Taking a Break from Doomscrolling

My clients have recently been sharing a new word with me and I’m hearing the phrase a lot during 2020.  Doomscrolling.  Wikipedia (as of the time of writing this) describes doomscrolling as “the act of consuming an endless procession of negative online news.”  With dealing with the covid-19 pandemic, the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg, the upcoming election, recent reactions to protest or some form of racial injustice, natural disasters, and various items of concern it is hard to look away from the news right now.  What impact is this having on our mental health and self care?

While doomscrolling is a new term we do have a fair enough research to know how this behavior impacts our mental health.  Researchers have studied how media usage, overuse of the internet, and fear based news outlets impact us.  Often these behaviors increase our anxieties, keeping us in a constant state of fight or flight and never feeling like we can let our guard down.  This heightened anxiety and sense of unease makes us want to consume more of the news (or continue doomscrolling) because we want to see how other people are faring or what other information is out there.  The increased anxiety and restless thoughts also make it hard for use to fall asleep and/or have restful sleep.  We all know that doomscrooling makes your feel more alert and gets in the way of relaxing so you can get some shut eye.  We also know that depression and feeling of hopelessness is also associated with fear based news consumption.  So to no one surprise, doomscrolling is bad for your mental health.  

Recently, I spent some time thinking about Erik Hagerman whom the New York Times wrote a piece about in 2018.  Hangerman, after the 2016 election, cut himself off from news consumption, bought 45 acres of land, and disconnected from the larger world.  Now Hangerman is coming from a place of privilege that he can do this.  There were plenty of people that had angry reactions to his choice, but reading through the article you saw that he chose to spend his attention and time on restoring the land that he purchased.  I think about this piece now because Hangerman made a choice of where he wanted to put his attention.  This leaves me wondering how much time and attention (both finite resources) is our news consumption taking away from things we would rather be focusing on. 

Oftentimes we don’t think about what we want to focus on.  If something feels life threatening we have a hard time turning our focus away from the topic.  We become obsessed with the topic and try to get more information.  Often we are trying to gather information to prevent a worse case scenario.  Other times we might be trying to gather information on a topic that we feel anxious about.  Doomscrolling often gives us an illusion of control.  If I find more information, then I will know more about how to handle the situation.  But this is often not the case.  Sometimes consuming news makes us more vigilant and feel more scared and powerless.  This impact on our mental health might make us less likely to handle the worst case scenario that we are playing out in our heads.  

Most of us know that Doomscrolling is bad for us.  But what should we do about it?  

First thing to do is assess.  How much news are you taking in?  How often do you lose time to doomscrolling?  What apps or social media platforms do you often lose most of the time and/or attention to doomscrolling?  Often there is no clear cut answer of what is the best way to take in news.  Historically we have had limits set upon us like how long the newspaper was or an hour long news program.  Now we have 24 hour news channels, search engines that can keep the topic going, and social media that never has an end point.  Doomscrolling is a thing because our ways we get news allows us to keep scrolling without end.  We need a finish line.

Designing an End-Point and Intentional Usage

We have to pay attention to design.  I often say that it is easy to binge watch a series on Netflix, all you have to do is not press a button.  Netflix is designed to binge watch.  They often release a series all at once and not release an episode a week model so you can binge the series in one night.  However Netflix also has a time limit that asks you if you are still watching.  How do the apps/platforms we use design play into Doomscrolling?  How can we be more intentional with setting up a design that works for us?  

We also have to consider what platforms help us gather the information we want and allow us to shut off when we are done.  Some people are choosing to go back to written media since there is a limit to how much they can consume.  Others are choosing to only take in news from a limited amount of trusted sources.  Some have set limits to how much they are consuming news either on how long they are on the apps, a scheduled time to take in the news, or manage setting that notify them or lock them out when they have been on them too long.  These practices bring more intentionality to how we take in the news.  There is no one solution and it is more of what works best for you.  I’ve seen one person say they need to stop with Twitter and another say Twitter works best for them.  What works best for you?  How would you try an experiment to play around with your media consumption design?  

Move

Moving or motion in another key component to pay attention to.  When we are taking in the news we often activate our fight/flight response.  But we are also sitting when we are taking this in.  Since there is no end and we are not moving during a fight/flight response the body thinks it is trapped and unable to escape which leads into a freeze response.  This means we often feel more hopeless and powerless to do anything.  Some people have found it helpful to take in the news by putting on some headphones and walking.  It may also help to have it on in the background when you exercise.  That anxious energy that you feel is being put into moving your body which is how our fight/flight designed bodies were designed to handle stress.  Also when we are done with our walk or exercise we then have an end point to our news consumption.  

Community

Connecting with others about what you are taking in may also help.  Some people have active conversations with others online or on social media, but often those conversations may be asynchronous or not happening at the same time.  (For example, I might post a news article about something that is concerning, and 2 hours later someone might respond to it).  We may also benefit from live conversations to talk about things we are concerned about.  We might want to talk to others about our concerns about the world around us and how we are feeling.  This doesn’t cure the anxiety or dread, but we feel less alone in the process and more supported.

We might also want to find ways to connect locally with things that are concerning.  While reading articles and sharing links gives the illusion of control we often forget ways we can put our anxieties into action.  Our news in the internet age is very global and national focused.  We don’t pay as much attention to local news, but we often have far more influence on local events.  Talking to local politicians, spiritual/religious organizations, or local political groups may have more influence than bigger national issues.  You also might find local groups with people who have similar interests and concerns.  For example with covid-19, it may be overwhelming to take in the information about that national numbers or the world cases, but how do we track our state or local county?  What is being done there?  I have seen people with political concerns connecting with others and finding ways to educate others know the process to do mail in voting and make sure people are registered to vote.  Similar to moving, by taking action, even in small ways, we take that anxious energy and move it out of our bodies and into motion.

Rest

Whether you are anxious, depressed, politically active, just trying to get by or preparing for the worst, we all need to sleep.  Sleep is good for so many reasons in managing our mental health, and having enough focus to do the things we need to do, and make sure we are rested in case the worst does happen.  Set a good sleep schedule and practice good sleep habits.  If doomscrolling keeps you up at night, set a time when you put away your phone or find something that distracts your mind.  Meditation and mindfulness may help in helping us focus away from restless thoughts.  I often encourage people to schedule restful activities into their day.  

Again I think of Hangerman and is moving away from news consumption and towards connecting with nature.  What is it that we want to connect with?  If we weren’t filling our time taking in the news and dreading the future, what would we want to be doing?  Would it be connecting with friends and loved ones?  Would you want to be creative with music, art, or writing?  Would you want to focus on your own growth?  Anxiety can often tell we NEED to focus on this one thing, but we often have to let go of control over the things we can not control and lean into the things we can control.  We can choose where we want to put our focus, but first we have to pay attention to what keeps distracting our focus.