I have a Facebook account. Like the billions of other Facebook users, I’ve customized my Facebook to reflect my interests and keep me connected to the things and people that matter to me, whether it’s reviews of the latest Marvel movie or articles on an obscure German philosopher. Also, like millions of my fellow Americans, I have found myself overwhelmed by the recent news to the point where I’ve had to take several multi-day breaks from the constant barrage of news piped directly to me via Facebook.

Much like any other person even remotely following the news, I have seen the criticism leveled at Facebook for their business practices and effect on the social fabric of society. Without wishing to seem as if I’m jumping on the bash Facebook bandwagon, there is something else I strongly feel should also be added to that list.

Over the past several weeks there has been a most interesting phenomenon I’ve become aware of on Facebook. Allow me to give an example: It’s a typical day scrolling through my newsfeed. I come across a meme from the latest Marvel movie and have a quick chuckle then I scroll on to a headline about the genocide in Myanmar. My good mood instantly evaporates. I scroll down again and find a different meme about Game of Thrones that gets a laugh out of me until I scroll down and see a news article about corruption in the White House. Do you see a pattern here?

I am calling this experience emotional whiplash; the sudden rapid change in emotion in response to wildly different stimuli. I’m sure anyone reading this has their own tales of going from one emotional extreme to another in the course of a session on Facebook. Now I am no sociologist or psychologist, I cannot speak to the presence or lack of social or psychological effects from this upon people.

All I have is my intuition that there is something very wrong with such a rapid change in mood over such a short period of time. This is also not to say that there is something evil in contrasting moods; sometimes it is pleasant to have that kind of contrast such as observing a sad image when one is happy or listening to an upbeat song when one is feeling down.

What then can be done to help remove emotional whiplash? While I’m no software engineer it seems to me the best solution would be to separate the newsfeed into several smaller feeds that could be toggled between at will, such as a friends and family feed, an actual newsfeed, and a regular feed for memes and other miscellaneous things.

More broadly it is worth asking questions to ensure that the ways we are delivered information, be it entertainment or facts, is best for us and our psychological well-being rather than just a cynical marketing ploy to keep our attention. Our future health (and sanity) may depend on the answers.