But speaking as an avid consumer of pop culture (and, to be very clear, not a Ph.D. in psychology), I beg to differ: I’d say that movies and TV in particular played a pretty crucial role in nurturing my psychological well-being during what might go down as the worst ever . And while that rather dramatic superlative is up for debate, I still don't think it's a stretch to say 2016 was a completely fucking terrible time. For women, for peace, for the U.S., for Europe, for democracy, for migrants, for the definition of the word truth I swear I'm not a delusional screen addict who thinks entertainment can solve our problems. But I am a big believer in the idea that TV and movies can be of very real psychological value to people. Yes, comedies help you laugh at life and laughter feeds your soul (or something like that). But I'm talking about a less obvious, less expected takeaway — but it took a year as tough as 2016 to help me hammer out exactly what. So here is exactly what pop culture did for me in the nearly-over hell year that was 2016. If you were watching the same TV and movies as I was, then perhaps you'll be able to relate.As comforting as Wolf Blitzer's bearded visage may be, reading and watching the news this year was not exactly a breeze. It was more like an avalanche of awfulness — with stories of police brutality, pussy-grabbing and terrorist attacks breaking seemingly every hour, without cease.So I (unintentionally) formed a habit of interspersing the gutting parade of tragedy unfolding on CNN with episodes of quite literally inconsequential fare like The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills and Bachelor in Paradise. Watching shit that had truly zero impact on the world at large was a fun way to zone out.But more than that, I discovered that indulging in this lighter fare made engaging in the soul-crushing stuff more... manageable. Letting my mind veg out on orchestrated drama and very funny catfights every so often helped me stay tuned in to the real news the rest of the time — instead of becoming so overwhelmed by it all that I shut it out. (Somehow I doubt Lisa Vanderpump and Kyle Richards have any idea how watching them struggle to elegantly sip camel milk in the middle of the Arabian Desert contributed to my civic engagement. But that's okay.)