Mark Manson is known for his counterintuitive approach to self-help and giving people advice on how to improve their lives. He is most well-known for his bestseller, “The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck.” I wrote a review of one of Mark Manson’s podcasts during the spring semester of 2024: “3 Questions That Determine 99% of Your Happiness.”
In his most recent podcast, Manson takes a turn and focuses on how much we should care about politics and how the social media platform, TikTok, has influenced their consumers on current political events and even their mental health. Manson raises an essential question on the matter and what he has to say is important to hear.
The podcast begins by talking about how the media focuses too much on the candidate as a person and not so much on the candidate’s policies — this I agree with. The media focuses too much on the politician’s personality and their history over what they currently want to focus on. He also mentions how the media focuses too much on national and international news, and not so much on local news.
As important as it is to know what is going on in the world and our nation, it is also essential to know what is happening in the region we reside in. I believe that media consumers focus their mental health on what is happening in the world and not so much in their community.
The media also tends to report on the negative events occurring and not so much the positive ones. Major events, even if they contain pessimism, are still important to be aware of, but Manson says we should care about finding the good news that is happening in the context of all the improvements and changes the world is making regarding the economy, education and more.
Genders are becoming more polarized lately — men are becoming more conservative and women are becoming more liberal. Manson explains how this might be because of TikTok. TikTok is one of the most popular social media platforms used today. The platform has a “For You” feed where viewers consume the content they are most interested in. I find this interesting because, logically, women are going to consume content that is associated with and interesting to women and men are going to consume content that is associated with and interesting to men.
What I also found interesting was how Manson mentioned that there’s a generational gap in political views where the older generations are more conservative and the younger generations are more liberal. Statistics prove how there are different ratings concerning fertility rates, birth rates and marriage between the different generations. Marriage and having children were more common among the older generations than today.
This is an eye-opener no one speaks of very much. Manson also mentioned how there are no college protests over the wars occurring in Africa, for instance, and the smartest marketing and publicity minds in the world are constructing narratives around certain interests — again, an eye-opener.
Maybe the media, especially TikTok, does want people to become emotionally involved in their interests. We should care about the status of the world, but we should also have an accurate perception of the world because the news media won’t give you an accurate picture. This can be achieved by becoming more conscious of the news media we consume daily. Manson also says we need to read and learn more about history to give us a better understanding of the world and what is happening today. I agree with this 100%.
After listening to this podcast hosted by my favorite self-help author, I feel I gained a deeper knowledge of how the media works and tries to get consumers involved emotionally in what interests them. This is something that needs to be publicized for media consumers, especially TikTok consumers.
If you want to improve your mental health when it comes to consuming news media, do your research on the history and statistics on the issue(s) that’s most interesting to you and do your fact-checking on the narrative.
vgiorda1@ramapo.edu
Featured photos courtesy of @WardensWisdom, X
