On the power of words and the importance of values for mental health
Today The Sunday Telegraph titles ‘Christmas cancelled’, and we all know the reason why by this time of the day.
But.. can Christmas actually be cancelled?
It is something I want to explore from a couple of perspectives: the first is that of the whole topic of headings and #clickbait, which gives me lots to think about every time I open my social profiles.
It is a hard year, it is a very challenging time. Decisions need to be made, they are imperfect. People struggle physically, economically, psychologically. Do we need headings that rise tension, conflict and can hurt the most vulnerable, as well as potentially increase the daily dose of confusion and hate speech?
Considering clickbait is probably here to stay, what we can do is to learn more about it and develop greater awareness of its implications for mental health. Following some initial research on the topic, here is what two articles state:
"Clickbait doesn’t just happen on its own. Editors write headlines in an effort to manipulate you—or at least grab your attention—and always have [...]
A growing body of research supports this idea. In a recent paper called 'Breaking the News: First Impressions Matter On Online News', two researchers looked at 69,907 headlines produced by four international media outlets in 2014. After analyzing the sentiment polarity of these headlines (whether the primary emotion conveyed was positive, negative, or neutral), they found "an extreme sentiment score obtained the largest mean popularity." This not only suggests that strongly negative or strongly positive news tends to attract more readers, they concluded, but also that "a headline has more chance to [receive clicks] if the sentiment expressed in its text is extreme, towards the positive or the negative side." wired.com
"Studies have shown that people are more likely to post or repost something that evokes anger or fear than anything else on social media. This suggests that businesses and politicians may be incentivized to make you feel angry or scared online. The term clickbait refers to content for which the main purpose is to attract attention and encourage people to click on a link to a particular website. Most clickbait is designed to illicit fear, loathing, or anger. pennfoundation.org"
If you want to grow more awareness about your clickbait behaviour, check this article.
So how do we respond to an unethical, unhelpful use of the media, particularly in this challenging time?
The second perspective I want to consider here is that of #values, a viewpoint that can help us reframe our thoughts and, together with mindfulness, take care of our well-being by developing psychological flexibility. It helps us distancing from the automatic response a clickbait or manipulative heading can initiate and mitigate its potential consequences on our mental health.
"In Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), we use the term values to refer to activities that give our lives meaning. Values are not goals in that we never “accomplish” a value. Instead, values are like a compass–they help us make choices based on the directions in which we want our lives to go. Values are who we want to be and what we want our lives to be about. When we connect with our values, we are able move our lives in meaningful directions, even in the face of difficult or painful experiences. Moreover, values are very individual. They are not based around what others expect of us, or what we think we should be doing. We choose our own values". (portlandpsychotherapy.com)
What does Christmas mean to you? What values does it encompass and celebrate?
Pope Francis encouraged us last Sunday to focus on the essential values of Christmas, and I believe this can also be done within a secular context. He said: “May this difficulty help us to purify a little our way of living Christmas, of celebrating, letting go of consumerism, and finding a way that is more religious, more authentic, more true".As many other times during this pandemic, we have an opportunity to reconsider what is essential to us. This time, it is about the core of our Christmas spirit and spirituality, and once we clarify it, we can model it to our family members and friends, mostly the younger ones.
My Christmas won’t be cancelled, as I plan to live the values that are at its core through the means I have in this specific context, including the intention to cultivate #resilience.
What about yours?
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