TWH – Bad news has not been in short supply over the last three years and the habit of doomscrolling that many of us have developed during the COVID-19 pandemic, the murder of George Floyd, the economic challenges, and now the Russian attack on Ukraine may impact our mental health.
Doomscrolling or doomsurfing is nothing new. As the adage goes “bad news travels fast.” The phrase may come from at least the 16th Century. In the 1800s, Dickens mentions the adage in the Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby when the main character says “When you come to me this evening, not a word of last night. Ill news travels fast, and they will know it soon enough. Have you heard if he was much hurt?”
Bad news prompts two reactions: avoid it as much as possible or read every detail. Nickleby is both cautious about the news and curious to hear more.
New York Times’ Kevin Rose wrote about doomsurfing as “falling into deep, morbid rabbit holes filled with coronavirus content, agitating myself to the point of physical discomfort, erasing any hope of a good night’s sleep.”
Image credit: Pixabay
The term doomscrolling more or less entered the common lexicon around October 2018 via social media, Twitter more specifically, but the practice is likely older. Slang from the 70s called Mean World Syndrome, “the belief that the world is a more dangerous place to live in than it actually is—as a result of long-term exposure to violence-related content on television.”
But there’s more opportunity to doomsurf these days than ever before. Most mobile devices are pre-loaded with Google or Apple news and apps for CNN, NPR, or BBC can add to the doom selection with even more choices available through other networks including notifications.
Social media adds even more opportunities to participate in apocalypse watching with up-to-the-moment tweets on Twitter to the fake news sewer of other sites.
But now researchers have turned to looking at doomsurfing to ask the question of how dangerous it might be to our mental health.
Research published in earlier this year in Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research, Practice, and Policy suggests that doomscrolling may slowly wear away at our mental health and tip us toward depression and anxiety. The effect may be even more pronounced among individuals who have experienced previous trauma.
The research led by the University of Vermont looked at doomscrolling during the COVID-19 pandemic specifically and found that social media exposure reporting on coronavirus appeared to be related to increases in depression symptoms and post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms. The effect was not as pronounced when viewers looked at traditional news sources.
The researchers noted that “the association between social media exposure and psychopathology among those with childhood maltreatment histories is likely bidirectional. Those with elevated depression and PTSD at the start of the pandemic viewed social media more frequently.”
They noted that particularly vulnerable populations such as individuals who have experienced trauma, abuse or maltreatment may be particularly susceptible to the effect.
The researcher also cautioned about over-extending the findings, however. They noted several limitations including a small sample size of 61 individuals who were participating in a larger study examining the impact of childhood maltreatment on mental health.
But they also noted that theory is mixed on the practice of doomscrolling. Previous research has suggested that the overuse of social media to keep up to date on traumatic events may serve as a coping strategy to alleviate stress. Individuals constantly following social media may experience a sense of control by having up-to-the-minute knowledge about events.
Image credit: Pete Linforth from Pixabay
Another study led by researchers at the University of Florida looked at the prevalence of doomscrolling during the COVID-19 pandemic and found that the behavior was relatively common but not as prevalent as some might believe.
They noted that, “Overall, the focus groups provided a deeper insight into people’s social media consumption during the COVID-19 pandemic and their relationship to doomscrolling as a phenomenon. Even though most participants initially asserted that they did not doomscroll and had never heard of it, many then described doing it in early stages of lockdown or described acquaintances who continued to doomscroll.”
They added, “this is an important finding that delineates the awareness of the term doomscrolling from the actual behavior.”
The University of Florida researchers did note that “Doomscrolling may not be an artifact of the COVID-19 era (as it was unrelated to social distancing or uncertainty), but rather a habit developed in response to how global and local crises unfold on unending and targeted newsfeeds.”
But the idea that the best information is one click away or that viewing one more post about a crisis will not involve diminishing returns of information, only appear to add to the anxiety and stress of absorbing the news of terrible events. Every post involves intellectual and emotional labor to get through it.
Ken Yeager, PhD, a psychiatrist at the Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, told Health that our ancestors may not have doomscrolled like today but that they certainly did similar in the hopes of thriving in a world of dangers.
“We are all hardwired to see the negative and be drawn to the negative because it can harm us physically,” he said.
Yeager noted, “People are drawn to doomscrolling because they feel like they have a sense of being able to control any of that bad news,” he says. “But doomscrolling does not create control and only makes you miserable.”
The overall impact doomscrolling has on people can vary, but typically, it can make you feel extra anxious, depressed, and isolated he added.
Image credit: Pixabay
The general consensus from mental health professionals is clear, however: get up to date then put the phone down, or whichever device you are using.
Getting some sleep, spending time in nature, being mindful, participating in rituals, and chatting with loved ones are each more powerful inoculants against stress and depression than Twitter or any of its friends.
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