March 3, 2025 • 17 mins
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Why We Can’t Look Away: Social Media, Outrage, and Your Brain
Have you ever opened your phone for a quick check-in, only to find yourself deep in an internet-fueled existential crisis? Why does our brain fixate on negativity, and why do social media platforms exploit this? In this episode of Mental Health Potluck, Danny Clark breaks down how social media platforms profit from outrage, why our brains are wired to fixate on bad news, and—most importantly—how to break the cycle before it hijacks your mental health.
We’ll explore the science behind negativity bias, the tactics tech companies use to keep us emotionally invested, and practical strategies to reclaim your attention and peace of mind.
Episode Outline
1. Why Our Brains Fixate on Chaos (2:12)
- The psychology behind negativity bias
- How evolution wired us to pay attention to bad news
- Studies proving that negative news spreads faster than positive news
2. The Outrage Economy & How Social Media Exploits It (5:32)
- How social media algorithms prioritize outrage for engagement
- The business model behind keeping users emotionally on edge
- How platforms personalize negativity to keep you hooked
3. The Mental Health Cost of Doomscrolling (9:21)
- Research on how negative content increases stress, anxiety, and depression
- How your brain absorbs negativity and shifts your worldview
- The cycle of outrage addiction and the dopamine reward loop
4. Five Ways to Break Free from the Outrage Loop (12:24)
- Recognize when you’re in the outrage cycle – Pause before engaging with negative content
- Use the three-day rule – Wait before reacting to emotional news
- Curate your information diet – Choose content that informs rather than enrages
- The 3-to-1 positivity rule – Balance negative exposure with positive inputs
- Digital detox strategies that actually work – Realistic ways to limit harmful social media habits
Host & Show Info
- Host Name: Danny Clark
- About the Host: Danny Clark is a licensed clinical social worker and family therapist in private practice at the Texas Insight Center. He takes a no-nonsense approach to mental health and mental wellness while integrating the latest evidence-based research.
- Podcast Website: TexasInsightCenter.com
Community & Calls to Action
About Danny Clark
Danny Clark is a licensed clinical social worker and family therapist based in Houston, Texas. As the founder of Texas Insight Center, he specializes in helping individuals, couples, and families navigate mental health challenges with practical, evidence-based approaches.
💡 Is therapy right for you? Let’s talk. If you’re struggling with stress or emotional regulation or just want to explore healthier coping strategies, reach out for a consultation. Visit www.texasinsightcenter.com to learn more and schedule a session.
📩 Have a question or topic suggestion? Send it to danny@texasinsightcenter.com
You can also follow me on Instagram @texasinsightcenter or visit my webpage at texasinsightcenter.com
Join the conversation! Share your key takeaways using #MentalHeal
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Danny (00:00):
You ever just open your phone and immediately regret it,
like one second you're checkingthe weather and the next you're
in this full-blown existentialcrisis because apparently the
world is ending again.
Or maybe you go on LinkedIn forone second just to see what's
happening and now you'reemotionally invested in a fight
between two strangers overwhether bad managers create bad
employees or bad employeescreate bad managers.
(00:21):
It's ridiculous, right?
But for some reason you justcan't look away.
That's not an accident.
That's not even just socialmedia being a mess.
That's your brain.
Your brain loves chaos, it'sobsessed with it, and the people
running these platforms theyknow it, they're counting on it.
In fact, they're taking it tothe bank.
Welcome to Mental HealthPotluck, where everyone brings
(00:48):
something to the table.
I'm Danny Clark, licensedclinical social worker and
family therapist, and thispodcast is all about serving up
bite-sized mental healthinsights, practical wellness
tips and real conversations thatnourish the mind and soul.
So today we're diving into whyour minds get hijacked by
outrage, how social mediaprofits from keeping us
emotionally invested in nonsenseand, most importantly, how to
(01:10):
break the cycle before we alllose our collective minds.
All right, so Instagram had abit of a whoops didn't mean to
traumatize you kind of moment.
The other day, if you missed it, meta accidentally cranked up
the trauma dial on the algorithmand suddenly people were
logging in to find their feedsfilled with absolute horror.
(01:31):
I mean, imagine going to checkyour DMs and instead you're
greeted with war footage andcrime scene photos Not exactly
the lighthearted cat memes andtravel pics you were signing up
for.
People lost it, rightly so.
There were tweets, there werepanic posts and, of course,
there was news pieces withinhours about the dangers of
social media.
Meta, in their usually deeplysincere corporate way, issued an
(01:54):
apology and went right back tofiguring out new ways to keep us
addicted to their platforms.
But here's the weird part Eventhough everyone was horrified by
what they were seeing, theyjust kept looking.
Screenshots were taken, postswere shared, people stayed glued
to their phones talking abouthow awful it was and that right.
There is what is important torecognize, because the problem
isn't just that social media ismessy, it's that our brains are
(02:17):
messy.
They love negativity, theycling to bad news, bad opinions,
bad takes, and if that soundslike a design flaw, well, yeah,
it kind of is.
So here's something fun tothink about your brain is a
little bit of a drama queen.
Not in the way that it makesyou send an emotionally charged
(02:38):
text.
You immediately regret thoughlet's be honest, it does that
too.
But in the way it reacts to badnews, it loves bad news.
This isn't just some quirk ofhuman nature, it's biological
Way.
Way back before we had Twitterfights and 24-hour news cycles,
our ancestors had a prettystraightforward job Don't die.
And the best way to not die Payvery close attention to
(03:01):
anything that might be a threat.
That rustling in the bushesCould be the wind, could be a
tiger.
Better, assume a tiger.
That weird looking berry Maybeit's fine, but maybe it'll kill
me instantly if I eat it.
So let's just not find out.
So we fast forward a fewthousand years and we're still
doing the same thing, except nowthe tigers and poison berries
have been replaced withheadlines like is your phone
(03:24):
giving you brain cancer?
And everything you love isruined.
And here's why, and just likebefore, our brains lock in
because they think they'rehelping, they think they're
protecting us.
This is what psychologists callnegativity bias the idea that
our brains naturally prioritizenegative information over
positive information, notbecause we're all secretly
masochists, but because badthings have historically been
(03:46):
more useful to remember.
A positive experience is nice,but a negative one could mean
the difference between survivaland disaster.
And even though most of usaren't dodging predators anymore
, our brains haven't updated thesoftware.
So when you scroll past aheadline about something good
happening in the world, yourbrain's like meh.
But when you see one about ahorrific disaster unfolding
somewhere, suddenly your wholesystem is on high alert.
(04:08):
You read it, you watch thevideos, you click through
another article.
You need to know more, and thisisn't just some theory.
Researchers have actuallymeasured this effect.
One study found that whenpeople were shown both positive
and negative images, their brainlit up way more in response to
the negative ones.
And another study showed thatbad news spreads significantly
(04:30):
faster than good news, which iswhy, if you've ever tried to
share a wholesome story online,it gets like three likes.
But the second you postsomething mildly controversial.
Suddenly you have an audience.
And this is where things startto get dangerous, because
negativity bias it doesn't justmake you pay attention to bad
news, it changes how you see theworld.
If everything your brainprioritizes is negative, then
(04:51):
eventually the world starts tofeel like a deeply terrible
place, even if, objectively,things aren't as bad as they
seem.
Which brings us to the bigquestion If we know our brains
are wired to fixate on the worstthing, how do we stop them from
ruining our peace of mind?
Because, let's be honest, wecan't exactly turn this feature
off, but maybe, just maybe, wecan learn how to work around it.
(05:13):
And spoiler alert the peoplerunning your favorite apps.
They definitely don't want youto figure that out.
So if negativity bias isbasically our brain's version of
a bad software update, thensocial media platforms are like
hackers who figured out how toexploit that vulnerability for
profit.
Some call it the attentioneconomy, I call it the outrage
(05:35):
economy.
You ever notice how your feedis never just peaceful updates
about your friend's vacations ora wholesome story about someone
finding their lost dog.
No, instead, it's like aconstant buffet of rage,
perfectly curated to keep youhooked, engaged and slightly
furious at all times.
And that's not an accident,that's a business model.
Social media companies makemoney off of engagement and they
(05:58):
know that nothing gets peopleto engage faster than something
that pisses them off, becausewhen you're mad you don't just
see a post and move on.
Oh no, you quote it, dive intothe comments to argue with a
stranger.
You send it to a friend just soyou can both be mad about it
together.
And every single one of thoseactions, that's data, that's
(06:19):
clicks, that's ad revenue.
Researchers have found thatposts designed to trigger
outrage spread faster and getmore engagement than anything
else.
And social media companies?
They know that and they designfor it.
Take Facebook, for example.
In 2021, a leaked internaldocument revealed that
(06:40):
Facebook's algorithm wasactively promoting
anger-inducing content, becausethey found that it kept people
on the platform longer.
More time on Facebook meantmore ads, more revenue and more
success for them.
And sure did it also mean thatpeople became more divided, more
anxious and more convinced thatsociety was collapsing?
Yeah, but you know, engagementwas up, so it was worth it.
(07:03):
They don't just feed younegativity, they feed you
personalized negativity.
These platforms collect so muchdata on you that they know
exactly what kind of contentwill trigger you specifically.
If you get the most engagementwhen you're arguing about
politics, boom, your feed is nowa 24-7 political battlefield.
If you're more into debatingpop culture, congrats.
(07:24):
You now have front row seats tothe most ridiculous celebrity
drama imaginable.
And it's not just social media.
News outlets play this game too,because let's be real
Everything is fine.
No need to worry.
It's not the headline that getsclicks.
But are we on the brink ofeconomic collapse?
Experts weigh in.
Now that gets traffic.
Now that gets traffic.
(07:48):
This is why it feels like theworld is getting more chaotic,
more divided and more exhausting, even when, objectively, some
things are actually improving.
It's not that everything isworse.
It's that we are being fed aversion of reality that is
designed to keep us emotionallyon edge.
And the worst part, it works.
It works because of our ownbiology, because our brains see
(08:10):
the negativity, the conflict andthe outrage and go this is
important.
We must focus on this.
Meanwhile, the algorithms arejust sitting back saying, yeah,
yeah, yeah, you must, you mustworry about this.
And also, here's an ad forsomething you don't need.
But here's the big question Ifwe know this is happening, what
do we do about it?
Because we can't exactly justthrow our phones into the ocean
(08:30):
and live in the woods.
I mean, you can, but you know,good luck paying that bill.
No, the real solution is aboutawareness, control and strategy,
and there's a few ways we canthink about this.
So at this point, we know twothings that negativity bias
makes our brain obsessed withbad news and the other is that
(08:51):
social media companies arebasically like running a casino,
where their currency is ourcollective outrage.
But here's the real kicker it'snot just wasting our time, it's
actually messing with ourmental health.
Like, when was the last timeyou spent two hours doom
scrolling and then thought, wow,I feel great, so refreshed,
what a productive use of my time.
Yeah, that doesn't happen.
Instead, it's more like oh cool, I just lost my entire evening
(09:14):
to a heated argument aboutwhether or not cereal is soup
and now I'm anxious, exhaustedand questioning my entire faith
in humanity.
This constant exposure tooutrage, conflict and worst case
scenario headlines.
It doesn't just affect what wepay attention to.
It changes how we feel.
It changes how we think.
So let's take anxiety spirals,for example.
(09:37):
There's actual research on this.
Studies show that consuminghigh amounts of negative news
can lead to increased stress,anxiety and even symptoms of
depression.
And honestly, it makes sense.
Your brain wasn't designed toabsorb this much information
this quickly with this level ofemotional intensity.
When you expose yourself to alot of negative content, it
actually changes your baselinestress levels.
(09:59):
That means you're not juststressed while you're reading a
depressing article about thestate of the world.
You're carrying that stresswith you all the time.
Your brain starts to assumethat, because everything feels
bad, everything is bad and, justlike that, your perception of
reality starts to shift.
This is why so many people feellike the world is worse than
it's ever been, even though, bymany measures, poverty rates,
(10:21):
global health literacy, thingslike that are actually better
than ever before.
But your brain doesn't work onstatistics.
It works on impressions, and ifeverything you consume tells
you that society is fallingapart, that's the reality you're
going to believe.
And the irony Most of us aren'teven choosing to feel this way.
We're just absorbing it, becauseit's where we're being fed over
(10:42):
and over and over again bysystems that profit off of our
stress.
Being constantly outraged orstressed doesn't just make us
feel bad.
It's also weirdly addictive,because every time we engage
with something that spikes ouremotion, our brain releases
dopamine Not a fun dopamine hit,like you get from a good meal
or a workout, but just enough ofa jolt to keep you hooked.
(11:05):
That's why people keep checkingtheir feeds, even when they
know it's bad for them.
It's why, even after a full dayof feeling completely drained
by the news, we still findourselves scrolling in bed,
feeding our brains just one moredose of existential dread.
So then what happens is we havethis emotional crash, or I like
to call it the outrage hangover, because after all that
(11:25):
engagement, that time spentbeing stressed, mad and
overwhelmed, we don't feel moreinformed, we don't feel more in
control, we just feel tired andthe worst part, we'll probably
do it again tomorrow.
But here's the thing we don'thave to.
There are ways to break thiscycle, ways to step back,
recalibrate and actually takecontrol over what we let enter
(11:46):
into our mind.
So we've established that ourbrains are basically
chaos-loving goblins who can'tresist negativity.
We also know that techcompanies have figured this out
and have created an entireindustry around it.
But here's the part they don'twant you to know.
You can opt out, not entirely,because, let's be real, unless
(12:09):
you're planning on moving to aremote cabin with no Wi-Fi,
you're still going to exist inthe modern world.
But you can start to make somestrategic moves to stop handing
over your attention like it'sfree candy at a parade.
So here are five ways you cantake control.
So the first thing is to realizeyou're in the outrage loop.
The best way to break any badhabit is recognizing when it's
(12:30):
happening.
So the next time you feel thatrage-fueled impulse to engage
with a negative conversation orreshare a post about something
that's really pissing you off,pause for a second and ask
yourself am I about to engage insomething that will actually
improve my life, or is thisconversation going to be
productive, or am I just feedingan algorithm?
If the answer to any of theseis no, congratulations.
(12:53):
You just spotted the trap, andonce you start seeing the trap,
it gets a lot harder to fallinto it.
The second step you can do totake care of yourself is to
think about the three-day rulefor outrage.
It's a real game changer.
If someone's triggering anemotional reaction, give it
three days before engaging.
Just three days why?
Because outrage has a shortshelf life.
(13:14):
Something that feels like themost important thing in the
world today is probably going tobe completely forgotten by next
week.
If you don't believe me, thinkabout the last huge controversy
you were invested in, the onewhere you were really mad, maybe
even posting about it.
Now ask yourself do you evenremember what it was, or did it
just fade away Exactly?
(13:35):
So if something makes you wantto drop everything and engage in
the discourse.
Tell yourself if I still careabout this in three days I can
engage Nine times out of ten.
You won't.
So the third step is to curateyour information diet.
You see, the same way, youwouldn't eat gas station sushi
every day.
Well, at least, I'd hope not.
You shouldn't let your mentaldiet be made up of non-stop
(13:57):
stress-inducing content.
You get to control what youconsume, and no, that doesn't
mean ignoring reality.
It means choosing sources thatdon't exploit your emotions for
clicks.
Engaging in content that'seducational rather than enrages
is a good way of taking care ofyourself.
You can also mute, block andunfollow liberally.
It's your feed.
(14:18):
You don't owe anyone access toyour brain.
So here's the fourth step, andit's a big one.
So you remember how our brainsare wired to prioritize negative
information.
Well, it turns out you can hackthat system.
One of the best ways to do thisis by using the three to1 rule.
So for every negative thing youread, counter it with three
(14:39):
positive things.
If you see a terrible headline,follow it up with a story about
something going right in theworld.
If you catch yourselfruminating on bad interactions,
force yourself to think of threegood ones.
It feels small, but this isliterally brain training.
Over time, it helps balance outthe constant flood of
negativity, so your brain stopstreating every bad thing like
the apocalypse.
(15:01):
So the fifth step is the digitaldetox, but making it realistic.
I know, I know everyone says,just get off your phone, but
let's be honest, no one's reallygoing to be doing that.
What you can do, though, is setactual limits on how much chaos
you consume.
You can designate no scroll,like the first 30 minutes after
waking up and before bed.
You can turn off notificationsfor apps that are basically just
(15:24):
yelling at you all day.
You can even try a 24-hourdoom-scroll detox and see if the
anxiety magically decreases,and guess what?
It probably will.
At the end of the day, the goalisn't to disconnect entirely.
It's to reclaim your attentionand stop handing it over to
systems that profit off makingyou miserable.
And here's the best part whenyou start making these shifts,
(15:46):
you don't just feel lessstressed, you start seeing the
world differently, a little lesschaotically and more in
perspective, and when thathappens, you'll realize
something you were neveractually obligated to be this
angry all the time.
You just got tricked intothinking you were.
So there you have it Five waysto take back what belongs to you
(16:10):
.
Your attention is valuable, notjust to you, but to entire
industries, and if you're notintentional about where you
place it, someone else willdecide for you.
The goal isn't to disconnectfrom the world completely.
It's to engage with it on yourterms, because right now, most
of us are not engaging on ourterms.
We're letting algorithms andoutrage cycles dictate what we
(16:31):
care about, what we stress overand even how we feel on a daily
basis, and that that'sexhausting.
The world isn't going to getless chaotic, but you can get
better at navigating it, andwhen you do, you'll realize that
so much of what feltoverwhelming urgent and
inescapable it was neveractually yours to carry in the
first place.
Well, thanks for listening toMental Health Potluck.
(16:52):
I'm Danny Clark.
And remember your attention isyour most valuable resource.
(17:15):
Spend it on what builds you up,not on what tears you down.
I got nothing, but I'msomething.
You ever just open your phone and immediately regret it,
like one second you're checkingthe weather and the next you're
in this full-blown existentialcrisis because apparently the
world is ending again.
Or maybe you go on LinkedIn forone second just to see what's
happening and now you'reemotionally invested in a fight
between two strangers overwhether bad managers create bad
employees or bad employeescreate bad managers.
(00:21):
It's ridiculous, right?
But for some reason you justcan't look away.
That's not an accident.
That's not even just socialmedia being a mess.
That's your brain.
Your brain loves chaos, it'sobsessed with it, and the people
running these platforms theyknow it, they're counting on it.
In fact, they're taking it tothe bank.
Welcome to Mental HealthPotluck, where everyone brings
(00:48):
something to the table.
I'm Danny Clark, licensedclinical social worker and
family therapist, and thispodcast is all about serving up
bite-sized mental healthinsights, practical wellness
tips and real conversations thatnourish the mind and soul.
So today we're diving into whyour minds get hijacked by
outrage, how social mediaprofits from keeping us
emotionally invested in nonsenseand, most importantly, how to
(01:10):
break the cycle before we alllose our collective minds.
All right, so Instagram had abit of a whoops didn't mean to
traumatize you kind of moment.
The other day, if you missed it, meta accidentally cranked up
the trauma dial on the algorithmand suddenly people were
logging in to find their feedsfilled with absolute horror.
(01:31):
I mean, imagine going to checkyour DMs and instead you're
greeted with war footage andcrime scene photos Not exactly
the lighthearted cat memes andtravel pics you were signing up
for.
People lost it, rightly so.
There were tweets, there werepanic posts and, of course,
there was news pieces withinhours about the dangers of
social media.
Meta, in their usually deeplysincere corporate way, issued an
(01:54):
apology and went right back tofiguring out new ways to keep us
addicted to their platforms.
But here's the weird part Eventhough everyone was horrified by
what they were seeing, theyjust kept looking.
Screenshots were taken, postswere shared, people stayed glued
to their phones talking abouthow awful it was and that right.
There is what is important torecognize, because the problem
isn't just that social media ismessy, it's that our brains are
(02:17):
messy.
They love negativity, theycling to bad news, bad opinions,
bad takes, and if that soundslike a design flaw, well, yeah,
it kind of is.
So here's something fun tothink about your brain is a
little bit of a drama queen.
Not in the way that it makesyou send an emotionally charged
(02:38):
text.
You immediately regret thoughlet's be honest, it does that
too.
But in the way it reacts to badnews, it loves bad news.
This isn't just some quirk ofhuman nature, it's biological
Way.
Way back before we had Twitterfights and 24-hour news cycles,
our ancestors had a prettystraightforward job Don't die.
And the best way to not die Payvery close attention to
(03:01):
anything that might be a threat.
That rustling in the bushesCould be the wind, could be a
tiger.
Better, assume a tiger.
That weird looking berry Maybeit's fine, but maybe it'll kill
me instantly if I eat it.
So let's just not find out.
So we fast forward a fewthousand years and we're still
doing the same thing, except nowthe tigers and poison berries
have been replaced withheadlines like is your phone
(03:24):
giving you brain cancer?
And everything you love isruined.
And here's why, and just likebefore, our brains lock in
because they think they'rehelping, they think they're
protecting us.
This is what psychologists callnegativity bias the idea that
our brains naturally prioritizenegative information over
positive information, notbecause we're all secretly
masochists, but because badthings have historically been
(03:46):
more useful to remember.
A positive experience is nice,but a negative one could mean
the difference between survivaland disaster.
And even though most of usaren't dodging predators anymore
, our brains haven't updated thesoftware.
So when you scroll past aheadline about something good
happening in the world, yourbrain's like meh.
But when you see one about ahorrific disaster unfolding
somewhere, suddenly your wholesystem is on high alert.
(04:08):
You read it, you watch thevideos, you click through
another article.
You need to know more, and thisisn't just some theory.
Researchers have actuallymeasured this effect.
One study found that whenpeople were shown both positive
and negative images, their brainlit up way more in response to
the negative ones.
And another study showed thatbad news spreads significantly
(04:30):
faster than good news, which iswhy, if you've ever tried to
share a wholesome story online,it gets like three likes.
But the second you postsomething mildly controversial.
Suddenly you have an audience.
And this is where things startto get dangerous, because
negativity bias it doesn't justmake you pay attention to bad
news, it changes how you see theworld.
If everything your brainprioritizes is negative, then
(04:51):
eventually the world starts tofeel like a deeply terrible
place, even if, objectively,things aren't as bad as they
seem.
Which brings us to the bigquestion If we know our brains
are wired to fixate on the worstthing, how do we stop them from
ruining our peace of mind?
Because, let's be honest, wecan't exactly turn this feature
off, but maybe, just maybe, wecan learn how to work around it.
(05:13):
And spoiler alert the peoplerunning your favorite apps.
They definitely don't want youto figure that out.
So if negativity bias isbasically our brain's version of
a bad software update, thensocial media platforms are like
hackers who figured out how toexploit that vulnerability for
profit.
Some call it the attentioneconomy, I call it the outrage
(05:35):
economy.
You ever notice how your feedis never just peaceful updates
about your friend's vacations ora wholesome story about someone
finding their lost dog.
No, instead, it's like aconstant buffet of rage,
perfectly curated to keep youhooked, engaged and slightly
furious at all times.
And that's not an accident,that's a business model.
Social media companies makemoney off of engagement and they
(05:58):
know that nothing gets peopleto engage faster than something
that pisses them off, becausewhen you're mad you don't just
see a post and move on.
Oh no, you quote it, dive intothe comments to argue with a
stranger.
You send it to a friend just soyou can both be mad about it
together.
And every single one of thoseactions, that's data, that's
(06:19):
clicks, that's ad revenue.
Researchers have found thatposts designed to trigger
outrage spread faster and getmore engagement than anything
else.
And social media companies?
They know that and they designfor it.
Take Facebook, for example.
In 2021, a leaked internaldocument revealed that
(06:40):
Facebook's algorithm wasactively promoting
anger-inducing content, becausethey found that it kept people
on the platform longer.
More time on Facebook meantmore ads, more revenue and more
success for them.
And sure did it also mean thatpeople became more divided, more
anxious and more convinced thatsociety was collapsing?
Yeah, but you know, engagementwas up, so it was worth it.
(07:03):
They don't just feed younegativity, they feed you
personalized negativity.
These platforms collect so muchdata on you that they know
exactly what kind of contentwill trigger you specifically.
If you get the most engagementwhen you're arguing about
politics, boom, your feed is nowa 24-7 political battlefield.
If you're more into debatingpop culture, congrats.
(07:24):
You now have front row seats tothe most ridiculous celebrity
drama imaginable.
And it's not just social media.
News outlets play this game too,because let's be real
Everything is fine.
No need to worry.
It's not the headline that getsclicks.
But are we on the brink ofeconomic collapse?
Experts weigh in.
Now that gets traffic.
Now that gets traffic.
(07:48):
This is why it feels like theworld is getting more chaotic,
more divided and more exhausting, even when, objectively, some
things are actually improving.
It's not that everything isworse.
It's that we are being fed aversion of reality that is
designed to keep us emotionallyon edge.
And the worst part, it works.
It works because of our ownbiology, because our brains see
(08:10):
the negativity, the conflict andthe outrage and go this is
important.
We must focus on this.
Meanwhile, the algorithms arejust sitting back saying, yeah,
yeah, yeah, you must, you mustworry about this.
And also, here's an ad forsomething you don't need.
But here's the big question Ifwe know this is happening, what
do we do about it?
Because we can't exactly justthrow our phones into the ocean
(08:30):
and live in the woods.
I mean, you can, but you know,good luck paying that bill.
No, the real solution is aboutawareness, control and strategy,
and there's a few ways we canthink about this.
So at this point, we know twothings that negativity bias
makes our brain obsessed withbad news and the other is that
(08:51):
social media companies arebasically like running a casino,
where their currency is ourcollective outrage.
But here's the real kicker it'snot just wasting our time, it's
actually messing with ourmental health.
Like, when was the last timeyou spent two hours doom
scrolling and then thought, wow,I feel great, so refreshed,
what a productive use of my time.
Yeah, that doesn't happen.
Instead, it's more like oh cool, I just lost my entire evening
(09:14):
to a heated argument aboutwhether or not cereal is soup
and now I'm anxious, exhaustedand questioning my entire faith
in humanity.
This constant exposure tooutrage, conflict and worst case
scenario headlines.
It doesn't just affect what wepay attention to.
It changes how we feel.
It changes how we think.
So let's take anxiety spirals,for example.
(09:37):
There's actual research on this.
Studies show that consuminghigh amounts of negative news
can lead to increased stress,anxiety and even symptoms of
depression.
And honestly, it makes sense.
Your brain wasn't designed toabsorb this much information
this quickly with this level ofemotional intensity.
When you expose yourself to alot of negative content, it
actually changes your baselinestress levels.
(09:59):
That means you're not juststressed while you're reading a
depressing article about thestate of the world.
You're carrying that stresswith you all the time.
Your brain starts to assumethat, because everything feels
bad, everything is bad and, justlike that, your perception of
reality starts to shift.
This is why so many people feellike the world is worse than
it's ever been, even though, bymany measures, poverty rates,
(10:21):
global health literacy, thingslike that are actually better
than ever before.
But your brain doesn't work onstatistics.
It works on impressions, and ifeverything you consume tells
you that society is fallingapart, that's the reality you're
going to believe.
And the irony Most of us aren'teven choosing to feel this way.
We're just absorbing it, becauseit's where we're being fed over
(10:42):
and over and over again bysystems that profit off of our
stress.
Being constantly outraged orstressed doesn't just make us
feel bad.
It's also weirdly addictive,because every time we engage
with something that spikes ouremotion, our brain releases
dopamine Not a fun dopamine hit,like you get from a good meal
or a workout, but just enough ofa jolt to keep you hooked.
(11:05):
That's why people keep checkingtheir feeds, even when they
know it's bad for them.
It's why, even after a full dayof feeling completely drained
by the news, we still findourselves scrolling in bed,
feeding our brains just one moredose of existential dread.
So then what happens is we havethis emotional crash, or I like
to call it the outrage hangover, because after all that
(11:25):
engagement, that time spentbeing stressed, mad and
overwhelmed, we don't feel moreinformed, we don't feel more in
control, we just feel tired andthe worst part, we'll probably
do it again tomorrow.
But here's the thing we don'thave to.
There are ways to break thiscycle, ways to step back,
recalibrate and actually takecontrol over what we let enter
(11:46):
into our mind.
So we've established that ourbrains are basically
chaos-loving goblins who can'tresist negativity.
We also know that techcompanies have figured this out
and have created an entireindustry around it.
But here's the part they don'twant you to know.
You can opt out, not entirely,because, let's be real, unless
(12:09):
you're planning on moving to aremote cabin with no Wi-Fi,
you're still going to exist inthe modern world.
But you can start to make somestrategic moves to stop handing
over your attention like it'sfree candy at a parade.
So here are five ways you cantake control.
So the first thing is to realizeyou're in the outrage loop.
The best way to break any badhabit is recognizing when it's
(12:30):
happening.
So the next time you feel thatrage-fueled impulse to engage
with a negative conversation orreshare a post about something
that's really pissing you off,pause for a second and ask
yourself am I about to engage insomething that will actually
improve my life, or is thisconversation going to be
productive, or am I just feedingan algorithm?
If the answer to any of theseis no, congratulations.
(12:53):
You just spotted the trap, andonce you start seeing the trap,
it gets a lot harder to fallinto it.
The second step you can do totake care of yourself is to
think about the three-day rulefor outrage.
It's a real game changer.
If someone's triggering anemotional reaction, give it
three days before engaging.
Just three days why?
Because outrage has a shortshelf life.
(13:14):
Something that feels like themost important thing in the
world today is probably going tobe completely forgotten by next
week.
If you don't believe me, thinkabout the last huge controversy
you were invested in, the onewhere you were really mad, maybe
even posting about it.
Now ask yourself do you evenremember what it was, or did it
just fade away Exactly?
(13:35):
So if something makes you wantto drop everything and engage in
the discourse.
Tell yourself if I still careabout this in three days I can
engage Nine times out of ten.
You won't.
So the third step is to curateyour information diet.
You see, the same way, youwouldn't eat gas station sushi
every day.
Well, at least, I'd hope not.
You shouldn't let your mentaldiet be made up of non-stop
(13:57):
stress-inducing content.
You get to control what youconsume, and no, that doesn't
mean ignoring reality.
It means choosing sources thatdon't exploit your emotions for
clicks.
Engaging in content that'seducational rather than enrages
is a good way of taking care ofyourself.
You can also mute, block andunfollow liberally.
It's your feed.
(14:18):
You don't owe anyone access toyour brain.
So here's the fourth step, andit's a big one.
So you remember how our brainsare wired to prioritize negative
information.
Well, it turns out you can hackthat system.
One of the best ways to do thisis by using the three to1 rule.
So for every negative thing youread, counter it with three
(14:39):
positive things.
If you see a terrible headline,follow it up with a story about
something going right in theworld.
If you catch yourselfruminating on bad interactions,
force yourself to think of threegood ones.
It feels small, but this isliterally brain training.
Over time, it helps balance outthe constant flood of
negativity, so your brain stopstreating every bad thing like
the apocalypse.
(15:01):
So the fifth step is the digitaldetox, but making it realistic.
I know, I know everyone says,just get off your phone, but
let's be honest, no one's reallygoing to be doing that.
What you can do, though, is setactual limits on how much chaos
you consume.
You can designate no scroll,like the first 30 minutes after
waking up and before bed.
You can turn off notificationsfor apps that are basically just
(15:24):
yelling at you all day.
You can even try a 24-hourdoom-scroll detox and see if the
anxiety magically decreases,and guess what?
It probably will.
At the end of the day, the goalisn't to disconnect entirely.
It's to reclaim your attentionand stop handing it over to
systems that profit off makingyou miserable.
And here's the best part whenyou start making these shifts,
(15:46):
you don't just feel lessstressed, you start seeing the
world differently, a little lesschaotically and more in
perspective, and when thathappens, you'll realize
something you were neveractually obligated to be this
angry all the time.
You just got tricked intothinking you were.
So there you have it Five waysto take back what belongs to you
(16:10):
.
Your attention is valuable, notjust to you, but to entire
industries, and if you're notintentional about where you
place it, someone else willdecide for you.
The goal isn't to disconnectfrom the world completely.
It's to engage with it on yourterms, because right now, most
of us are not engaging on ourterms.
We're letting algorithms andoutrage cycles dictate what we
(16:31):
care about, what we stress overand even how we feel on a daily
basis, and that that'sexhausting.
The world isn't going to getless chaotic, but you can get
better at navigating it, andwhen you do, you'll realize that
so much of what feltoverwhelming urgent and
inescapable it was neveractually yours to carry in the
first place.
Well, thanks for listening toMental Health Potluck.
(16:52):
I'm Danny Clark.
And remember your attention isyour most valuable resource.
(17:15):
Spend it on what builds you up,not on what tears you down.
I got nothing, but I'msomething.
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