How Modern Media Destroys Our Minds: Calming the chaos

by The School of Life

A reassuring guide to navigating the challenges of modern media and staying sane in a world that does not turn off.

We are so used to living in a media-saturated world that we do not notice just how much damage is being done to us daily by the images we see and the articles and posts we read. If you are often anxious or find it hard to sleep, or you regularly want to give up on your fellow human beings, the reason may come down to the relentless influence of the modern media.

Genres: Nonfiction, Philosophy, Psychology, Communication, Mental Health, Self Help

192 pages, Kindle Edition

Published July 7, 2022

About the author

The School of Life is a global organisation helping people lead more fulfilled lives.

We believe that the journey to finding fulfilment begins with self-knowledge. It is only when we have a sense of who we really are that we can make reliable decisions, particularly around love and work.

Sadly, tools and techniques for developing self-knowledge and finding fulfilment are hard to find – they’re not taught in schools, in universities, or in workplaces. Too many of us go through life without ever really understanding what’s going on in the recesses of our minds.

That’s why we created The School of Life; a resource for helping us understand ourselves, for improving our relationships, our careers and our social lives - as well as for helping us find calm and get more out of our leisure hours. We do this through films, workshops, books and gifts - as well as through a warm and supportive community.

Reviews

[Tom LA · Rating 3 out of 5]

“The news is chiefly interested in problems. The only things we are ever really told to notice are the awful things. When we talk of news, what we are really referring to is the insistent narration of disaster and terror”.

All so true! Only I would have expected a bit more. for example, I would have liked a basic qualifier: it’s wrong to paint us (the audience) as purely the innocent victims. If the media works the way it does, it is also because of how our brain is wired, which is to react more intensely to negative events than to positive events. They give us poison, but we love the poison and we click on it much more than we click on the non-poison. So it’s a vicious cycle, although the media corporations don’t do anything to break it, in fact they exasperate this process and take it to an unbearable level.

The basic point of this book is simple: the news media are - for the MOST part - putting into our brains great quantities of a rotten, disgusting, toxic substance that harms us much more than what we think it does. It’s not information, it’s not culture, and it’s VERY unhealthy. It brings out the worst in us, and it jeopardizes our mental well-being.

“Our minds are being played with by people who care only that we keep responding”. True. All true.

This book offers great reflections on this topic, sometimes with the help of great works of art, which makes the reading more interesting.

On the other hand, I found it a bit superficial, which is the same issue I had with Alan de Botton’s (founder of the School of Life) “Status anxiety”, a book from a few years ago, of which we can find a few echos in this new book.

For example, I found De Botton’s animosity against religion reflected in both books.

In “How Modern Media”, we find some pearls like the following:

“One of the greatest MOVES ever made by a world religion was Christianity’s decision to locate the birth and upbringing of its CENTRAL DEITY in highly ordinary circumstances. It was a STROKE OF GENIUS to give Jesus ordinary parents and a very normal start (other religions … noblest lineage).”

“Greatest moves”?? “Stroke of genius”? The tone is implying a blanket of bad faith in the first Christians that is, at least, ignorant and unfair to all the proto-martyrs.

How enlightening, to read this gem of a sentence today, on the 24th of December (2022)!

Another one, when speaking about monasticism:

“There are PLENTY OF WAYS in which we can take inspiration from the seclusion of monk-like figures to bring greater harmony to our minds — and we could find NO END of substitutes for the majesty of God to focus our thoughts on. One example is to study the dynamics of WATER DROPLETS as they hit dry earth or a puddle”.


Yeah… no. You’re conflating christianity with oriental meditation, mate. Two different things.

All in all, some good material, greatly articulated ideas, but if you really squeeze the whole book, all you get is some “water droplets” hitting dry earth or a puddle.

So, I would not recommend this book.

I hope you all have a joyful and peaceful Christmas.

[Brendan Monroe · Rating 4 out of 5]

There's an insidious smear that's worked its way throughout Western society. Those who perpetrate it are miserable wretches intent on demonizing those who refuse to wallow in similar misery. This smear has, as its refrain, a favorite buzzword of the masochistic masses — "privilege."

The line of attack tends to go something like this.

Person 1: The news is so negative and depressing that I just can't keep up with it anymore. Doing so would seriously jeopardize my mental health.

Person 2: Must be nice to live a life of such privilege that you can just turn off the TV and your problems go away! Unfortunately, (insert historically marginalized group here) don't have that luxury.

Ah, yes. The "if you don't keep up with all the details of the latest public school shooting/example of police brutality/case of institutional racism, then you're a privileged POS" argument. The favorite fallback of those the educational system has failed.

This cynical, cretinous logic has become so ingrained in our culture that it routinely makes appearances on film and television.

When the douchey tech investor Cameron and his blinkered wife Daphne announced in an early episode of the second season of HBO's "The White Lotus" that they didn't follow the news, this was meant to be taken by the audience as further proof of these characters' privilege and blatant disregard for the less affluent.

Indeed, scroll through some of the negative reviews of this very book. Most seem to hit on the same refrain — that you're required to pay attention to the horrors fed to you by the 24 hour news cycle. You're expected to wallow in the world's miseries, or at least those of your own country. And if you don't, well, you're not a very good person. And if you're a cisgendered white male who refuses to wallow, well, you're in fact a bad person.

Such thinking isn't just idiotic, but harmful to us all. After all, what good comes when an entire country is riveted to the latest high-profile murder case?

Will an obsessive fixation on imbibing all the news media's reporting of the most recent mass shooting help prevent future mass shootings? Will the details finally convince the naysayers that stricter gun regulations are necessary?

Will watching videos of police beating unarmed black people teach me something I don't already know, or am I required to watch, eyes prised open "Clockwork Orange" style?

Such breathless reporting only manages to inflame and destroy the mental health of those of us already on the same page. We've become hopelessly addicted to the "disaster porn" we're fed day after day, but we justify this addiction in the name of being "aware citizens."

The pressure to maintain this awareness and to take the "correct," yet ultimately pointless, steps to display common cause after having become aware, has further made us all crazy.

In the immediate aftermath of the George Floyd killing, social media users were told by righteous internet activists that they needed to post a photo of a black square on their social media profiles for something dubbed #BlackOutTuesday to show solidarity with victims of police brutality. This was soon counteracted when the internet's other righteous activists condemned this action because it clogged feeds for other adopted hashtags, like #BlackLivesMatter, meant to spread further awareness of racism and police brutality.

The whiplash caused by these counteracting messages, along with an entire national dialogue about how to "talk" about instances of racism and police brutality, had us all doubting ourselves, covert racists that we were for posting — or not posting — little black squares on Instagram.

"How Modern Media Destroys Our Minds" states the case for ignoring the media better than I can here, and is best paired with Johann Hari's Stolen Focus: Why You Can't Pay Attention- and How to Think Deeply Again for an even deeper analysis.

Not paying attention to the details of every sensational story doesn't mean you don't care. On the contrary, it means you very much do care. You care about yourself and others enough that you don't want to become numbed by the endless deluge of disaster porn masquerading as real news.

It is only by selective caring, choosing to care about the people and things you can actually have an impact on, that you can make an actual difference.

And yes, it's ok to live life and have fun. You can laugh if you want to.

[Kanako Okiron · Rating 5 out of 5]

The critical reviews seem to stem from the fact that this book isn’t in the signature School Of Life-style, but other than the larger font and focus on media photographs rather than paintings (I mean, it is a book about the media, after all). This book could be my favourite TSOL book that I’ve ever read! Brilliantly summarised and accurate in so many ways, the book almost knows what I am thinking and could be the darkest sh*t I’ve heard anyone dig up about the media in one book. No matter how wary we try to be, we don’t know for sure how much the media has done it’s real job of not bringing us the news, but mess up our minds.
In true Alain de Botton fashion, perhaps it would be better if every news service brought us the news by saying, “here is the news that is sure to leave you feeling hopeless, because that’s just what we do. Tonight, our top stories…”

[Keira Konson · Rating 3 out of 5]

there were some beautiful sections about the value of art, the effect of art on the soul, and the human experience as art. but the secular humanism and the ideals of strict independence and choosing complete ignorance to the world outside of one’s own bubble were a little off putting and over powering.

[Kelly Carlin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Enlightening and Invigorating

Every human on earth should read this book so we can unhook our hearts, minds and souls from the unbridled force of what we ingest.

[lx · Rating 2 out of 5]

this was fine i guess, it presented ideas i was mostly familiar with but gave sometimes interesting explanations and examples.
however, i felt that at certain parts the book kind of lost itself and wished they would have gone deeper. it sometimes felt like i was reading a self help book and i hate that.
to sum it up i would say that this book tries with a kind of ''philosophical'' approach to explain to you why media as a whole fucks with your perception of yourself, the world and life.
all in all, this was an ok reminder of why i want to chance my relationship with how i consume media.

[Mehrsa · Rating 1 out of 5]

I strongly disagree with most of the book even from the first lines. the perspective that was used to describe the ideas was neglect and having a happy life. yes it could be useful but not when you are in a country with a complex situation. there is no space for closing the doors, turning on candles and just focusing on good news.

[Rina Ayra Diaz · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book doesn't sound like it was written by School of Life. It antagonizes the media too much, and lacks some balance in highlighting that the media is not all that bad as well. It therefore becomes what it's referring to. anyway, I'm rambling.

[Sofia · Rating 5 out of 5]

i am honestly sort of confused why it has such a low rating. i read this in one day because i could not put it down. while a few of the reviews point out that it could give us more, i think that it does a good job on talking about the media. i think a lot of people, unfortunately, do not think about the topics written in the book — particularly with social media.

anyways, reading it sort of made me feel like we are in Huxley’s Brave New World reality. rather than controlling us through censorship, we are controlled through being over informed. we have an information overload that keeps us distracted and stops us from doing what is really important or just reflecting.

i would definitely recommend this book.

[Antonio Gallo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Se il mezzo è il messaggio, è necessario conoscere bene il mezzo. Dall'invenzione della parola orale o scritta, fino ai bits & bytes di oggi, i mezzi sembra che superino di gran lunga i messaggi. Il che significa un grande caos mentale. Questo libro ne parla maniera molto ecumenica, per così dire. Afferma in maniera categorica che i media didtryggono la nostra mente. Mi ha incuriosito quello che l'autore dice di Geremia e delle sue famose bibliche "geremiadi". Me lo sono andato a rileggere il profeta e devo dire che insieme al Qoelet niente di nuovo sotto il sole. Tranne forse i mezzi. I media, plurale latino di medium, fanno la differenza. Geremia e Qoelet aiutatemi voi!

[Steph · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not a book I’d usually pick up as I assumed it’d be the boomer rhetoric of how social media and phones are the root cause of all problems of this generation, however it was more about news sources and tabloids. Although I didn’t agree with everything (e.g. just avoiding seeing the news) I agreed with the majority, especially the value of anonymity and the detriment of being constantly ‘plugged in’, especially when news stories don’t inspire action but just fear. Very interesting read!

[Delia · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was one good little book that perfectly worded many thoughts I had but wasn't able to describe accurately myself. Media is often horrible, traumatising. Watching the news can put us in a bad mood and make us angry.

I definitely agree with most of what it says and, more or less consciously, have already applied many of these tips to my life. I used to be angry at the monsters on TV and used to judge celebrities. Everyone does, it's what we're taught. Now I simply try to ignore it. My TV is always off unless I'm deciding to watch a movie of choice or Youtube videos. I try to stand above everything happening and to observe it critically.

While I agree that it is no use to know everything happening, especially when we can't do anything to help, I do think that we should know about the injustice we can fix. It is necessary to know about the tragedies that happen due to close-mindedness and to open our minds to avoid falling into them. Maybe we can't stop an unknown person from murdering someone else, but we can definitely stop the patterns of hatred happening in our brains.

This book is much more progressive than I thought it would be. It provides examples from all over the world, not just the Western world, and understands that punishment is not the solution for crime. It was definitely a very interesting read.

[Chris Fitzgerald · Rating 5 out of 5]

Having recently read a string of these School of Life books, I am left with two impressions:

1) They are never really about what they purport to be about.

2) They are about exactly what is going on regarding our relationship to their subject.

By way of example, this one isn’t really about the media per se. There are no revelations of the specific mechanisms by which the media is intentionally malevolent as you might find in Neil Postman, Frances Haugen, Nicholas Carr, et al. There are no self made monsters to revile, no “gotcha” moments, no grand conspiracy theories to recoil from in horror. It’s not that those sorts of books don’t have their place - they definitely do, and they serve their purpose admirably. They are necessary illuminations of an inherently corrupt system that we’d all be better off if we had a better understanding of.

This book, on the other hand, is a level up from the above in that it is about us. It’s about human nature and the ways that we fall prey to our own insecurities and fears, and about many of the ways this causes us to go sideways as a result. The solutions that it proposes are internal rather than external, suggesting that rather than trying to vilify and crucify others for their evil actions we should instead try to better understand others, and by extension, ourselves.

This is Water.

[Meg · Rating 2 out of 5]

I guess I was expecting something more along the lines of “How to do nothing” by Jenny O’Dell. This is not that.

It’s less sourced and relies heavily on examinations of various fine art pieces and their creators’ lives. If you’re into art history, this may be a heckin great read.

For me it felt too erudite and lacked acknowledgement of how to get news about things within our community that matter in ways that may be more sourced and reviewed than simply what our neighbor tells us through word of mouth. Overall, it feels out of touch to have this book fail to mention COVID-19 and its impact (I checked, it was published in 2022) as well as concurrent issues around the globe relating to various forms of activism on police violence, the prison industrial complex, and climate change.

This work seems like it comes from a place of privilege that doesn’t explore these grey areas, which is really what I wanted to explore.

Beautiful photos, interesting art history lens, just not for me.

[Benjamin Hare · Rating 4 out of 5]

This little book is a bittersweet introspective on the worst aspects of human nature. We love to gossip, take pleasure in the pain of others, declare opinions beyond our wit, judge without understanding, and deny our own hypocrisy. The short essays in this book hold up a mirror inviting us to recognize how these universal foibles create an insidious feedback loop between us and modern media. Each essay is a selfishly meditative experience that examines our own motivations and reactions; we are compelled to contemplate both the ugly and the beautiful with equal scrutiny, all the while being reminded to forgive both ourselves and our fellow man. We should consume less media (or ideally, none at all), learning to reject the emotional turmoil it engenders, and remember that humanity has always been this cruel, spiteful, jealous, and vengeful. We should decide to care less about remote events and more about what we're avoiding in our own lives. "How much we might understand if we didn't learn what everyone else knows." More than anything else this books reminds us why a proper perspective is the best medicine for counteracting the poison of modern media.

[Fannisa A. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Apt to its title, this book explains the reason as to why the media has the potential to destroy us.

Most of it kind of affirms a past reading (re: Stolen Focus). Also goes about in a really extreme way in terms of solution (pursuing anonymity, not confirming to society standards) and the underlying reason as to why we keep reaching out to the media, for example, it's diverting us from asking the important questions such as knowing yourself, i.e. whether you should pursue another career or move to another city.

It's either extreme or the way it's written seem to hit all the right nerves, right now I'm just conflicted. As expected of TSOL, lots of references to art and literature (Henry Matisse, Tolstoy, Jane Austen, Cellini). 3.5.

[F. · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was pleasantly surprised by this book. As a regular consumer of the media (politics being an area of interest), I largely disagreed with the premise because it seemed like the author was arguing for one to completely switch off from the news. But as I kept reading, I realised the main point isn't so much the consumption of media being inherently bad, but rather, how we are affected by it and how we interpret it. The main lessons I took from this were to know ourselves and our values better, to reflect rather than react, and to be more careful in how we approach the media. Thus, in being more self-aware, we are less susceptible to being dragged down the negative, addictive spiral that bad news can have.

[S.P. Moss · Rating 4 out of 5]

In a world where a lot of journalism has been reduced to “what people are saying on Twitter”, this book is a welcome antidote to doomscrolling.

It’s reassuring to read that you’re not alone in being sucked into the non-stop media machine, programmed to bring out some of humanity’s less desirable traits - helplessness, outrage, nastiness, schadenfreude, sanctimoniousness and mawkishness - when all you wanted to do was find out what’s going on in the world. And make use of your subscription.

Nine cures for this modern malaise are offered, from relying more on your own intuition and perception, to being a “spiritual aristocrat”, to shunning fame and seeking the pleasure of obscurity.

[Shannon Mower · Rating 2 out of 5]

Contains some valuable insights into the negative effects of the media but fails to really delve deep into these. Its viewpoint fails to present itself as opinion or acknowledge any counter-arguments which leaves it falling a bit flat. Some of its views are questionable if not bordering on dangerous, such as the implication that we should offer sympathy to violent criminals or the idea that we would all be better off ignoring the news entirely.

Overall, a book that fails to recognise the counter-argument that the media is necessary to prevent us falling into authoritarianism is never going to give a well-rounded argument.

[Mutia Novianti · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is very progressive to read and to remind us to take it slow despite what the media shows us these days. I think this book greatly summarised and pretty accurate in so many ways that it made me realize that it is not enough being honest to ourselves but we're also need to be careful on what we watch, read, or basically every medium platform we choose to consume. Because no matter how careful we're filtering our consumptions towards the media, we don't know if the media really bringing up the news without fear-mongering us and messing up our minds.

[Tony Crispin · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was pretty okay. Definitely some cool and interesting ideas in here but I didn't care for how a lot of the chapters were usual The School of Life schtick that had to keep reminding itself that this book is about media, so they have to tack a connection to the news or social media in somewhere.
That's kind of the thing about TSoL in general, once you've read two or three of their books, you've pretty much gotten the idea. They're kind of bad at making original content/ideas/approaches for different topics, but that's just me.

[Deniz · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you've read enough books by School of Life, you'll notice that there are some overlapping parts with other books. But they are all expressed in other words, so it doesn't bother at all.

What I wish was different is that the focus of this book is mainly on conventional media. I wish they had written a chapter solely on social media as it is - unfortunately- captivating our daily lives more and more compared to conventional media.

[Ben G · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bought as soon as went into print. Probably worth thinking of a suitable proper noun to label my current malaise with modern media. 'Medi-itis' maybe?

Plenty of profound insight and analysis to the troubles media brings us. Maybe pause, patience and suspending judgement are all useful tools in battling media hyperbole.

[Violet · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was good, lots of comparisons and references but felt like some them may be out of touch, also feel as if the school of life could switch up their tone every now and then but that is likely just because I’ve read quite a few of their books. Idk how to explain it really, reading school of life makes me feel like I’m a millennial until it’s over maybe I’m just depressed actually

[Cheryl Ang · Rating 4 out of 5]

Poetic yet matter-of-fact, draws age-old examples especially in the “cures” section to reinforce your beliefs. To have my thoughts articulated through this book was comforting, and now I know I’m not alone in my thinking. Tad draggy at some parts though, and honestly you would be familiar with most of its arguments.

For those needing an extra boost on why they should ease out of social media :)

[Els De Waegeneer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Heerlijke bedenking:

“It is seldom that anyone ever really becomes who they are so long as they are still widely regarded as normal by others. We’ll probably accede to our true individuality, and break free from the ideology of our age, only when a sizeable number of people start to think of us as weird - or, under their breath, simply mad.”

[Jane Buck · Rating 4 out of 5]

nice short read

I thought this book brought in some great examples to examine how we process media. I liked that it was a brief read. I would’ve liked more suggestions for managing media consumption for yourself

[Jessica Zimmerman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting! You could probably read this in a day if you concentrated. Loved the pictures. This is a European publisher so it’s not US-centric which was refreshing but also made it harder for me to relate to. Makes you question your relationship with media.

[Mia · Rating 3 out of 5]

In my opinion, this sounds like a self-help book :( I do recognize some good ideas of the author about social media however, they are vague and general. I would love it if there were more evidence to support the author's claim here. Overall, a good book to distract me from using the phone.

[Alan Eyre · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another excellent book from The School of Life.