"Social media can push us to the dark side with negative content. A new study finds watching inspiring videos for just three minutes a day can boost your mood and reduce stress. 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."
"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."
"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. SWARNER: I went up and down Longs Peak once a week with 100 pounds of rocks in my backpack to train."
Daily exposure to three- to five-minute inspiring videos produced increased feelings of hope among adults aged roughly college to 86. One thousand adults were assigned to watch an inspiring video daily for five days, watch comedy, watch no media, or do a few minutes of meditation. Increased hope after the inspiring videos predicted lower stress over the following ten days. Comedy did not substantially increase hopefulness. The emotional effects of brief inspiring videos closely matched those observed after short daily meditation sessions. Stories of underdogs and personal triumphs served as the primary content for the inspiring videos.
Read at www.npr.org
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