Media and Your Mood
How does consuming media change the way you feel, and what you do next?
Feelings Regulator
When we are feeling bad, we might grab our phone to change how we feel. It will provide a distraction and we might even read something that is particularly interesting or funny or connects us to a community. In all these ways, checking out content is an effective way to change your mood.
Intention makes the difference.
The thing about grabbing your phone when you feel bad is that the bad mood is making the decisions about what to view. Using your phone without an intention can very possibility lead to making a bad mood worse. For example, frustrating yourself with a game, reading world news headlines, or scrolling social media in a way that makes you feel inadequate.
Alternatively, recognizing that you are using your phone to address a bad mood provides an opportunity to intentionally guide your phone use toward a positive outcome. This might be accomplishing a to-do list item, like ordering or emailing. It could also be using an app differently, like reading the r/MadeMeSmile thread on Reddit rather than just whatever is trending. Other intentional phone behavior includes looking at photos, reading hobby/sports news, and reviewing social media that makes you laugh.
Sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn’t.
A useful strategy for using the phone to regulate emotions is to put it down when it is not helping. After some time, phone use in this context might begin to feel like gambling. If you just try to scroll a bit longer, or switch a few more times, or check one more thing, you might get that shot of happy you are looking for. If you do not feel better within the first few minutes of using your phone, then it is time to put it down and try another strategy for feeling better.
What if feeling happy is a skill?
Encountering an unpleasant situation is a context of daily life. It could be as simple as running out of toilet paper or as complex as a difficult relationship with a loved one. Media is not going to improve the unpleasant situation for these contexts, and many others. Feeling better begins with feeling better. If you can practice feeling good, you will feel good more without having to try. Being happy is a skill, which means it improves with practice.
The Four Better Days and Eight This are how No Weigh provides an opportunity to feel a peaceful happy more often. And here’s a bonus – you can use your phone to do them!
Are you ready for something different?
