As a personal anecdote through the pandemic and election, I've found out several things:
1. Twitter, for me, is incredibly detrimental to my mental health. I felt the need to check it until the inauguration, but took several breaks and was shocked how much better I felt. Now I think I might just stay away from it almost entirely.
2. Facebook, on the other hand, has been generally good for me, since I got rid of toxic people and just kept lightly in touch with a small set (maybe 20) of people that I enjoy interacting with. My enjoyment of it has improved, although I'd still rather have a different way of doing it. Plus, it is only 15 minutes per day or so, so it's benefit to my life is minimal.
3. Reddit. Generally still like it, although much less so since there has been a drop in quality contributors, an increase in politics, and generally less fun overall. But as long as I stay away from contentious subreddits, I like reading it. It is more of a time sink than a mental health drain (although that's related, too)
4. Hacker News: I've grown to greatly appreciate the strict moderation and find it is a great example of a "good" social site. It adds value, but it isn't a time sink.
As for mass media, it is far too driven by reaction, and I mostly avoid all of it. In-depth general media, and focused media are more interesting. The Economist is generally great, for instance, because most everything is in depth. I've recently taken to reading a shipping news site, and that is interesting because I can hear more pertinent information about, say covid, because they aren't reporting about covid, but reporting the effects of covid.
Mostly I think we need more education and training for our population on handling media. Too many people seem to take whatever the read as truth and insert it directly into their brain without an skepticism or critical thought. I hate that. Everyone should have a "news vestibule" in their brain where new information must sit and be verified before they allow it into their mind as a whole.
Lastly, I'm now much more inclined to pay for content than I was 5 years ago.
As for mass media, it is far too driven by reaction, and I mostly avoid all of it. In-depth general media, and focused media are more interesting. The Economist is generally great, for instance, because most everything is in depth. I've recently taken to reading a shipping news site, and that is interesting because I can hear more pertinent information about, say covid, because they aren't reporting about covid, but reporting the effects of covid.
Mostly I think we need more education and training for our population on handling media. Too many people seem to take whatever the read as truth and insert it directly into their brain without an skepticism or critical thought. I hate that. Everyone should have a "news vestibule" in their brain where new information must sit and be verified before they allow it into their mind as a whole.
Lastly, I'm now much more inclined to pay for content than I was 5 years ago.