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Doomscrolling is the term used to describe our tendency to scroll through Twitter or other social media sites looking for “attention-grabbing” types of headlines. You’re a “doomscroller” if you often find yourself seeking out stories that “get a rise out of you.”
It’s like scratching an itch when you see a headline or tweet that either reinforces a negative feeling you have or proves that your perspective on an issue/person/movement is vindicated. When someone agrees with our beliefs and viewpoints, our brains register that as a “win” and we might get a hit of dopamine from the external validation of our inner thoughts.
When controversial public figures get suspended or banned from a site, we actually miss the posts that made our blood boil or temperatures rise. We’re not getting that jolt of righteous indignation or astonishment from his tweets anymore, so we’re not able to get that same joy from the tweets of those sympathetic to our perspective. We may begin seeking out posts from other potentially volatile persons just to rekindle the cycle of “outrage — righteous indignation — validation from like-minded others” that became so familiar.
We also miss having something to talk about and a focus for the anger, distress, and anxiety we have all been feeling as a result of the pandemic and its effect on our lives. For instance, Trump’s tweets gave us a target for expressing our negative emotions, including anxiety and fear; something the amorphous pandemic cannot.
When we’re expecting a public figure to behave in a certain way or tweet out certain types of tweets and they actually do, that’s another reason for our brains to “score a win.” This scrolling for validation can become a habit, and it can be especially difficult to break since our phones are always at hand or we are working at home on our computers and a quick “mindless surf” to the news or social media sites is so easy to sneak in.
What Are the Risks of Doomscrolling?
When we focus on arousing our outrage or validating our negative opinions, our brains become primed for negative feelings. While it can feel “good” to have a negative opinion validated, it is priming our brain to offer rewards for negative mindsets.
Not only that, but the “hits” lose their power to bring the high and instead our brains respond with increased production of adrenaline and cortisol, the stress hormone. It’s like the increased tolerance of an addict — the hits have to be bigger and bigger to have the same effect over time; when “rewards” are less reliable, it increases the behavior to seek them out. It can be an endless cycle of spending more and more time following Twitter to get the same positive rush that you used to enjoy from outrageous or belief-confirming tweets.
Research has shown that when we are exposed to distressing news and information, we respond with anxiety, increased fear, and sadness — it totally stresses us out to immerse ourselves in negative news stories. Yet the pleasure we’ve associated with reading negative headlines or outrageous tweets that validate our own views can keep us going back for more — even though our overall mental wellbeing is being compromised by the negative information we’re consuming.
Doomscrolling negatively affects our sleep, too. And when we’re not getting the rest we need, we’re further short-circuiting our brains’ and our bodies’ ability to cope with stress and anxiety.
It’s also hard to find the truth when we’re looking to social media to give this to us — tweets and posts are not always based on hard facts so much as opinions about what people would like to believe is true. When you see two totally conflicting stories, your brain may be challenged to know what to believe. It’s the same feeling we experience when we’re given two totally contradicting directives; we get placed in the classic “double bind” and we don’t know which direction to follow as they are mutually exclusive. This just increases the distress that we experience from simply scrolling through the negative news items.
Tips for Breaking the Habit
Just like stopping any bad habit, it takes commitment and an investment of time and energy in letting go of the Twitter habit. As counselors say, until someone admits that they have a problem, there’s nothing they can do to solve the problem.
Some of us know that we have a habit of spending too much time on social media and news sites, others of us may have heard complaints from friends and family about our tendency to scroll versus engage socially. So if you or someone who cares about you feels that there “might” be a problem, take a look at your behavior and see if you indeed need to cut down on your scrolling time. And when we “think” we might have a problem, it’s almost a sure bet that we “do” have a problem.
- Spend more time engaging with people in your support network, even if it's via virtual socializing.
- Practice mindfulness and focus on the world around you, not what is and isn't happening in the cyberspace of social media sites.
- Rewire your brain to find pleasure in the news and stories that you enjoyed before you found yourself sucked into doomscrolling the former president and other controversial political issues.
- Start "hope scrolling" or “joy scrolling” and looking for stories that are upbeat and inspiring or start exploring potential travel destinations or other positive, hope-inspiring sites.
- Seek out positive news and stories that make you smile from pleasure, not laugh at another’s misstep or misfortune.
- Limit the time you allow yourself to spend on your “train wreck” sites, meaning the ones that draw you into endless scrolling and comment following.
- If you’re having a hard time resisting a “quick peek” at your favorite sites even when you’re trying to enforce a time limit on yourself, you may need to limit the amount of time you spend online on any site.
- Turn off “Notifications” for all of the sites that drag you under so that you’re not tempted to go for the clickbait.
- Avoid any type of news/media stimulation before bed. Sleep is essential to our wellbeing, but Twitter and Instagram are not going to lull you into a peaceful night’s sleep by any means. Switch to a mindfulness app instead before bed.
- Take advantage of Iceland's 22.7 meters of scenic beauty rather than scrolling through 22.7 meters of negative news, the average amount we tend to see each day. (https://joyscroll.lookslikeyouneediceland.com)
