Doomscrolling: Dangers & Alternatives by Jack Johnson
References:
- https://www.health.harvard.edu/mind-and-mood/doomscrolling-dangers
- https://www.americanbrainfoundation.org/doomscrolling-and-its-effects-on-the-brain/
- https://www.multicare.org/vitals/dangers-of-doomscrolling-how-to-avoid-addictive-habit/
- https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12322333/
Doomscrolling is something that has been a serious issue for an alarming amount of people for years. I’m old enough that I was most of the way through high school before TikTok swept Western Civilization. I remember seeing a truly ridiculous amount of advertising for TikTok starting sometime in my junior year of high school. Evidently, that paid off, since it pioneered the epidemic of short form content we see virtually everywhere today. I personally have succumbed to the negative effects of this phenomenon for most of my adult life. It has resulted in my putting off of many responsibilities, including college work, even to this day. This semester in particular I’ve experienced an uptick in procrastination, a large factor of which is doomscrolling. As such, I’ve been particularly motivated to try out some of the methods I’ve detailed in my project. From what I can tell, they work, but only as long as you’re committed to improving.
I’ve tried the method of setting timers for scrolling. It has worked well, but only when I’ve actually remembered to set a timer. I also tried the method of restricting my own access to sources that I know are unreliable. That also works okay, but it’s one of those things where you have to keep doing it. You can’t just block certain accounts and call it a day. It’s an ongoing endeavor. The one thing that I could not try was keeping my phone physically away from me. I live in the dorms, so I need my phone on me at all times in order to get in. In summary, these methods have worked for me, but only in the sense that I have to dedicate a portion of my time and energy every day to upholding. I believe it’s possible for a significant amount of people to do that, but something big needs to happen for the practice to become widespread, and even more so for it to become the norm. It works as long as people put in enough effort to make it work.
