The Dangers of Digital Media on Society and the Human Brain

In 1974, before we carried internet access in our pocket-sized cellphones, two Christian evangelists started their own television show. Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker, former traveling preachers, founded the Praise The Lord (PTL) club, eventually owning their own satellite network and a massive business enterprise. Tammy Faye and Jim discovered that donations poured in every time Tammy Faye cried on the air. Soon, the televangelists cried on every show; during prayers for a sick child or praise for large contributions, the tears rained gold. They persuaded their viewers to give money, and their viewers' donations shaped the emotional content of their shows.

Source: Borna Hrzina/Unsplash

Eventually, Bakker’s massive empire crashed after sexual scandals, substance abuse, and fraud convictions. Fraud and fakery worked for the Bakkers for many years, inspiring a passionate and loyal following. That loyal following provided financial rewards, encouraging more grandiose and dramatic behavior by the Bakkers (New York Times, 2007).

Today, fraud and fakery pop up as memes, commercial videos, propaganda bots, and fake news in a mixed-up soup on our social media sites. Businesses, podcasters, bloggers, political campaigns, and ordinary folks making TikTok videos compete for our attention. Like Tammy Faye’s tears, they lure us with clickbait headlines and videos that manipulate us emotionally. Clickbait increases viewing numbers, increasing ad revenue, and rewards content creators who deceive. The lines between news, entertainment, satire, opinion, and commercials are blurred.

Viewers now have trouble distinguishing between reputable and fake news sources. In a survey of Americans’ views during the 2024 election, 73% said they had seen inaccurate news reports about the election somewhat often. Alarmingly, 52% of Americans said they found it hard to determine what is true and what is not when getting election news (Shearer, et al., 2024).

Dr. Brian Spitzberg researches the dark side of human communication, where communication can harm individuals and society. In a recent paper, he writes about “the four digital horsemen: disinformation, misinformation, fake news, and pseudoscience” (Spitzberg, 2025). The four horsemen refer to the book of Revelation in the Bible, which warns of false prophets and false prophecies leading to the apocalypse (Boxall, 2011).

Disinformation involves intentionally deceiving, as occurred with Russian and Iranian political influence campaigns during the 2024 election (U.S. Dept. of State). Misinformation is the unintentional distortion of information, as can happen when fragments of stories are removed from their larger context, distorting their meaning.

Fake news is intentional disinformation made to resemble a legitimate news media source. Pseudoscience consists of information that looks and sounds science-like but lacks real science's peer-reviewed evidence and rigorous standards.

Hopeful Research

Researchers found that most people value accuracy in news stories. People share things they don’t necessarily believe to be accurate. Perhaps the story seemed shocking, and you wanted to get your friends’ opinions. The researchers found that when we subtly shift our attention to accuracy, we improve the quality of our news sharing (Pennycook, et al. 2021).

It helps to keep in mind the words attributed to the 13th-century poet Rumi:

Before you speak, let your words pass through three gates

At the first gate, ask yourself, “Is it true?”

At the second gate ask, “Is it necessary?”

At the third gate ask, “Is it kind?”

The quality of your social media sharing may significantly improve if you pause at the three gates before posting.

Deadly Implications

Distorted information in the media can prove deadly. False claims from the anti-vaccine movement have led to reductions in herd immunity and the return of previously eradicated diseases like measles (Benecke et al. 2019). Many died from COVID-19 unnecessarily after vaccines and masks became politicized (Ferreira et al. 2022). Distorted information in the media weakens our ability to respond to the next pandemic or national emergency. This poses a real threat to human existence (U.S. State Dept. International Security Advisory Board).

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An MIT study found that false news, especially political disinformation, spreads many times faster than the truth on digital media. Fake news stories tend to be novel and inspire fear, disgust, and surprise, while true stories inspire sadness, joy, and trust. The researchers found that robots accelerated the spread of true and false news at the same rate.

Researchers found that our human emotions are to blame for the more rapid spread of fake news (Vosoughi et al., 2018).

Now, with AI technology, bad actors can create “deepfake” videos in a few moments. Images that distort the truth and bend reality have never been more widespread or damaging (Martinez et al. 2024; Sandoval et al. 2024).

Like Tammy Faye and Jim Bakker, content creators have discovered that more money comes from emotional engagement with followers. Rage-baiters make money from stirring up anger, disgust, and contempt in their comments sections and forums (BBC 2024). Rage bait drives up engagement numbers, padding the pockets of perpetrators. Every time we share content that includes misogyny, racism, ableism, cruelty, disgust, and hate, we encourage more creation of the same coarse content. It degrades our culture. Let’s just stop doing that (McLoughlin, et al. 2024).

Digital Media and Your Brain

Researchers have identified several harmful effects of excessive screen time and technology use. Extensive exposure to screens includes a mix of social media, disinformation, gaming, and videos, as well as multitasking on multiple platforms (Small et al., 2020). Harmful effects may include:

• Heightened attention-deficit symptoms.
• Impaired emotional and social intelligence.
• Social isolation.
• Impaired brain development.
• Disrupted sleep.

We can try to shake ourselves out of our collective hypnotic trance with a few simple actions.

Healthier Digital Media Practices

1. Identify a goal before you scroll: What is your intention, need, or purpose? Are you looking for a specific product? Do you want to connect with your family and friends?
2. Mind your emotions: If a story provokes strong emotions, run it through the three gates. Is it true? Is it necessary? Is it kind? If it doesn’t pass the gate, let it die on the vine.
3. Get health information from medical experts: Real expertise requires years of education and experience. A psychologist is not a cancer specialist, and a politician is not an infectious disease expert.
4. Impose a digital fast: Avoid all digital media during designated periods every day. Instead, spend time in nature, engage in a hobby, socialize, and exercise outdoors to improve mood, sleep, and mental health.

Our human emotions can be easily manipulated like those seduced by Tammy Faye’s tears. We each bear a responsibility for spreading false information. We can champion the solution if we resist the urge to share shocking stories and instead support thoughtful criticism.