Tech
Examining The Dominance of Doomscrolling on Social Media
Published
6 months agoon
In the depths of the digital world, where screens glow in the dim light of our rooms, a peculiar yet pervasive behavior has taken root: doomscrolling.
Picture this: it’s late at night, and instead of peacefully drifting off to sleep, you find yourself glued to your phone. You can’t help endlessly swiping through a barrage of alarming headlines, heart-wrenching stories, and catastrophic updates. The flicker of each notification drags you deeper into a vortex of despair.
From the latest pandemic statistics to climate change catastrophes and political upheavals, social media is the breeding ground for unsettling news today. And we, the unsuspecting audience, willingly surrender to its grasp, seeking validation for our deepest anxieties.
Doomscrolling isn’t just mindless scrolling; it’s a psychological labyrinth. A study published by the University of Florida outlines doomscrolling as a “new and unique behavior,” and not merely a trendy phrase. Benjamin K. Johnson, a researcher involved in the study, describes it as follows:
“It’s the combination of living through a crisis and having a smartphone with a newsfeed that never ends. It just keeps going. So, we keep scrolling.”
Accompany us as we attempt to examine the growing dominance of doomscrolling on social media and its impact on your mental health.
Doomscrolling isn’t just a harmless pastime; it can have profound effects on our mental well-being.
A 2022 NIH study about the association between doomscrolling and psychological stress highlights just as much. It confirms that people who engage in doomscrolling are more likely to experience psychological distress, which eventually leads to lower mental well-being. It also negatively impacts their contentment with and harmony in life.
One of the most immediate effects of doomscrolling is the heightened sense of anxiety that sweeps us off our feet. Imagine standing in the middle of a digital tempest, with alarming headlines and distressing images swirling around you like gusts of wind.
In this whirlwind of negativity, our minds become a lightning rod, attracting every bolt of bad news that comes our way. Each alarming headline feels like a thunderclap, jolting us into a state of hyperarousal. We find ourselves constantly on edge, bracing for the next wave of doom and feeling powerless to stop it.
The stream of negative content on social media is like a relentless downpour, soaking us to the bone with stress. It’s as if every negative headline is a raindrop, slowly eroding away our sense of calm and leaving us drenched in worry. But it’s not just a metaphorical soaking we’re experiencing; it’s a physiological response as well.
Studies have shown that exposure to negative news triggers the release of stress hormones like cortisol, flooding our bodies with the biochemical equivalent of a thunderstorm. With each alarming update, our stress levels rise, putting us in a constant state of high alert.
While social media is meant to connect us with others, doomscrolling often has the opposite effect, leading to feelings of social isolation and loneliness.
As we immerse ourselves in negative news, we tend to disconnect from the real-world relationships and experiences that bring us joy and fulfillment. This sense of isolation can further exacerbate mental health issues and contribute to a sense of disconnection from society.
TruLaw notes that beyond this disconnection, the excessive use of social media is also linked to a decline in self-esteem and disruption in normal sleeping patterns.
In light of all these adverse impacts, it would suffice to say that doomscrolling on social media seriously harms your mental health. The mounting criticism that platforms like Meta currently face over their failure to protect users from their negative impact is evidence of the same. This criticism is also accompanied by lawsuits piling up against the Meta platforms, mainly for neglecting the mental health of their young users.
While we’ve familiarized ourselves with the fundamentals of doomscrolling and its impact on our mental health, we’re yet to break down its driving forces. What drives us to keep consuming negative content for hours on end? Here, we’ll focus on the psychological mechanisms behind this increasingly common habit.
Social media platforms are like cunning treasure chests, filled with content carefully designed to trigger dopamine hits. Each click, each scroll, reveals a new nugget of emotional intensity, a fresh rush of that “feel-good” neurotransmitter.
Shocking headlines? Dopamine surge. Tragic stories? Dopamine surge. Outrage-inducing updates? You guessed it—another dopamine surge. It’s an addictive cycle, a never-ending quest for that next hit of emotional intensity. And just like any addiction, the more we indulge, the harder it becomes to resist.
From the depths of our evolutionary past, we’ve inherited an instinctive knack for detecting threats — a survival mechanism honed over millennia of existence. It’s this primal urge that draws us to the alarming headlines and distressing images that flood our feeds.
Social media platforms are like master puppeteers, pulling the strings of our deepest fears and anxieties. They know exactly how to push our buttons by tapping into that ancient part of our brain that lights up at the first sign of danger. With each alarming update and sensational headline, they amplify our sense of dread, sending our anxiety levels soaring.
Psychologist Susan Albers-Bowling also highlights the possibility of doomscrolling being a function of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). OCD is a mental health condition of performing repetitive behaviors. Dr. Albers explains:
“In this scenario, your brain continues to loop around a particular topic, similar to endless scrolling. The behavior isn’t really about finding news; it’s about trying to reduce your anxiety.”
Cognitive biases are the subtle plot twists in these narratives, guiding your thoughts and actions without you even realizing it. When it comes to doomscrolling, two of the most powerful biases at play are confirmation bias and the availability heuristic.
Confirmation biases are like a magnifying glass, amplifying the parts of the story that align with what we already believe. It’s the reason why, when we scroll through our social media feeds, we’re drawn to the negative news that confirms our worst fears.
Then there’s the availability heuristic. Simply put, it’s a trick of the mind that leads us to overestimate the likelihood of negative events based on how easily we can recall them.
When we’re bombarded with distressing images on social media, they become seared into our memories, making them seem more common than they actually are. And because our brains love to take shortcuts, we make snap judgments about the world around us, further reinforcing our sense of doom and gloom.
Yes, it can. Doomscrolling is known to lead to feelings of isolation and loneliness, thereby minimizing one’s ability for meaningful interactions.
Yes. On social media, it’s easy to fall into the trap of clickbait headlines, filter bubbles, and viral misinformation, especially if you’re used to doomscrolling.
The novel and alarming content that you browse through while doomscrolling can result in a dopamine rush, which makes it highly addictive.
The bottom line is while doomscrolling dominates social media platforms today, few are aware of its ill effects on one’s mental well-being. Through our article, we hope to remedy that by spreading more awareness about the potential dangers of this gloomy habit.