Did You Know That Your Attention and Media Bombardment Cause More Harm Than Good?
Did You Know That Your Attention and Media Bombardment Cause More Harm Than Good?
The curious case of media and politicians increasing the frequency and intensity of what they sensationalize.
What I am about to tell you will sound counterintuitive. As you go about your day, it will linger just behind your thoughts for a few weeks. You will watch the news, read the paper (you know what I mean), and start connecting the dots. The patterns will emerge, and once you see them, you will never be able to unsee them. From that point on, you will understand the self-perpetuating machine that is the media apparatus and the human mind.
What am I talking about?
Have you, by any chance, noticed that when something terrible happens, and it is all over the news, similar events tend to repeat in short concession?
Think about these significant events in the media, and keep them in mind as you read further:
A horrible, attention-grabbing terrorist attack.
A heart-breaking murder-suicide of a family.
The passing away of a famous person.
A terrible traffic accident that stands out and is discussed extensively.
A large accident in transportation that rarely happens but takes a lot of lives, like a train, plane, or ship accident.
A bomb threat that spreads fear in the community.
A drug-related issue, perhaps an overdose, gang violence, something that takes over the news for a few days.
News of a new war, victims on the screen, and divisive propaganda.
Large corruption scandals, robberies, and fraud.
Devastating financial news, company layoffs, or bankruptcies.
There are countless examples, but they all have certain things in common:
They are bombastic and reported in such a manner.
They fill the news pages and screen time for a few days at minimum.
They make you feel something, usually horrible (afraid, sad, anxious, depressed...).
They are the first example of such an event in a long time.
Here’s the pattern:
The terrible news.
Once attention-grabbing, emotion-evoking tragic news breaks out, we’re glued to the screens. The media smells easy money, and they hit the pedal to the medal, shoving it down our throats and blowing it out of proportion.
They thrive on our attention and by preying on our insecurities. They don’t objectively report the news. That time is long past. They sell ad space. The more we are engaged, saddened, heartbroken, surprised, and mesmerized, the more time we spend on their content, the more money they make.
While I don’t like it, I don’t blame them. Everything is about incentives, and theirs lie in making money for the owners. Nothing more, nothing less. Their job is not to be objective reporters on the state of the world but to sell ads. Besides, when they don’t poison our minds, we do it ourselves with social media.
What happens next?
You’ll notice a peculiar thing.
Once something quite rare up until that point happens and is blown up by the media and the politicians, it tends to repeat over the next period.
That period can be days, weeks, and sometimes months.
Something that hasn’t happened or been reported on for years and is considered rare will now occur constantly.
The good thing is that the media and the people will lose interest over time, and the energy will dissipate. The bad thing is that until that happens, you will see more and more such horrible instances.
Now, you may be excused in thinking that we only hear more about these incidents that make them appear to happen more frequently. Otherwise, it’s an illusion—a rational analysis. But you’d be wrong.
I first learned of this principle in the book “Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion,” by Dr. Robert Cialdini. I have been recommending it ever since, as it opened my eyes to many psychological traits we all suffer from and get abused by marketing and media all the time. Think of it as armor against being persuaded to do what you don’t want to.
I read that book about twenty years ago, and while this was only one of the many fascinating lessons there, it stuck with me. Perhaps because I also studied policing, security, and criminology and was entranced in those waters.
I have seen this pattern repeat in almost every big story with a tragic ending.
First, there was one jewelry store robbery. Then there were hundreds.
First, there was one terrible news about a public person’s death, and then many more followed in a short span.
First, there was one terrorist attack, and then a tsunami of terror was unleashed.
First, there was one far-echoing plane, train, or ship accident, then all of a sudden, defying statistics, more followed in a short span of time.
You get the picture.
Why do these things happen?
The prevailing theory is that such impactful and sensationalized news reporting about horrible things causes something called “copycat suicide.”
My personal observations and understanding expand this theory. Surely, some of the accidents, suicides, and terrible incidents are in some way caused by people committing suicide in unusual ways. Driven by the need to terminate their lives, they take others with them.
The darkness in the outside world seems to take over vulnerable individuals and encourages them to follow in the same direction. In police circles, it is known that a lot more traffic accidents, reported as such, were actually suicides by vehicles.
The problem is that this principle doesn’t apply only to things that could be explained by simple suicide-copycat syndrome.
We have an old saying in our part of the world: “When the devil comes, he brings his young with him.” It means that when something terrible happens to you, more bad things will quickly follow. So this, unfortunately, is nothing new.
The good old Law of Attraction could explain it.
What you focus and think about, especially emotionally charged, you get reflected in your life. The more we see the horrors around us, the more they show up. The more terror in the news, the more in our minds, the more will show up in our reality. Until we get bored, tired, and lose interest. Then, as per clockwork, these incidents disappear into oblivion.
You could call it a natural occurrence, like bad weather causing and influencing other places to experience weather issues.
We could debate on what psychological triggers these significant news events exploit.
We might even argue it’s all in our minds. Like when you think of buying a red sports car, you now see them everywhere, and before, there were none.
The psychosis that we blame for “inspiring” or “compelling” others to make similar choices could as well be completely unrelated, and we are only observing the effects and symptoms while causes remain hidden.
All valid points. All possible explanations.
We can try and explain this phenomenon all we want, but one thing remains certain - it’s a natural phenomenon and something we should avoid perpetuating in our lives.
I’ve seen it happen over and over for the past two decades. Whenever I see something being blown out of proportion or justifiably reported at large, influencing us emotionally, especially when that emotion is fear, I feel sorry for everyone who will suffer the consequences in the near future. To me, it becomes inevitable.
You shall not pass!
I make it my business to prevent too much of this darkness from entering my heart and mind.
I don’t spend time watching the news if I can avoid it. I don’t scroll through social media and stop when I catch myself “doom scrolling.” For the things I’m most afraid of and exposed to, I don’t even allow negative, fear-ridden thoughts to enter my mind.
If we allow fear to consume us, the thing we fear the most will visit us.
I ride motorcycles, for example. I won’t even open a news regarding a motorcycle accident. They don’t exist, as far as I’m concerned. Nop, it didn’t happen! La-la-la, motorcycles are safe - end of debate. I’ve ridden for hundreds of thousands of kilometers all over Europe, a million plus if I include cars, and have yet to cause or be involved in a severe accident in my adult age. I don’t mess with what works. Most friends that allowed the fear of an accident to enter their minds don’t ride anymore. You can guess why.
Do yourself a favor. Stay alert to this phenomenon.
Observe how these bombastic events, small and large, cause more events to occur. Things that haven’t happened in a long time. Watch how, once they are reported and blown up, they will begin repeating. Usually, it lasts somewhere from a few days to a few months, with the largest statistical uptick within five weeks, if memory serves.
I would prefer a media apparatus that underreports, not overreports.
One that says the bare essentials without emotional music, heart-breaking interviews, death counters on the screen, tear-jerking stories, visceral images, and incentives to sell your eyeballs and souls for ad space. But hey, we are where we are.
The dark reality of today.
Regarding the latest “big things” in the news, I’m afraid more darkness, death, and suffering is coming.
I don’t think it’s avoidable. The more we see it, talk, and think about it, the more we fear it, the more it will show up in our reality. Hopefully, for you and me, only on the screens of our TVs and smartphones, not at our doorsteps or in our neighborhood malls.
The war that no one wants to stop between Russia and Ukraine will open new fronts. New ideas are already brewing, plans are being drawn up, and we’ve just witnessed the first outbreak in the Middle East. I suspect at least one or two more before it can even begin to cool off.
The same is true for the terrorist attacks from Hamas on Israeli civilians. The world is now thinking of terrorists again and the evil they spread by committing senseless acts of violence. There is, unfortunately, only one prediction I can make. We will see more and more terrorist attacks in the news in the coming days, weeks, and probably months.
What happened is terrible. I can’t even imagine living with the fear of something similar happening to my family. But we do, in a way, don’t we?
While the odds of our family and ourselves being the victims of a terrorist attack are infinitesimal, they aren’t zero. We see all this death, and we fear for our families. But you know who else is watching?
Potential terrorists. They see the media, social, and political outrage as success.
Terrorism has one goal and one goal only - to spread fear and call attention to itself.
The more we give it, the more we reward them for their acts of unspeakable evil. Look, it’s working!
The more we project it all over the media, news, and social media, the more borderline susceptible individuals and groups will be encouraged to spread terror.
Choices.
We’re already seeing the reawakening of terrorism in Europe. I don’t like where this is going or think we can stop it now. Not anymore. And to be clear - I so hope I’m wrong!
While Ukraine doesn’t have a choice to defend itself.
While Izrael doesn’t have a choice but to react and most likely overreact.
While other arab nations most likely won’t be able not to interfere and escalate things.
While susceptible individuals won’t be able to resist the urge to act on their weaker impulses, consumed by the darkness before their eyes.
You and I have a choice.
That choice is that we don’t expose our minds to all the horrors of the world.
We can’t stop violence on the other side of the planet, but we don’t have to observe or participate in it. We cannot stop feeling sorry for the victims, but we don’t have to dwell on their misery and stay glued to the screens, watching them bleed and cry.
We don’t have to allow fear to consume us, as it doesn’t improve the odds of a better outcome, but as we’ve established, it may cause the things we fear the most to find their way into our lives.
We can’t stop the political and media monster from feeding on our emotions and attention, profiting from scaring us to death, but we don’t have to participate in the game. We can step away. We can turn off the TV. We can stop doom scrolling. We can stop talking about it. We can stop reacting to every trigger that is imposed upon us.
We can be grateful for the good in our lives and the world and pay less attention to the bad.
This one thing will significantly improve our subjective outlook and a sense of happiness in our personal life. We can do this because we now understand that:
We can’t solve other people’s problems and stop the violence.
We aren’t helping by watching and talking about it.
By feeding our fears and heavy hearts, we are adding fuel to the fire, unwillingly though it may be.
By feeling afraid, we call and invite the things we fear to enter our lives, and we don’t want that.
We see the games being played and can now choose to step outside and stop playing.
Most importantly, you now know that these significant news events influence people to do horrible things to themselves and others, but you also know they impact you. They influence how you think about the world, situations, and people.
The more we focus on the bad, the more we see it everywhere.
Whether it’s an illusion of a preferential mind or a real-world effect is almost immaterial. The consequence is the same - when we focus on the bad, we feel bad. The quality of our lives, the extent of happiness, and inner peace are determined chiefly by our minds and emotions. Guard them with all you’ve got.
Now turn off the TV, put down the phone, go outside, hug your loved ones, and smell the roses.
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