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Due to the ubiquity of the internet, most of us spend excessive time online. Consequently, as social media roots deep in the psyche of the global population, it has become imperative to tackle doomscrolling.
A worrisome trend, doomscrolling is an unhealthy scrolling of negative news on the social media or websites especially via smartphones.
News informs and educates us, but it is filled with negative events such as violence, corruption, decadence and exploitation of governments, organisations and institutions.
But one cannot escape the news, which is vital to catch up with current events, affairs and happenings. And it is difficult to completely shut off the news as it tends to trickle through the veins of various media - the internet, newspapers, radio or television.
Now Facebook, Twitter and Instagram are the preferred sources of news. Since it is almost impossible to live off-grid due to our innate human nature for connection, it can help to moderate our time online.
How often are we on our phone? And how much of it is spent surfing the internet while chasing the threads of unceasing negative news? Doomscrolling took a turn for the worse, especially during the ensuing lockdowns in the peak of pandemic. People spent their time trying to soothe the ache of separation from their closed ones as they thumbed through the internet on their smartphones, day after day.
The pandemic isolated people who then sought the virtual world and as a result faced the plethora of negative news via doomscrolling. As psychologists explain, the perusal of negative news can be addictive and detrimental in the long term. Negative news and events tend to lodge in our minds more strongly, and as a result, we recall them long after the phones are switched off. It can lead to adverse psychological consequences from stress and sadness to a sense of doom.
The youth are particularly vulnerable to screen addiction, and lives today are lived through endless TikTok videos, Instagram posts and Facebook feed. It leads to unhealthy comparison and competition as the youth vie for online attention, which can be an unhealthy coping mechanism to anxieties.
Even though we pledge to view just one post, we soon follow a trail of countless posts and videos, all the while time slips off our hands like grains of sand.
We are thus letting the lure of the internet and social media on smart screens decree our lives and the way we spend our very valuable time. It is, therefore, necessary to be aware of the pitfalls of doomscrolling and make our online time complement our well-being through proper cognizance, awareness and pragmatism.
A version of this article appears in the print on July 7, 2022, of The Himalayan Times.
