Affected, not impacted. Never use the word impacted when you mean affected. Use impacted when bodies collide.
At first I was thinking, why not use “impacted”, it sounds a little bit awkward, but I’ve definitely seen it being used in relatively formal situations (or at least that’s what I remember).
But no, I looked it up and “impacted” should not be used in the sense of affected. TIL.
If media can say “slammed” to mean “said something about”, I can use “impacted” to mean “affected”. Especially when we have the word “impactful”.
“Impactful” is a heinous travesty of the language. I’ve actually seen “impactfulness” used too. Also bad is “impacts” … “the stock market has suffered several impacts due to low business confidence.” This cumbersome wording tries to amp up the drama. It’s much cleaner to say “The stock market has been affected by low business confidence.” Aside from the shock value of replacing “affected” with impacted, a metaphor for bodily collision, many have turned to impacted because the subtle difference between affected and effected intimidates them.
Be the better person. Avoid the hokey metaphor.
Btw, media uses “slammed” and “pounds” and other Batman words simply because they get more clicks than rebuked or chastized. Don’t be a headline writer.