Doom­scrolling: in the grip of bad news

Ever since coro­n­avirus dominated the news, it’s likely you’ve come across snippets of bad news no matter where you’ve looked or clicked. From more cases, new mutations to other cat­a­stro­phes – bad news seems to be mounting. Looking away doesn’t seem like an option. This phe­nom­e­non is called doom­scrolling. Read on to find out what it is and what you can do about it.

The term “doom­scrolling” first appeared on Twitter in 2018. The neologism describes the intense or even manic con­sump­tion of negative and alarming news. Some also refer to it as “doom­surf­ing”, which describes the same phe­nom­e­non.

It refers to the flood of bad news seemingly rolling over us, which is es­pe­cial­ly true for the auto-updating news fees of social networks. Once you click on a bad news story, you discover another. This sensation of being caught in a whirlpool of bad news has been suc­cinct­ly described by jour­nal­ists and bloggers and analyzed by sci­en­tists.

Why the feeling that bad news seemingly dominates the media is fairly easy to explain. It’s been well-es­tab­lished that scrolling through our news feeds appeals to our reward center. Facebook and other social media platforms are well aware and are using this to their advantage. In the worst case, some people may develop an addiction – the fear of missing out (FOMO) is just one of several (ques­tion­able) con­se­quences of excessive social media con­sump­tion.

With doom­scrolling, however, there is a second psy­cho­log­i­cal pe­cu­liar­i­ty: namely, our brain is evo­lu­tion­ar­i­ly wired to process and react to negative news quickly and ef­fi­cient­ly. In the early days, this made sense because negative in­for­ma­tion usually alerted us to danger, which then could be quickly averted. This evo­lu­tion­ary ability is still anchored in our brains and, in com­bi­na­tion with the al­go­rithms of online media, leads to the phe­nom­e­non of doom­scrolling.

Constant con­sump­tion of bad news paints an often ex­ag­ger­at­ed picture of the current situation and can lead to de­pres­sion. In com­bi­na­tion with so-called fake news, there’s the danger of drifting into a universe of al­ter­na­tive truths and becoming rad­i­cal­ized. As a first step, you should be aware of doom­scrolling and crit­i­cal­ly question your surfing behavior. Are you on the lookout for bad news? Do you click on every new horror story and statistic? Then it’s about time to take coun­ter­mea­sures. Follow these tips:

1. Set firm time limits within which you doom­scroll and browse social networks. For example, 10 to 20 minutes a day. If you find it difficult to set a limit yourself, use smart­phone apps that let you limit your daily screen time and use of certain apps.
2. Consider al­ter­na­tive behaviors and rewards, such as ex­er­cis­ing, going for a walk, or reading a good book.
3. Get friends or family on board to distract you from using your cell phone and with whom you can talk openly in case bad news over­whelms you.

In general, avoiding doom­scrolling is about changing your habits. Because habits can become addictive, there is no remedy for doom­scrolling. If you can’t find a good solution, a therapist or other expert in this area can help you to address and avoid dangers lurking on social networks.