Social media can push us to the dark side with its negative content. Watching inspirational videos for just three minutes a day can boost your mood and reduce stress, a new study has found.
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If your social media feed is causing you stress, you're not alone. The algorithms want you to be engaged so they can serve you content that pisses you off, but there may be alternatives to simply logging out. NPR's Allison Aubrey reports on research that shows the potential benefits of a few minutes of daily inspiration.
ALISON AUBREY, AUTHOR: What if the first thing that grabbed your attention this morning was the story of a cancer survivor with one functioning lung who climbed Mount Everest?
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SEAN WARNER: Every night for a year, I imagined myself standing on top of a mountain.
AUBREY: Sean Swarner's story has been viewed millions of times. He survived Hodgkin's lymphoma and had difficulty walking for a time. Then he started training.
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SWARNER: I hiked up and down Longs Peak once a week with 100 pounds of rocks in my training backpack.
AUBREY: It's nice to see someone succeed against all odds. Researcher Robin Nabi of the University of California, Santa Barbara, and her colleagues wanted to document the effect, so they found a bunch of viral videos about underdog themes, including Swarner's. And they recruited a thousand adults across the country, from college-aged students to 86 years old.
ROBIN NABY: One group watched a three to five minute inspirational video every day for five days.
AUBREY: Others watched comedies, another group didn't watch any media, and another group meditated for a few minutes.
NABI: People felt more hopeful after watching inspirational videos, and that hope predicted decreased stress over the next 10 days.
AUBREY: Turns out comedy didn't do much for hope. And one more thing they didn't expect?
NABI: We were actually very surprised by how similar the effect of the inspirational videos was to the effect of the group that meditated. Both groups felt more hopeful, and both groups predicted less stress after 10 days.
AUBREY: That doesn't mean that watching a few videos will have a huge impact on your long-term well-being.
NABI: These small effects can add up over time, and that hope helps us feel like we can handle things that might be causing us stress. So the question for us is really what happens when we make it a habit?
AUBREY: It can be difficult to choose inspirational content, whether on streaming apps or social media. Researcher Allison Eden from Michigan State University says her research shows that when people are unhappy, they tend to choose negative content.
ALLISON EDEN: Sort of like a horror movie where these people aren't always the best decision makers when they're in a bad mood or stressed.
AUBREY: And when it comes to social media, Eden says it's too easy to fall to the dark side. We are fed so much content that doesn't make us feel good.
Eden: Media can be a super powerful coping tool and mood management tool, but we have to really actively choose it. And if we don't do this, then we will continue to be fed things that make us unhappy and sad, because that is what prolongs our attention to applications.
AUBREY: So, she says, you can intentionally try to reprogram your channel.
EDEN: Try to let the first few things you look for each day put you in a positive mood for the rest of the day. So this could be positive news. It could be animals – something that seeds your feed in a certain way.
AUBREY: And, she says, you could also try keeping a media journal. Every time you watch something, ask yourself how you feel. After a few weeks, you'll be able to judge how what you watch or scroll through affects your well-being. Allison Aubrey, NPR News.
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