Is it just me? Or is anyone else disturbed about the practice of cable news shows featuring video loops of violent and disturbing footage as they describe related news reports? Yesterday CNBC was on (my husband watches the financial market openings in the morning), and they were reporting on the riots in Greece. There was a small amount of footage of rioters throwing rocks and smashing windows, and police in riot gear responding. Although there were only a few seconds of images, the disturbing footage was looped repetitively at the center of the screen, between the charts, the crawls of stock prices, and the talking heads, who were droning on about the expected impact of the Greek crisis on world markets.

I agree that the footage of rioters has news value.  Wouldn’t dream of arguing that it be kept off TV. But looping it is an “aesthetic” decision.  It’s been decided that talking heads and charts aren’t enough to maintain the coveted viewer’s attention.

Maybe they don’t care, but they should know that these disturbing visual images make it harder to focus on and absorb their verbal content.  But beyond that, viewers should know that repetitive exposure to visual images of violence and hostility causes stress.  Not only does it raise your blood pressure while watching, the effects often carry over beyond viewing, leaving you feeling unnecessarily anxious and uptight.

What can you do?

• Consider avoiding programs that replay disturbing images gratuitously (beyond their news value)
• Write, email, or tweet programs and let them know you don’t appreciate their practices

They’re your eyeballs … and it’s your mind, after all …

I was recently quoted in an article that appeared in twenty newspapers in Canada, and that talked about how many frightening and sensational news stories there are on television right now. Children are highly vulnerable  to intense fear reactions as they stumble upon story after story of dread diseases (currently swine flu), images of war (from Iraq and Afghanistan), climate disasters, talk of financial collapse, and the like.  I gave my usual advice: that television news is not fit for child consumption, with its emphasis on vivid visual images of misery, hostility, and destruction.  Children need to know something (but not everything) about what’s going on in the world, but they’re much better off getting child-appropriate explanations, which more often will come from parents or other caring adults.

But let’s not forget about the impact of these swirling news stories on our own mental health. Many of the threats described in news broadcasts are so overblown that they subject us to a constant level of unhealthy stress.  We can keep up with current events and preserve our mental health better if we limit our exposure to TV news and acquaint ourselves with what’s going on by reading newspapers and checking on line — but not constantly and repeatedly all day long — at decent intervals, once or twice a day.

If you cut back on your news immersion, you’ll be amazed at how much better you feel.

On April 18th, I made a brief presentation to the Madison Civics Club about the impact of technology on adults, with some tips on reducing stress and enhancing creativity in our media-dominated world.  This was done in conjunction with a presentation by Anastassia Goodstein, expert on the media-saturated lives of tweens and teens.  Many members of the audience agreed with me that this is as important an issue for adults as it is for young people.  Follow this link to  my presentation.

A recent article in the Archives of General Psychiatry and reported in the Los Angeles Times shows that the amount of time adolescents spend viewing television is related to the probability that they will later experience clinical depression. There are very few studies exploring this possible link, but this study is impressive because it’s based on a national probability sample (The National Longitudinal Survey of Adolescent Health), that assesses kids’ behavior and health issues across a seven-year period.

Even controlling for depressive symptoms at Time 1, the more time kids spent watching television (and with media generally) at Time 1, the higher the odds of developing depression at time 2.  Of course, it can be argued that kids who were already prone to depression may have sought to cope by watching more TV, but the fact that the study controlled for early symptoms of depression makes this explanation less likely. 

It may be that spending too much time with media robs kids of time that they could spend in positive interactions with other kids or adults, and it’s also possible that what kids watch on TV has a tendency to make them both depressed and anxious.  

This adds one more piece of evidence for parents to be concerned about if find their kids becoming couch potatoes.  In the least, parents should pay attention to how much and what their kids are watching as well as being involved in their kids’ lives in other important ways.