Doomscrolling - friend or foe?
We all do it. I know I do it. I sit down after a busy time and scroll aimlessly through social media or through the news.
But why?
Scrolling gives us something to do when we feel helpless
We can’t personally stop a war, fix the economy, resolve every political crisis or prevent every terrible thing happening in the world.
But we can check the news. We can read the comments. We can share a post. We can look for updates.
It gives us the feeling that we’re doing something, even when we’re not actually changing anything.
And sometimes we’re not even looking for news. We’re bored, tired, lonely, anxious or putting off something we’d rather not do. Scrolling fills the gap without requiring much effort.
We want to know what’s going on, and bad news gets our attention
Humans are curious creatures. Historically, knowing about potential danger helped us survive.
Is that noise a predator? Is there trouble in the neighbouring village? Has the king raised the taxes again?
Today, it’s wars, political chaos, climate disasters, economic uncertainty and someone on Facebook insisting that society is about to collapse.
Social media feeds make this bigger by giving us emotionally charged material that keeps us engaged. And the platforms don’t necessarily care whether we’re enjoying ourselves. They care whether we keep looking.
A video of a cat falling asleep in a flowerpot might make us smile. A video claiming that everything we eat is poisoning us might make us stop scrolling, read the comments, look for evidence and watch three more videos.
Guess which one is more likely to keep us busy?
We think the next bit of information might help
If we read one more article, watch one more video or check one more update, maybe we’ll understand what’s happening. Maybe we’ll find something reassuring. Maybe we’ll finally feel informed enough to stop worrying.
But there’s always another update.
We keep looking for the piece of information that will make us feel better, while repeatedly exposing ourselves to information that makes us feel worse.
We don’t know when to stop
A newspaper has a final page. A television programme ends. Even a book eventually reaches the last chapter.
Social media has no natural ending.
There’s always another post, another opinion, another outrage and another reason to think, “I’ll just have a quick look at this.”
Twenty minutes later, somehow you’re emotionally invested.
I am so guilty of this. I scroll Facebook, look at some posts, and then one might be interesting so I go and Google it. Suddenly I have lost half an hour on something that I may never look at again.
So why do we keep doing it when it makes us miserable?
It’s not a lack of willpower. And keeping informed isn’t the same as doomscrolling.
But at what point does keeping ourselves informed stop helping us understand the world and start making it harder to live in it?
I’m going to work now.