When we talk about media today, and about its impact on us, then many will first think of the relatively new social media and its effect on the children and the younger generation. However, in this article I would like to look back a bit further, looking at the effect of newspapers, radio and television, which already has had a big impact on the older generation for a long time. This is not such a common topic, although this type of media has a massive effect on people then and now. And still, there is little understanding for its effect in the general public.
Modern social media is sometimes regarded as a distraction from direct social interaction with the people around us. We consider the possibility that it enables and even demands a distorted and optimized self-presentation, and confronts its users with unrealistic ideals of success and beauty. Both has already become a real problem due to movies and television. Also, we cannot discuss with newspapers and televisions, they are not made for a conversation. These types of media simply deliver a program to us. They inform us. They get us in from. It is a fully one-sided stream of information. So what happens to a human who is consuming this?
We humans process everything we observe. We want to sort out every impression delivered to us by our senses. Unknown noises make us nervous and uneasy. Unknown smells trouble us. An unknown taste will also make us worried, unless it was announced by a chef who we trust. Unknown things in our field of view make us disconcerted. Luckily we are familiar with almost everything that sows up in our daily life. So we can relax. For some, life even gets too boring. And this is where television and cinema come into play. In movies, there are new, unknown things. We can experience the excitement, the tension that we are missing in our eventless daily life. Our jobs, our life has become dull, and the entertainment industry gives us the substitute gratification in front of the screen.
That comes with several risks. It is a thread for our physical and mental health. On the one hand we get a lot of excitement, which the body reacts to, while sitting on a chair without properly moving. That is a very unbalanced stress for the body. On the other hand we are also very passive mentally, only consuming, letting the music set our mood and allowing the storyteller to decide for us what is likable and what not. It can happen, that after watching a movie we suddenly can sympathize with a behavior that we would have judged sharply before. It could also happen that we develop a dislike for certain groups that we were indifferent about before. Movies can create their own reality, and can also show a distorted version of a real situation. This might then impact our thoughts and actions in the real world. That is not only true for movies, but also and especially for the news.
To make matters worse, many people assume that the news are a representation of the real world on a screen. And they belief that they have to watch it, so they know what happens in the world. Knowing this is considered a duty of a good citizen. But the screen shows only a tiny selection of what happens in the world. It often shows things that we otherwise would have never gotten in contact with, because it happens so far away from us. In other cities, other countries, on other continents. What is shown and what isn’t, how is that decided? Often we get reports about something for weeks and months, as if there was nothing more important in the world, and then something new happens, and we hear nothing of the previous story anymore. And what has it achieved? Did we find a solution for the story that previously dominated the news? Did the daily reports to us participate to finding the solution? Did we even have a chance to participate? Should we donate money, when there is an earthquake somewhere on the planet, because the local insurance is overtaxed or the people not insured? Should we deliver weapons when there is another war somewhere, so the people can kill themselves faster and in larger numbers? Or donate money for diplomacy? Or go there personally, start fighting or settle the dispute? Or go on the road and demonstrate for a quick ending of the fights? Why are we confronted with so many problems and conflicts, that we did not directly participate to?
When we are confronted with these things, they trigger a reaction within us. We get emotional, we react with thoughts and feelings. Many people feel bad after watching or hearing the news. My grandmother was always aghast how terrible the world is after watching the news. It did not do anything good for her, but not watching the news was unthinkable. Too strong was the believe that it is expected of a good citizen. It does cost us time and energy to process the news. Some people are less sensitive, the news just bounce off them. But many people are probably not aware how much time and energy they spend to process the news. How much it darkens their mood. The amount of time and energy we have is limited, and because there is usually not much time in between two sessions of consuming the news, little time and energy are left for the challenges of our own life, the tasks in our immediate environment, and for our own, individual development. All this is neglected when our thoughts circle around the problems that the tv presented to us. But we usually have no access to those problems, and cannot solve them. The neglect begins often so early and remains for so long that we find ourselves unable to deal with our own problems, and rather avoid them. Then we become addicted to constant distraction, and we allow it to paralyze us.
This article about the human energy balance may also be of interest here.