How to Step Away from Covid News for the Holidays

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The emergence of the Omicron Covid variant has unleashed another rash of doomscrolling—compulsively checking the Covid news every day. The more dangerous and uncertain the environment appears, the more we feel the need to get answers, and the more we search. This phenomenon has been called ‘doomscrolling’ because the feelings of threat make it hard to look away. From an evolutionary perspective, it makes sense: Human safety depends on understanding the environment to identify dangers, assess risk, and make decisions that increase our chances of survival. But the uncertainty around Covid can make us hypersensitive to stressors. The holidays are supposed to be a time of joy, but as we all know, even without worrying about Covid, they can be a serious source of stress. And here we are, heading into the holiday season with the looming threat of Omicron. Understanding the psychology behind the urge to check can help you know when it’s valuable—and when enough is enough, and it’s time to pour the eggnog.

Why Do We Continue to Search for Information?

One way to feel less fearful is to figure out what’s going on. There are, unfortunately, no definitive answers about the risk of contagion or the potential severity of the latest mutation of Covid. Differing beliefs and conflicting information across sources can undermine trust and drive more information-seeking behavior. No amount of searching is going to give us what we need, and so down the rabbit hole we go. A year-plus of Covid misinformation, the politicization of causes, and disagreement over vaccines and protocols, combined with Covid battle fatigue, can compound anxiety and make us more reactive to stress.

Although we search the news to seek reassurance that everything’s OK, the continual barrage of negative information influences how we see the world. This can result in a Covid version of Gerbner’s (1998) mean-world syndrome, in which the continual reporting of contagion and dangers can create a cognitive bias that increases our sense of vulnerability and makes us believe the world is much more dangerous than it is. This is not to say there is no risk. However, it’s hard to evaluate since the cost of getting it wrong with Covid has been very high. By mid-December 2021, the U.S. had passed 800,000 reported Covid-related deaths. If you're like the 48% of Americans who get their news from social media, beware of the algorithms that will show you more of any topic you 'like'. Frequency increases perception of validity and liking—and not all content is 'news.'

Psychologist Jonathan Haidt (2006) used the analogy of an elephant and its rider to describe the conflict between instinctive and emotional reactions—often unconscious—and rational thought and intentional behavior. As that suggests, the instinctive emotional brain, like the elephant, has a lot of power if not guided. To train an elephant takes intention and persistence. When it comes to binging on Covid news, you must recognize what you’re doing and activate the rider so you can intentionally evaluate and interrupt the tendency to search for more information. Without the rider, you are likely to react to emotional triggers, such as sensational headlines and fear-based social media posts, letting the elephant run the show.

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Managing The Elephant Over The Holidays

Managing the elephant means is an exercise in mindful intention. For example, if you feel compelled to search for news or scroll through social media, try to engage instead in...:

• Self-compassion. Recognize that this is a normal reaction, so don’t feel bad, but be realistic about how much news could have happened since you last looked that will actually affect you.
• Self-control. Set time limits on searching—whether you use phone controls or a timer. It’s easy to let time get away from you when the elephant’s in charge.
• Self-awareness. Monitor your emotions. Keeping a simple log of your media-consumption behavior can help you identify patterns and make choices about the content, frequency, and emotions you experience using media. This awareness can be crucial to your mental health and your ability to enjoy the holidays.
• Self-Regulation. Intentionally engage in enjoyable, entertaining, or relaxing activities—whether it’s cheesy holiday movies or making cookies. Positive emotions are the best antidote for anxiety, and they make you a lot more fun to be around. Negative emotions decrease empathy, patience, and understanding, and increase “fight or flight” behaviors—a potential time-bomb waiting to go off during family gatherings.
• Anxiety-Reduction. If you’re super-anxious about Covid exposure, the news won’t help. But you can purchase a bunch of inexpensive, in-home Covid tests to alleviate anyone’s anxiety at the start of any gathering. They are less than $30 and are in most pharmacies. You get results in 15 minutes, and you can drink some eggnog while you wait.
• Conversation Ground Rules. If your holiday gathering has both Covid deniers and Covid worriers, make Covid AND politics a “no-go” topic for conversation. Hand out yellow and red cards if you need to. Nothing good ever comes out of two raging elephants locking tusks.