Overview
“Doomscrolling” means habitually consuming content that fuels negative or pessimistic emotions.
History and Etymology
The movable-type printing press that brought on a revolution in mass media was developed in 1440, shortly after which appeared sensationalist broadside ballads that contained gruesome and shocking stories that could be sung in spaces for public gathering, like bustling marketplaces. Often, these stories contained details of horrid crimes and equally horrid punishments. Other times, they took inspiration from Biblical tales of devastation and astronomical predictions about an apocalypse. In other words, the foundations of doomscrolling are as old as the existence of mass media distribution systems; they take advantage of the human need to seek explanations of the world around us without taking responsibility for the words they traffick in. Provoking hysteria was profitable for printers while also serving political and religious movements in ways not unlike modern memes.
The actual term “doomscrolling” emerged on Twitter around 2018. Since then, studies have found that doomscrolling is associated with increased mental health symptoms, although the interaction is more complex than simply saying doomscrolling impacts mental health negatively. In many cases, those with depression and anxiety might withdraw and isolate, and scrolling through media feeds can be a low-effort attempt to distract oneself from one’s own life. This in turn can worsen one’s mental health, forming a vicious cycle as someone increasingly centers doomscrolling as both a maladaptive coping mechanism and a negative influence on mental health. Individuals who score highly on neurotic personality assessments are also more likely to end up doomscrolling, since it feeds into the brain’s hypervigilance towards threats.