Doomscrolling is Ruining Your Life

With the ever increasing popularity of social media platforms like Instagram and TikTok, your attention spans are under threat.

Short form content is growing, and with that, comes doomscrolling.

But, what is doomscrolling?

And why is it so bad for you?

Let me explain.

What is Doomscrolling?

Doomscrolling is a new term to describe the mindless scrolling through social media apps with the sole aim of stimulating the brain.

With the emergence of short form media apps like TikTok, people’s brains have been trained to need constant stimulation, and to need new information to always be provided.

Many people find themselves entering a subconscious, almost hypnotic state when on social media, just scrolling and consuming useless content.

I’ve been there.

I used to be obsessed with TikTok, and when I had my phone within an arms reach, I would find myself subconsciously scrolling TikToks, before eventually coming to my senses and snapping out of it.

It’s a weird feeling.

You can get to a point where you don’t even feel in control of yourself.

One day I was scrolling on TikTok, only to find myself 10 minutes later snapping out of it, thinking, “what was that?”

I felt like I was in a trance.

This, is doomscrolling, and if you have a habit of doing this, it’s time you stopped before it’s too late.

Negatives of Doomscrolling

There are three main areas where doomscrolling will damage you.

Waste of Time

It’s an obvious one, but you only realise how much time you waste when you talk about it.

The average person spends 2–3 hours a day on social media apps.

• Instagram.

• Facebook

• TikTok

• X (Twitter)

It doesn’t matter what apps you use, ask yourself this question.

Is this a valuable way to spend your time?

Worst Mental Well Being

Consuming useless, mind numbing content does to your brain, what junk food does to your body.

It ruins it.

The similarities between your brain and your body, and how consuming too much bad food/information can have the same negative effects.

The more bad information you consume, the more your mental health deteriorates.

It clogs up your brain, and you lose the ability to think and create, which has positive effects on your mental health.

Overconsumption from doomscrolling has serious negative effects on your mental health.

If you find your mental health to be deteriorating, at least a small part of this is because you consume too much information that isn’t valuable to you.

Damaged Attention Span

When you spend 30 minutes a day watching pieces of content that are 10 seconds long, you drastically reduce your ability to stay focused on one thing at a time.

Your attention span, and your ability to maintain focus for long periods of time, is extremely valuable, and doomscrolling ruins it.

I find myself watching movies more often, because they’re longer and help maintain your focus.

But, if you spend too much time consuming content that changes topics quickly, your brain constantly switches focus, and this is a habit that follows you everywhere.

• Work

• School

• Dating

Everywhere.

You lose focus, because your brain is in constant need of changing the subject.

Not good.

How to Avoid Doomscrolling

Delete Unnecessary Apps

Doomscrolling is never a valuable thing to be doing.

A lot of people know this.

A huge help would be to delete the apps you find yourself going on too often.

Whether it’s…

• TikTok

• X (Twitter)

• YouTube

…it doesn’t matter.

If you’re not getting any value from these apps besides short term entertainment, try deleting them and see the effects this has on you.

Chances are, you won’t miss these apps.

That’s what happened to me, and my attention span has improved a lot since removing a number of social media apps.

Leave Devices in Another Room

When I worked I always used to have my phone on my desk, within an arms reach.

As a result, I found myself subconsciously reaching for it, for stimulation.

It genuinely felt like I was being controlled.

The solution? I left my phone in another room.

Even on a subconscious level, I would never have got up from my desk to doomscroll.

The problem was that it was right in front of me.

The result? My productivity skyrocketed.

Train Your Subconscious

Doomscrolling doesn’t happen consciously.

Why? Well, why would it?

Nobody actively goes “right, I’m gonna sit and doomscroll for a bit.”

It’s all subconscious, and the amount of time you spend in your subconscious state has an impact on how well you’ll be able to avoid doomscrolling.

It goes back to the point on your attention span.

The more you doomscroll, the worst your attention span gets.

The worse your attention span gets, the harder it is to control your subconscious.

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