Managing the ‘infodemic’

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 26/10/2020 (2135 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

With so much uncertainty in the world today, we’re constantly being bombarded on our social media feeds. Some of the posts can be triggering and affect how we interact on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

When the pandemic first hit, social media was a rewarding distraction for those looking for peer support and emotional, meaningful connections. Now, seven months later, its role in our lives has evolved and diversified. Information and sensationalized stories about the virus are shared repeatedly — and rapidly — causing many of us to be even more paranoid and anxious about the health crisis than we already were.

During a time when everything has been turned upside down, social media can fuel stress and anxiety; learning how to manage your consumption can benefit your mental and physical health.

The negative side effects of social media were known well before the pandemic hit, such as the fixation on likes and views. On top of this, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube can act as facilitators of COVID-19-related misinformation. This can not only generate fear and panic but can encourage people to follow bad advice. (You know, like drinking bleach.)

“When people are on social media, typically they become more opinionated and partisan and more extreme in their views,” says Dr. Syras Derksen, a registered psychologist in Winnipeg. “It’s that echo-chamber effect where your opinions are noted by social media and fed back to you so you can enjoy the experience. People like to have their own opinions fed back to them.”

The pandemic has been accompanied by an “infodemic” — a global spread of misinformation that poses serious implications for public health. Although some social media companies, such as Facebook, try to combat misleading information, there is still a large amount out there. Countries such as Malaysia and Vietnam have arrested and fined those who have posted fake news on social media platforms.

And even though social media is becoming more controlled, Derksen says it’s still less regulated than other forms of traditional media.

“When somebody has misinformation, it becomes cemented in them so it becomes much more challenging to uproot it and replace it with the truth,” he says.

A recent study led by McGill University found that people who rely on social media for news are more likely to believe misconceptions about the coronavirus and less likely to practise physical distancing. In contrast, those who get their news from more traditional forms of news media are more likely to follow public health recommendations.

The study collected and analyzed millions of Canadians’ tweets and thousands of news articles. The type of misinformation examined in the study ranged from someone believing a personal post they read to content found on questionable websites via tweets.

Derksen says people will often evaluate the things in their lives that are causing them problems, decide which are most valid and then try to rationalize what’s making them feel that way. Typically, people disqualify social media as one of those things because it doesn’t feel valid to say “Facebook made me feel depressed.” So, they don’t attribute it as a source of negativity.

Perhaps they should.

“The damage caused by social media is damage that’s unidentified in the way that people think about their mental health,” he says. “When this damage happens, people don’t suspect that it would be Facebook that’s making them feel negatively so they don’t do anything about it and it continues to increase.”

Social media can be constructive or destructive and the difference comes down to how it’s used.

“It depends how people interact on it. There are people who have heartfelt connections and it helps them to feel connected to people who are far away,” says Derksen. “So, it can be very helpful during a time of social isolation in order to stay connected.”

But it can also have a dark side. Social media usage has become such a contentious issue that Netflix recently released a documentary about it — The Social Dilemma — which focuses on how social media companies manipulate users by using algorithms to encourage excessive use (or even addiction) to their platforms.

“When people become wrapped up in social media, it becomes less about meaningful connection and more about the next hit of dopamine or adrenaline that will come through in the next video or sensationalized post.”– Dr. Syras Derksen

“When people become wrapped up in social media, it becomes less about meaningful connection and more about the next hit of dopamine or adrenaline that will come through in the next video or sensationalized post,” Derksen says. “It has a kind of unreality to it that takes people away from their lives and other healthy things they could be doing. It also potentially changes their brain to needing more immediate hits of stimulation, which is unhealthy. I would be concerned with people who are using social media in that way.”

Throughout all of this, the term “doomscrolling,” or the need to obsessively read a long stream of disheartening headlines on social media, has emerged. So why keep going to information that might be harmful to your psychological health? The same reason people rubberneck at car accidents. Sometimes it’s hard to look away.

Derkson says when we see a disaster, we can become fascinated and affected by it — like the wildfires in California or war in another country — but these types of disasters don’t threaten everyone directly. With COVID-19, however, we’re dealing with a direct threat that endangers us all.

With so much information available about the pandemic, it can be hard to control the content and people can easily get caught up in it.

“It’s interesting to think of social media at a time when there’s a threat that’s both so impersonal, in that it’s affecting so many people worldwide, and so many people have an opinion about it. Those opinions vary dramatically,” he says. “It’s also a very personal threat in that it can affect anybody, anywhere and at any time.”

There is no one best way to cope with so much information coming at you at once — what is activating to one person may be soothing to another. For Ally Beauchesne, deleting both Facebook and Twitter from her phone back in March has helped her significantly.

“I had read a very upsetting story (about COVID-19). It was shared by somebody in my network on Twitter. After I read it, I realized that I was harming myself by consuming all these negative things,” she says. “It was just too much. I decided that I couldn’t keep reading those things, whether they were true or not, so I deleted the apps from my phone.”

Beauchesne says she found both Twitter and Facebook to be the worst of the social media platforms.

“On Twitter, you’re getting a million things at once and on Facebook, there are just a lot of comments,” she says. “Once I deleted the actual applications, I wasn’t just opening them up and mindlessly scrolling. It really improved my mood.”

Months later and Beauchesne has yet to reinstall Facebook or Twitter on her phone. She admits she recently started logging in through her computer, though.

“I still check Facebook every few days but just on my Safari browser. I find because I’m not using the app on my phone, I feel more in control because it’s not as easily accessible,” she says. “Sometimes you pick up your phone and randomly start scrolling and you’re not even conscious of what you’re looking at.”

Beauchesne is a realtor so she uses Facebook from time to time for her business and to check in with family.

“I’ll specifically search for people I want to keep up with instead of just scrolling and seeing every little thing that everyone has posted,” she says.

Even when signing in on her browser, she still has a tough time reading some of the posts and headlines she comes across.

“(Facebook) is either people getting angry because others aren’t taking (COVID-19) seriously or people getting angry because they think it’s a hoax. You can’t sift through the good and bad unless you’re muting or deleting half of your friends and I just don’t have the energy for that.”– Ally Beauchesne

“The posts on my Facebook feed have become increasingly radicalized,’” she says. “(Facebook) is either people getting angry because others aren’t taking (COVID-19) seriously or people getting angry because they think it’s a hoax. You can’t sift through the good and bad unless you’re muting or deleting half of your friends and I just don’t have the energy for that.”

Beauchesne continues to watch the provincial press conferences and reads government updates on Twitter because she knows the information she’s receiving is credible. She also makes a conscious effort to read traditional news media.

“I find it comforting to get the information. I don’t want to just stick my head in the sand. I want to know the updates, new restrictions and sites of exposure,” she says. “And I actually go to news websites because then I don’t get trapped in the social media comments, which are also very upsetting.”

If Beauchesne does come across something that upsets her, she’ll send a message to her friends. They’ve started their own texting support group.

“When we see negative things (on social media), we just send them to each other instead of commenting or engaging.”

The pandemic and overall global instability have pushed a tidal wave of triggering and upsetting information via social media at us and it’s important to assess how you deal with the information coming at you. Derksen says people have challenges sourcing their emotional issues — if you need to take a break, unplug for a bit or get outside. Beyond this, talk to someone about it.

“It’s often easier to communicate when things are simple and, unfortunately, people’s relationships with social media are more complex.”

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@SabrinaCsays