JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:
If your social media feed is stressing you out, you are not alone. Algorithms want to keep you engaged so they can push you content that makes you mad, but there might be alternatives to just logging off. NPR's Allison Aubrey reports on a study that shows potential benefits to a few minutes of daily inspiration.
ALLISON AUBREY, BYLINE: What if the first thing that pulled you in this morning was the story of a cancer survivor with one functioning lung who climbed Mount Everest?
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SEAN SWARNER: I visualized myself every night for a year standing on top of the mountain.
AUBREY: Sean Swarner's story has been viewed millions of times. He survived Hodgkin lymphoma and, at one stage, struggled to walk. Then he started training.
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SWARNER: I went up and down Longs Peak once a week with 100 pounds of rocks in my backpack to train.
AUBREY: Watching someone succeed against the odds can feel good. Researcher Robin Nabi of UC Santa Barbara and her collaborators wanted to document the effects, so they found a bunch of viral videos with underdog themes, including Swarner's. And they recruited a thousand adults across the country, from college-aged to 86.
ROBIN NABI: One group watched an inspiring video, about a three- to five-minute video every day for five days.
AUBREY: Others watched comedy, while another group watched no media and another did a few minutes of meditation.
NABI: People felt more hopeful after watching the inspiring videos, and that hope predicted lower stress over the next 10 days.
AUBREY: It turns out comedy didn't move the needle much on hopefulness. And another thing they didn't expect?
NABI: We were actually quite surprised at how similar the effects of the inspiring videos were to the group that meditated. Both groups felt more hope, and both groups, that hope predicted reduced stress 10 days later.
AUBREY: It's not as if watching a few videos will have a massive effect on your long-term well-being.
NABI: These small effects can accrue over time, and that hope helps us feel like we're able to deal with the things that might be causing us stress. So the question for us really is what happens when we make this a habit?
AUBREY: It can be tough to choose inspiring content, whether it's on your streaming apps or social media feeds. Researcher Allison Eden of Michigan State University says her research shows when people are not happy, they tend to choose negative content.
ALLISON EDEN: Something like a horror film, so those people aren't always the best at making decisions for themselves when they're in a bad mood or under stress.
AUBREY: And when it comes to social media, Eden says it's all too easy to fall to the dark side. There's so much content pushed at us that doesn't make us feel good.
EDEN: Media can be a super powerful tool for coping and mood management, but we have to really proactively choose that. And if we don't, then we're going to keep getting fed stuff that makes us miserable and sad because that's what prolongs our attention on the apps.
AUBREY: So, she says, you can intentionally try to counterprogram your feed.
EDEN: Make an effort that the first couple things that you search for every day are things that are going to put you in a positive frame for the rest of the day. So it could be positive news. It could be animals - something that sort of seeds your feed in a specific way.
AUBREY: And, she says, you can also try keeping a media log. Every time you watch something, ask yourself how you feel. After a few weeks, you can be the judge of how what you watch or scroll influences your well-being. Allison Aubrey, NPR News.
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