We managed to get in touch with a member of the group's administrator team, Marie Shizuka, and she said that since 'Middle Aged Humor' is so big, they have been developing a system that would automatically clean it.
"We do some auto deletion to keep spammers out," Shizuka told Bored Panda. "But the problem is when this system also deletes actual members' comments and they complain a lot."
Shizuka said that the community is, for the most part, keeping the content positive. "Generally, any feel-good and funny posts are popular among the members," she said. "Nostalgic pictures too."
And it's easy to understand where this is coming from. Consuming too much worrying news, whether actively or passively, can have a big impact on our mood.
"The way that news is presented and the way that we access news has changed significantly over the last 15 to 20 years," said Graham Davey, a professor emeritus of psychology at Sussex University in the UK and editor-in-chief of the Journal of Experimental Psychopathology. "These changes have often been detrimental to general mental health."
Davey thinks today's news is increasingly visual and shocking, and that the inclusion of smartphone videos and audio clips isn't helping. These bystander-captured media can be so intense that they can cause symptoms of acute stress—like problems sleeping, mood swings, or aggressive behavior—or even PTSD.
Some of Davey's research has shown that negative TV news is a significant mood-changer, and the moods it tends to produce are sadness and anxiety. "Our studies also showed that this change in mood exacerbates the viewer’s own personal worries, even when those worries are not directly relevant to the news stories being broadcast,” he said.
While increased anxiety and stress are reason enough to be wary of overdoing it when it comes to the news, these and other mental health afflictions can also fuel physical complaints. Stress-related hormones, most notably cortisol, have been linked to inflammation associated with rheumatoid arthritis, cardiovascular disease, and other serious health concerns.
The human brain is attracted to troubling information because it's programmed to detect threats. This can make it hard for us to ignore the negatives online. The publishers know it; just think of all the opinions and commentary that passes for news analysis when, in reality, is not much different from lunchroom gossip.
