Overloaded and Undone: How Social Media and News Cycles Hijack Our Mental State

You wake up and reach for your phone. Before your feet even hit the floor, you’ve scrolled past war footage, a viral meltdown, a political takedown, a friend’s vacation post, and an ad for something you didn’t know you needed.

This isn’t unusual. It’s daily life in the age of digital saturation.

But what if this normal is far from healthy?

What if the constant exposure to updates, outrage, and information overload is doing more than just stealing our attention? What if it’s rewiring our brains and slowly depleting our emotional reserves?

Let’s talk about what’s really going on beneath the surface.

The Perfect Storm: When Social Media and News Collide

We live in a time where social media and 24-hour news cycles collide to form a relentless stream of stimulation. Together, they offer a nonstop drip of content that is emotionally charged, algorithmically curated, and nearly impossible to ignore.

On their own, each has potential. News can inform. Social media can connect. But in tandem, they often combine to overwhelm.

And that’s exactly what’s happening. We're drowning in information.

The result? Overload.

• Too many voices, too few filters. The human brain wasn’t designed to process this much data, this fast, from this many sources, at once.

• Constant novelty, no time for integration. We’re moving from headline to hot take to hashtag without ever slowing down to make meaning.

• Emotional baiting. Whether it’s fear, outrage, or envy, digital platforms thrive on keeping our limbic system activated because reactivity keeps us engaged.

  
  

The Fallout: Four Core Symptoms of Mental Overload

When our mental circuits are constantly lit up, we don’t just get tired. We are changed. Here are four ways this overload shows up in our daily lives:

1. Distraction. We’ve traded depth for breadth. In a distracted state, our attention becomes fragmented. It’s harder to focus on real conversations, deep work, or spiritual formation. Prayer feels boring. Reading Scripture becomes frustrating. Our friends aren’t as exciting as our phones. Our minds leapfrog from one notification to the next.

2. Anxiety. We weren’t created to carry the weight of the world, and yet we’re bombarded with global crises before breakfast. The feeling of chronic unease isn’t always rooted in our personal lives/ We often import it from our devices. This isn’t just stress. It’s anticipatory anxiety born from a world that never stops buzzing.

3. Negativity. Negativity bias, our brain’s natural tendency to prioritize threats, is hijacked by sensational headlines and toxic comment sections. Over time, we become more cynical, suspicious, and reactive. We start to expect the worst from others and ourselves.

4. Fatigue. Not just tiredness, but soul-weariness. Decision fatigue. Empathy fatigue. Doom fatigue. We scroll, consume, respond, and repeat… until even joy starts to feel like work. Our inner reserves are depleted before we even engage our real lives.

What’s Happening to Us—Scientifically and Spiritually

In my book, Limbic States of America, I explore how this constant digital assault taps into one of the most primitive parts of our brain: the limbic system. It’s the seat of emotion, memory, fear, and instinct. When overactivated, it floods the body with signals to fight, flee, freeze or fawn.

And that’s what we’re seeing at a global level: a society living in a prolonged state of limbic activation.

We're stuck in reactivity mode. We're numb or enraged. We chase dopamine and avoid discomfort. We’re emotionally exhausted… and spiritually starved.

But it doesn’t have to stay that way.

Finding Our Way Back to Peace

Here’s the good news: you don’t have to live in overload. There are practices, choices, and rhythms that can help you come back to yourself, to others, to creation and to God.

• Unplug with purpose. Turn off the noise, not just for detox but for discernment. Set tech boundaries that honor your soul.

• Curate your inputs. Be selective. Choose content that brings life, not just noise. Limit outrage and amplify hope.

• Practice stillness. Silence is not just empty space—it’s sacred space. God often speaks clearest when we finally stop scrolling.

• Name what’s real. Pay attention to your inner world. Journal. Pray. Talk to someone wise. Don’t let your emotions be dictated by the algorithm.

  
  

Why I Wrote Limbic States of America

I wrote this book not as a critique of culture but as a map for healing. It’s for the person who feels overwhelmed by the world, pulled in a hundred directions, and unsure how to engage without losing themselves.

It’s for anyone who knows we can’t keep living in this kind of reaction mode.

The Invitation

If what you just read hits home, you’re not alone. And you're not broken. You're human. And you’ve been living in an environment that often overwhelms your humanity.

Limbic States of America is an invitation to return to peace, to presence, and to a grounded way of living—rooted in neuroscience, nourished by Scripture, and guided by the Spirit.

Get your copy today and join the growing community of people choosing clarity over chaos, and wholeness over overload. Available on Amazon in paperback or Kindle formats.

You were never meant to carry the weight of the world. But you are meant to carry light.

Let’s find it again—together.