“…Increased media exposure to collective trauma including COVID‐19 (Chao, Xue, Liu, Yang, & Hall, 2020) and previous public health crises (Thompson, Garfin, Holman, & Silver, 2017) has been associated with heightened psychological distress and impaired functioning over time (Garfin, Silver, & Holman, 2020). Yet media communications also provide a critical input that individuals rely on to evaluate risks and receive information (Glik, 2007), particularly during times of crisis (Ball‐Rokeach & DeFleur, 1976; Jung, 2017; Li, Yang, Zhang, & Zhang, 2019; Ranjit, Lachlan, Basaran, Snyder, & Houston, 2020). Moreover, while technology clearly has applications that can enable key components of our social, educational and occupational lives to continue during the COVID‐19 outbreak, prior research suggests these benefits (Decker et al, 2019; Haidt & Allen, 2020; Torous, Myrick, Rauseo‐Ricupero, & Firth, 2020) must be cautiously weighed against the potential for harm (Haidt & Allen, 2020; Primack et al, 2017; Shensa et al, 2017).…”