Opinion: Metering your news and social media intake is not a weakness

Academic breaks can oftentimes translate into taking time off other stressors for students. These breaks are valuable in letting people recalibrate and restore themselves. Students can prioritize relationships or hobbies for a short time before returning to studies and work. 

Coming back to intense schoolwork and a bombardment of tragedy from current events is overwhelming for anyone. Recent events like the pandemic and international conflict dominate news coverage and social media posts alike. While access to such unrestricted knowledge is useful, there are downsides to overdosing on social media and the press. 

It’s important to establish that media itself isn’t necessarily bad. There are important benefits to having an informed population, especially in a democratic society. Voters need to know what the current issues in the world are to make good decisions when choosing what candidates to elect. Social media sites can raise awareness for good causes and news organizations provide a large amount of content to help people know more about the world around them. 

However, being informed takes a lot of work, which is oftentimes made worse by modern methods of communication. The internet allows for rapid dispersal of information, which makes it difficult to verify every single thing posted. Anyone can make a social media post and the sheer volume of topics makes ensuring every post is factually sound impossible for any organization. 

Balancing societal expectations and personal health is necessary to avoid burnout or damage to psychological well-being. Metering intake of news and social media doesn’t mean disconnecting yourself from the world; it’s learning what your capacity is for gathering information from a largely unpoliced source of knowledge. 

Removing yourself completely from the tedious task of information gathering for a time might be your method of metering. Lessening your average amount of time spent consuming online media might be another. How you might choose to meter your media consumption is up to you. 

The important thing is recognizing that spending extended periods entrenched in online discourse or current events has the potential to be extremely damaging to mental health. Recognizing this damage and putting appropriate self-restrictions is necessary for continued success and happiness in life.  

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Bryant Saunders is a computer science major and member of Utah States Speech and Debate. He has an enthusiasm for discussing philosophy and politics.
— A02307089@usu.edu

Featured image by Phil Weber