New York Times, which followed several 13 year old girls over the span of a year.
An excerpt:
The long-term effects of social media on the teenage brain have not yet been defined, much less proven — which isn’t to say it’s all bad. But adolescent girls have long struggled with depression and anxiety at disproportionate rates compared with their male peers, a reality that metastasized during the pandemic.
What is known is that at age 13, a person is still more than a decade away from having a fully developed prefrontal cortex, the part of the brain responsible for decision-making and impulse control. In other words, adolescents are moving into this messy digital world at a time when they desire social attention most — and are not yet wired for restraint. “It’s all gas pedal and no brakes,” said Mitch Prinstein, the chief science officer of the American Psychological Association, who testified before the Senate on the subject earlier this year.
For adults, it’s become common to name the things that make women more likely to face burnout and stress. Many of us talk about this “mental load.” But girls have a mental load, too — in facing the age-old pressure to be good enough, pretty enough, kind enough, popular enough, but now on multiple platforms, too.
I found the article illuminating – the girls featured in it and their parents were thoughtful and mature beyond their years. The comment section also provided a lot of food for thought. I saved the most compelling comments I came across – much in line with the ethos of The Realists. I would like to share them with you here, as they are powerful testimonies of a world that has completely changed in the span of only two decades:
Pandora’s Box
From Natalie in Florida (emphasis mine):
As the mom of a 13 year old, I’d say these examples over-represent tech-involved/concerned parents. At least half of my daughter’s friends have been handed a smart phone with no limits and no parental oversight.
Personally, we’ve told our kids they can’t have social media accounts until they’re 16, but that doesn’t keep them from all the videos their friends show them, and more importantly – the culture that social media is creating around them.
I wish we could take a few steps back from (or just pause) the technology we’ve unleashed into the world. What if there was a process for determining where and how it can be beneficial (similar to the FDA’s evaluation/ approval for new medication)? And building a process for implementing parameters when peer-reviewed literature substantiates harm? Instead we’ve opened Pandora’s box, and the technology is outpacing our ability to apply it healthily. Now, as soon as it’s developed, the public (including children) gains access, and there is no recourse when it causes harm.
Obviously this is a nuanced issue, and I’m not arguing for a nanny state. But as I tell my kids: Until you can show me evidence that the benefit outweighs the harm, we’re not inviting it into our kids’ lives. They have enough challenges to deal with. If having “strict/boring” parents is one of them, that’s a right of passage I can live with.
The Digital Economic Divide
A comment from “X” in New England (emphasis mine):
I have a 13 year old boy who just started 8th grade in a very economically stratified school.
Among the kids of parents in science, tech and higher ed, many of the kids don’t have phones. Apple Watches with a simple cell plan for texting are pretty common. A few kids have phones, but very locked down/no social media.
A lot of other kids have had phones and social media since 4th or 5th grade – well before age 13. In 6th & 7th grade (again, well before age 13), there were a lot of classroom distractions because of phones, like kids posting TikToks in the middle of classes. Amazingly, the school administration did nothing to little to stop it.
The real digital divide in our community seems to be that upper income/education families are opting out, while lower income kids are getting a lot of phone/screen time.
An Impossible Situation
A comment from “JD” in Rhode Island, US (emphasis mine):
My 12 year daughter attends a school where the parents have actively resisted giving kids smartphones. Yet they still often have Apple watches or in my daughter’s case, a Light phone (only texts and calls) so that we can contact her. (Remember many families don’t have landlines any more! Until she got the Light phone, there was no way for her to call 911 while at home alone.) However, when she went to day camp this summer, she said every single kid her age had a smartphone and instead of socializing they looked at their phones. Since she did not have one, she was completely isolated. This is the situation I imagine most middle school girls are in. Without a phone: pure social isolation. With a phone: distraction and anxiety. It’s an impossible situation.
Wrapping Up
The Harvard study by Anne Becker on the impact of Western media on body image and eating disorders in Fiji serves as a powerful reminder of mass media’s profound influence on well-being.
The parallels between this study and the present-day epidemic of social media-induced anxiety highlight the enduring nature of this issue.
Our politicians and business and health leaders still refuse to establish a clear link between the rise of anxiety and depression and the impact of smartphones and social media. At least that’s the case today. We have been wasting so much time creating adequate protections for our young ones online – and raising awareness about the dark side of tech and social media for people young and old. If you are interested in this issue and want to dig deeper into studies about the deleterious effects of social media/tech on young people’s mental health, I highly recommend Jon Haidt’s Substack.
The apathy has to stop here and now.
We need to create a movement, to build awareness and momentum around these issues. This newsletter is my act of resistance and my little contribution.
If you are equally concerned about the unbridled nature of technology and social media, how they are impacting our lives, please share this with people you care about.
#AnneBecker #comparisonAnxiety #Fiji #health #mediaConsumption #mediaLiteracy #mentalHealth #socialMedia
