One group of researchers found that a 14-minute video of negative TV news can rapidly increase anxiety and sadness. What's particularly noteworthy is that beyond causing anxiety and sadness, participants of the study who saw negative news expressed greater anxiety related to their own personal issues. So depressing and fear-causing news can make people feel sadder and more anxious, which, in turn, can magnify their own problems.
How about "positive" news or stories? The few studies that exist suggest that inspiring, positive media sources have the opposite effects of negative media. These researchers found that viewing a short video of a young man who established a homeless shelter in Philadelphia was specifically able to induce gratitude and love. Another group of scientists showed some volunteers a video in which a musician pays tribute (高度赞扬) to his former music teacher for saving him from a life of violence. Seeing that video significantly increased the willingness of the participants to volunteer.
All of this research led me to inventing the phrase: "Just as you are what you eat, you are what you see." In fact, I only recently learned that the word "diet" does not just refer to what food we eat – it comes from the Greek meaning for "way of life" or how one lives his or her life. With that broadened definition, the word "diet" has a greater, more all-encompassing meaning in relation to the things that we absorb – food, stories, images, sounds (music) – and how they impact us.
This does not mean we have to ignore negative news. There are important things that we can learn which can help us understand what other people are going through and how we can help to fix their problems. This all just means that we need a balanced visual diet – one that nourishes the soul and yet motivates us to take action and make things better.
