Impact of negative news on your mental health & how to deal with it

Do you find yourself drawn to negative words in the news headlines or watching depressing, unpleasant news?

This article might help if

you’ve been feeling overwhelmed by the news
you don’t know how to deal with negative news
you’re finding it hard to disconnect from the media

Social media and news around the world have made it difficult to stay aware without feeling scared, anxious or unsettled.

Why do we pay attention to negative news, more than positive news?

We often say that we prefer good news over bad, but is it actually true?
Human beings evolutionarily pay more attention to or are attracted to negative information. The root cause of this is quite simple – the potential cost of negative information outweighs the potential benefits of positive information. Simply put, bad news could be a sign that we need to prepare for danger. We have also evolved to react quickly to potential threats, hence, the attraction for click baits or views on social media.

This is what is called negativity bias, which is the tendency to attend to, learn from and use negative information far more than positive information.

Along with our tendency to find and read more bad news, negativity bias can explain why –

We recall and think about insults more than compliments
We respond more – emotionally (anxiety) and physically (high heart rate) to negativity
We focus more on negative information than on positive information

Did you know?
From 2016 to 2019, Facebook gave “anger” emoji reactions to posts, five times as much weight as “likes” in deciding which posts to show other users because their machine learning algorithm found posts that angered people fueled more engagement than posts that pleased them.

(Source: Five points for anger, one for ‘like’: How Facebook’s formula fostered rage and misinformation, The Washington Post)

Be aware of what we are consuming

Understand the media agenda. Negative news provokes stronger reactions and garners more attention than positive or neutral news. (Source: Peeters & Czapinski, 1990).
Recognise the distorted view the media presents. In today’s world, news no longer just brings straightforward, impartial facts. It is now portrayed and presented as an opinion or a point of view with exaggerated graphics and tone to make it sound sensational and emotional.

Impact of negative news on our wellbeing

When we watch upsetting or bad news, our bodies react by releasing stress hormones to deal with the negative emotions. Feelings of worry, sadness, helplessness and grief takes over. This might seem momentary, but the constant stream of watching negative news can create long-term negative effects on our wellbeing like anxiety, depression, mood swings, aggressive behaviour and can even increase the chance of heart attack later in life. (Source: Johnston & Davey, 2011).

What can we do to overcome the bias and consume news healthily?
Set screen time

Set a limit on how much news you’ll consume each day.
Schedule media-free blocks of time every day or check news at one or two set times per day.

Rethink your news source

Good news reporting is focused on the truth, with verified facts and accurate context.
It is impartial, independent & hold themselves accountable for errors.

Understand your feelings

If a certain piece of information keeps popping up and leaves you feeling upset or unhelpful, you can unfollow or block them.
Sometimes, world news can hit close to home. For instance, a tragedy of a person you really admire can feel very personal. Talk to someone close to you or a counsellor about how it’s affecting you.

Have “no news” time with loved ones

A change of topic and environment with friends and family can drastically uplift your mood and increase the ability to bounce back from negative feelings.
Tell your loved ones that you want to avoid talking about news or current affairs.

Accept & focus on what you can control

Learning to understand how much we can control, can reduce the amount of stress we feel on hearing or watching bad news.
Try and ask yourself, “Can I do something about this?” If you can, take the necessary steps, but also accept the limitations of the situation.

Executive - Graphic Designer

Role overview – The Fuller Life is looking for an individual who will be part of the growth engine for the company. The role will require the individual to work with the internal stakeholders such as Client Management and Sales teams while also working with client teams, vendors and partners to deliver design requirements for the employee engagement business, Runners for Life business and the product offerings of the company.

Following are the primary deliverables:

Delivering design requirements:

Communicating with the stakeholders to understand the design guidelines for the company as well as our clients.
Adhering strictly to the prescribed
Handing over mature products to sales and client management teams.
Ideating on activities, designing quizzes and communications.
Responsible for conceptualizing, design and implement creative graphics for TFL products and services.
Basic video editing
Being part of client interactions and suggesting executable ideas.
Communicating with the client (internal/ external) for the entire tenure of the plan/project.

Skills, knowledge & attitude:

Great design skills – Illustrator, Photoshop, After Effects, Premier Pro, InDesign, 3DMax, Sketchup
Video
Basic understanding of UI/UX (not mandatory).
Ability to handle various design tools – both web development and otherwise Understanding and following the design process.
Good communication
Ability to visualize and think of out-of-box ideas in short time
Patience to make multiple edits to design to cater to the needs of all stakeholders.
Proactive approach to work, good sense of humour and presence of mind with the ability to bring new skills into the

Location and Remuneration

The position is based in Bangalore. We follow a hybrid working model. However, you will be expected to come into the office every day, initially, till you’re up to speed with your tasks.
We follow a strong performance-oriented approach towards remuneration.

We are looking for candidates with 1-2 years of relevant experience and the salary will be in the range of 35,000/- to 40,000/- per month, depending on experience.

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Executive - PHP Developer

Job Description

We are looking for a PHP Developer (WordPress), with a working experience of 1-2 years, for managing our wellness product, back-end services and the interchange of data between the server and the users. Your primary focus will be the development of all server-side logic, definition and maintenance of the central database, and ensuring high performance and responsiveness to requests from the front end. You can also be responsible for creating the plugins, services, themes and the integration of the same into our product into a unified way.

Responsibilities

Build efficient, testable, and reusable WordPress Plugins, Themes,
Integration of user-facing
Solve complex performance problems and architectural challenges.
To follow engineering practices such as Code Reviews, Coding Standards, Unit Test automation, Security scans
Ability to work as a team.
Should troubleshoot production issues
Good communication
Have a sincere, honest, and committed
Have good knowledge of various practices within the web industry and have the ability to apply out-of-the-box solutions to build good-quality
Have attention to detail and Excellent business
Excellent verbal and written communication
Be proactive and take responsibility as

Skills And Qualifications

Working experience of at least 6 months – 1 year in WordPress is a
Strong Technical expertise in PHP and advanced coding Skills in Core PHP.
Preferred with the knowledge of using
Working experience of at least 6 months - 1 year in any PHP
Working experience of at least 6 months - 1 year in any JS framework (Angular/VueJS- Preferred), jQuery and
Working knowledge of MySQL
Creating database schemas that represent and support business
If you have an understanding of AWS Services, Nginx/Apache Servers Working Mechanism or Lifecycle, it’s a cherry on
Basic understanding of front-end technologies, such as JavaScript, HTML5, and
Knowledge of object-oriented PHP
Understanding accessibility and security
Integration of multiple data sources and databases into one
Ability to take up R & D Activity Individually Excellent understanding of Cross Browsers

Location and Remuneration

The position is based in Bangalore. We follow a strong performance-oriented approach towards remuneration.

We are looking for candidates with 1-2 years of relevant experience and the salary will be in the range of 35,000/- to 40,000/- per month, depending on experience.

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