You open your phone to check one headline. Forty minutes later you've read about a war, a scandal, a disaster and a dozen angry replies. You don't know anything more useful than you did. You just feel worse.
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What is doomscrolling?
Doomscrolling means scrolling through bad or upsetting news for long stretches, even when it no longer helps you. The word took off in 2020, but the habit is older. What changed is the feed: there is always one more post, so there is never a moment that tells you to stop.
Why does your brain keep doing it?
Humans are built to notice threats. Paying close attention to danger kept our ancestors alive, so bad news feels urgent in a way good news doesn't. Online headlines take advantage of that.
A study of more than 105,000 news headlines tested on the site Upworthy found that each extra negative word in a headline raised the click rate by about 2.3% (Robertson et al., Nature Human Behaviour, 2023). Feeds learn what you click, so the more you react to bad news, the more of it you see.
What does doomscrolling do to your mood?
Researchers at Texas Tech University surveyed over 1,100 US adults about their news habits. About 16.5% showed signs of severely problematic news use, such as constantly thinking about the news and struggling to stop. That group reported more stress and anxiety and worse physical health (McLaughlin, Gotlieb and Mills, Health Communication, 2022).
In an experiment at the University of Florida, people who spent just a few minutes reading negative COVID-19 posts felt worse afterward than people who read neutral or positive ones (Buchanan et al., PLOS ONE, 2021). Even short sessions can drag your mood down.
Get ResetScroll
Earn scroll time with meditation (1 minute = 3 minutes) or yoga poses.
How do you stop doomscrolling?
- Give the news a time slot. Check it once in the morning and once in the evening, not all day. Avoid the last hour before bed. Here's why scrolling in bed ruins your sleep.
- Pick a source with an ending. A daily summary or newsletter finishes. A feed never does.
- Move news and social apps off your home screen. One extra step is often enough to break the automatic tap.
- Ask one question: "Can I do anything about this today?" If not, you've read enough.
- Add a pause before the feed. A minute of slow breathing gives the thinking part of your brain time to decide if you really want to open it. More ways to do this in How to Stop Scrolling Without Quitting Social Media.
How much time is doomscrolling costing you?
An hour a day of bad news is more than 15 full days a year. Try our Screen Time Life Calculator to see what your real daily number adds up to over a lifetime.
Can an app help you stop doomscrolling?
ResetScroll gives you a daily screen time limit. When it runs out, you earn more with a few minutes of meditation or yoga. That short break is the pause that interrupts a doomscroll, and you come back calmer, or not at all.