When is Enough Enough?

Too much of a (sometimes) Good Thing

We're being played. Manipulated. Led by the nose like a horse to water. Dog to a bone. Cat to kibble.

We like to believe that choices about our intake of daily news is up to us. We can scroll for particular stories of interest and be selective. Skip topics we find irrelevant and focus on outlets we deem most reliable and trustworthy. With almost unlimited access to global news sources, we literally have the world at our fingertips. But, like the fantastical land of The Wizard of Oz, where Dorothy finds herself in the company of the Scarecrow, a Cowardly Lion, and the Tin Woodsman, there is a Wizard behind the curtain.

Along with the bonanza of information provided by cyberspace (itself a mind-blowing concept some of us will never grasp), we're now treated to a cyber mind-reading editor that anticipates our intent and provides suggestions to complete our thoughts and sentences. Bots (online robots that anticipate our intent and provide suggestions faster than the humble human brain) work behind the scenes. Topping that is the newer ChatGPT that can be used to create entire documents for us – no actual human composition required. This clearly presents opportunities for fraud, cheating, and other once-purely human foibles.

Mushrooming advances in the powers of cyberspace have also been both a boom and a bane to the delivery of our everyday news. When we choose a source – be it conservative, liberal, or in-between, the items we find have been pre-selected for us – not by editors but by a lightning-fast cyber search for headlines and stories with keywords that attract traffic and clicks. And those keywords are almost always negative, scary, and/or alarming.

This is called "negativity bias" – which means we are attracted or alarmed by specific triggers – in this case, words that imply danger. Threatening words like "shooting, cancer, bomb and murder." We are much more likely to click through to these than, say, "kitten, smiles, or sunset." There is a perfectly good and traceable reason for this. Without loud alarm bells in our human brains, we'd be – extinct! Fear, flight, and fight were built into the proto-human brain 2 million years ago. Had humans evolved without a dominance of fear – well, we'd be nothing but a footnote in history. No more than a two-legged hors d’oeuvre on the Pleistocene buffet.

However, the negativity bias that was meant to protect us is now an existential threat. Research on our responses to certain words has been going on since 1967 and shows pretty consistent results. We're hard-wired for gloom and doom, and competitive online outlets know how to take advantage. For example, FaceBook knows what headlines to push out. Anger emojis receive five times more 'Likes' than smiles – so the chatty platform pushes out more posts laced with scary or negative keywords than with calm, friendly, or fun terms. It's all about winning the most eyes to dominate the competitive market.

The connected online world is a relatively new technology that developed at warp speed. Competitors in the online market can hardly be blamed for grabbing the brass ring of algorithms that offer increased clicks and eyes. Unlike the less easily accessed printed newspapers and magazines, there hasn't been time to adopt many of the characteristics embraced in the world of print – where truth, accuracy, and public good played a role in decisions.

Psychological studies show that we humans have a clear bias in favor of bad news, as opposed to good news. Credit this to our ancient survival instinct. Negative encounters were a choice between life and death. Flash forward to the digital age of competing outlets. It's all about 'eyes' on the screen, and negative wins the competition without anyone dying.

And it's not just news that follows the lead. For three years, FaceBook tracked 'anger' and 'like' emojis and found five times as many anger ☹posts as 😊’s. Naturally, FaceBook pushes out what research shows engages the most interest and response. And, of course, they’re in good company with thousands of competitive online news, entertainment, and social engagement providers. Among the universe of players in the field are social media sites programmed to support irrational fears, fictional beliefs, and dangerous theories – all free and easy to access.

So what’s to be done?

Personal awareness of where and why we chose our online resources is a place to start. Competition for clicks is fundamental business for providers, and they’ll do what’s necessary to get our attention. So, it’s up to us to recognize when we’ve had enough doom, gloom, death, despair, and fear. Catch up on the necessary. Choose to go no further down the dark rabbit holes.

It’s like the Wild West out there in cyberspace. There’s no reason for consumers (townspeople) to know that we’re being targeted, manipulated, and put in danger by programmers (outlaws). Unlike the evolution of radio and TV, the cyber universe exploded. It invaded homes and lives with devices and options that were once unimaginable. Consequently, there’s been little time to react, build standards, or even understand the inherent threats of a system that baits us to click through.

It's also up to us to make informed choices about what we access, for how long, and from what sources. And to know when enough is enough. We have a responsibility we never anticipated as so many aspects of our lives migrated online. It’s up to individuals and families to be aware of dangers and threats offered by a system that’s revolutionized our lives in both negative and positive ways.

It’s interesting that we’re traditionally protected from many of life’s common risks with rules, guidelines, and laws. But the cyber universe in all its glory and shame erupted like a universal storm, took us by surprise, and now it’s up to us. Of course, mental health experts are already talking about how to take control of content that’s dangerous to mental health with suggestions like carefully selecting our news sources (don’t engage in doomscrolling), limiting time with online news, seeking out uplifting and positive content. You can get some very helpful suggestions HERE.

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Thanks for spending time with me once again. I’m grateful to be in your life and to hear from you when you’re moved to give me feedback, a suggestion, or…?. Contact me at darby@darbypatterson.com .

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