Maybe get off social media now

At first blush, this coronavirus pandemic would seem to be social media’s moment. Social distancing has us stuck in our homes, cut off from family and friends, trying to work, parent or — blessed be — both, and most of all trying to keep up with the avalanche of information coming out every day about Covid-19.
Indeed, Facebook use is surging — the company reports that in Italy time spent across its apps (including WhatsApp and Instagram) is up as much as 70% since the outbreak began there. Twitter has seen an increase in activity, too. I alone am probably worth a few percentage points of that uptick, given how often I’ve stared into the blue glow of my iPhone.
This is not a positive development. User sentiment on these platforms has become overwhelmingly negative since the virus hit, according to marketing companies that track such things: Feelings of fear and disgust are rising along with the number of posts. Pre-pandemic studies conducted on heavy Facebook use consistently show that it increases rates of depression, anxiety and loneliness. That’s the last thing we need during a deadly disease outbreak, when we’re confined to our homes, grieving for lost normalcy and feeling anticipatory grief over future lost lives.
Even if all the information circulating on social media could be trusted — which of course, it can’t — now is not the time to continually seek new information.
In many situations, accumulating facts can alleviate anxiety, since nothing is more fearful than the unknown. “People are not
very good at coping with
uncertainty,” says Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic, professor of business psychology at University College London and Columbia University, in what feels like a bit of an
understatement.
In normal circumstances, rationally collecting facts can be a healthy way to cope. But that’s not the case here.
Getting more information “is helpful when it influences what you would do,” says Alice Boyes, author of “The Anxiety Toolkit.” “But at the moment, most of us are doing all the things we can possibly do.” We’re hunkered down, washing our hands, staying six feet away from others.
“When you’re already doing all you can do,” she says, “there’s not much additional benefit” in seeking more information.
Moreover, humans are naturally inclined to pay attention to bad news, says Chamorro-Premuzic. And a lot of the news right now is bad. We may be spending more time online out of a sense of desperation or helplessness, or even just because many of us have more time on our hands. But if we’re mainlining bad news, we could be escalating our own anger and fear.
There are times when that’s useful. Experts call it “upregulating,” says Boyes — amping up our negative emotions to help us summon the energy to act. Studies have found that amping up your anger can sometimes help you find courage, for example, and amping up fear can help you fight or flee.
—Bloomberg

Sarah Green Carmichael is an editor with Bloomberg Opinion. She was previously managing editor of ideas and commentary at Barron’s, and an executive editor at Harvard Business Review, where she hosted the HBR Ideacast