"News no longer arrives at set times through newspapers or evening broadcasts. Instead, it appears continuously-embedded within social feeds, notifications, and everyday scrolling. People do not always seek it out; they encounter it incidentally, again and again. What makes social media news especially consequential is that it differs fundamentally from traditional forms of news consumption. Newspapers, television broadcasts, and even news websites historically required intentional access: People chose when to tune in, how long to stay, and when to disengage."
"Social media collapses those boundaries. News now appears alongside personal updates, entertainment, and social interaction-often without a deliberate decision to consume it. As a result, news exposure is no longer a discrete activity but an ambient condition of online life. Headlines surface repeatedly across feeds, are reshared by friends and strangers alike, and are algorithmically prioritized based on engagement rather than emotional cost."
More than half of U.S. adults at least sometimes get news from social media, making those platforms a primary gateway to emotionally significant events. News on social feeds appears continuously and incidentally, rather than at scheduled times, collapsing the boundaries of intentional consumption. Traditional outlets required people to choose when to engage; social media embeds headlines among personal updates, entertainment, and interactions. That persistent, incidental exposure leads to ambient news experiences where headlines resurface repeatedly and are prioritized by engagement metrics. Passive scrolling can be more emotionally taxing than active engagement, reflecting the role of platform design.
Read at Psychology Today
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