Informed or Infirmed? Healthy Media Consumption And Social Media Usage

Are your media consumption habits helping you make good decisions or are they making you sick? The news and social
media are significant sources of stress and anxiety for many people. Participating in social media discussions, reading
newspapers, following your favorite political pundits and watching election news on TV can help you feel informed and
engaged. If you’re not careful, however, you may use media in unhealthy ways that make you feel worse. This training can
help you implement healthy media consumption habits that don’t damage your mental and physical well-being.

This training will help you:

• Describe how media consumption may impact your mental and physical health
• Consider whether your media consumption habits could be making you feel worse
• Change the way you consume media so that you can avoid negative consequences
• Participate in social media in ways that minimize exposure to cyber-bullying and other negative behaviors
• Anticipate cognitive distortions such as “catastrophizing” and “FOMO” (Fear Of Missing Out), and develop ways to overcome them