Ayesha Siddiqui is a student at Cumberland Valley and an intern in the summer program of the World Affairs Council of Harrisburg and PennLive.
A new addiction is on the rise. Many call doomscrolling a way to kill time, but it’s really an addiction.
Like many addictions that have consequences, doomscrolling creates mental and physical health issues, lowers productivity, and lowers self-esteem.
One way or another, technology is involved with almost every occupation during and post-COVID-19, resulting in an increase in doomscrolling, continuously and excessively consuming information, both positive and negative.
The most common way we do it is through social media platforms like TikTok, Facebook, Reddit, and Instagram. Politics on platforms like these triggers about 51% of Americans, while 42% consume brain rot through doomscrolling.
This issue affects every generation in countless ways. A study conducted by Payless Power found that 64% of Americans acknowledge that they doomscroll. Gen Z would be the most likely to identify as a doom-scroller, with a majority of 81%, Millennials with 67%, and Gen X with 53%.
So, why do we doomscroll? The amygdala, the center of emotions like fear in the brain, is triggered when we consume negative news or information, pushing us to look for more dangers due to stress signals.
Dopamine is a neurotransmitter that is released when one experiences delightful activities. Doomscrolling releases dopamine when we look for new information, creating a continuous negative feedback loop. This loop makes us feel anxious or stressed, as it is replaced with new information shortly after creating a never-ending cycle.
An extended effect of dopamine, when a dopamine rush occurs, the quick pleasurable feeling after joyful activities creates a feeling of relief or satisfaction, making it more troublesome or harder to stop scrolling.
Our brains aren’t wired to just get these feelings out of nowhere. These feelings are made through our own desirable preferences. Social media is meant to keep its viewers attracted. It creates algorithms matching one’s personal preferences by analyzing behaviors, content, or interactions. These analyses can continuously deliver the same type of negative content that is aligned with our desires. Social media algorithms do a great job of working a dopamine rush and our desires together to ultimately catch us in a never-ending cycle.
It may start like this: you may just get on your phone to check a message or email but end up sitting on your phone for hours. You kept telling yourself you would get up in five more minutes, but you just couldn’t stop scrolling. When you get up, you have a bad ache in your neck and realize you missed a great work opportunity, making you feel behind other people, especially those on social media who look like they have their lives put together so well.
You think to yourself, who knew sitting on my phone would have this many consequences?
A study found that doomscrolling leads to an increased amount of existential anxiety. Often, you come across videos that depict violence and suffering. Many will start to compare themselves to negative information like that to the point where theyquestion life and their existence, which is existential anxiety.
Over 20% of Americans confessed that they follow either influencers or content creators that have made them feel worse about themselves. In fact, they had continued to watch them despite it lowering their self-esteem.
Doomscrolling has been revealed to cause both mental and physical health effects like headaches, muscle tension, neck pain, shoulder pain, low appetites, difficulty in sleeping, high blood pressure, and nausea, per Harvard experts.
As an individual consumes a large amount of negative news and information, stress and anxiety levels increase, leading to lower productivity. Research from Payless Power suggested that Americans spend an average of 3.5 hours out of the workweek doomscrolling, triggering companies to lose about $5,600 per year for every employee.
It is important to remember to disconnect from your phone. There are numerous ways you can do so. Simply moving your phone away from you can help you stop doomscrolling. You can also put screen limits on your phone.
You can take a walk, do yoga, or play a sport — without your phone. Exercise also elevates your serotonin levels, which influences your mood, appetites, and mental health, countering the effects of doomscrolling.
