There’s a Psychological Reason Why You Can’t Stop Doom Scrolling

It could happen at any time… you could be laying in bed, crashing on the couch, sitting at your work computer… a news headline catches your attention, and suddenly you’re 40 minutes deep into doom scrolling. 

Let’s face it – most people stay informed using social media. Whether it’s a climate disaster, political fiasco, or mass shooting, depressing news stories are like trainwrecks: it can be hard to look away. Enter the “doomscroll,” the act of endlessly marinating in negative news online, which is only increasing as election season heats up.

But why would users willingly entrench themselves in anxiety-inducing articles? Could we actually be addicted to doom scrolling? To answer that, we’ll have to take a look inside the brain to understand the neuroscience and psychology that keeps us glued to gloomy news. 

The Psychology of Doom Scrolling

First, let’s understand why we would choose to consume horrible headlines for long periods of time. There’s a few psychological factor at play:

1. Negativity Bias

Research shows our brains are hardwired with a bias to focus on negative information; this helped our ancestors perceive and survive potential threats. But nowadays, this looks like a gravitation towards doom scrolling bad news. To our primal brains, being informed on threats will increase our chance of survival. But oftentimes, much of the terrible reported events have no effect on our day-to-day lives besides increasing anxiety and hypervigilance. 

2. Uncertainty and Anxiety

Doom scrolling started becoming more common during the pandemic, when everyone was shut in their homes with nothing to do. People sought out information about the unknown virus in hopes to feel in control of their situation to reduce their anxiety and uncertainty. However, a barrage of distressing information, from rising deaths to fake news to vaccine updates, often increased those feelings of anxiety. 

3. FOMO (Fear of Missing Out)

FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) is a common feeling in our society. Whether you’re missing out on the latest demure Tiktok trend or haven’t heard about the latest update on voter rights, there’s a big pressure to stay glued to the screen to keep up-to-date on news and trends. Many people worry if they disconnect from the barrage of breaking news, they may miss out on a critical piece of information. 

4. Variable Reward Systems

What’s one thing that slot machines and social media platforms have in common? They hook our attention by exploiting our brain’s reward systems in a similar way. Any time we find a piece of useful or interesting information, this triggers our brain’s reward response by releasing dopamine, the feel-good chemical. The infinite scroll reinforces the behavior to continue returning for more satisfying information, even if it’s distressing news. But to better understand this response, let’s take a look at the brain’s chemical reactions.

The Neuroscience Behind Doom Scrolling

The Role of the Amygdala

Our brains process emotions in the amygdala, which plays a key role in the way we respond to negative stimuli. When we read content that feels threatening, this activates the amygdala’s “flight-or-fight” response, leading to a racing heart or rising anxiety. When we are emotionally activated, we may seek out more information to combat the threats, which keeps us doom scrolling.

The Prefrontal Cortex and Decision-Making

If the amygdala is the emotional center, the prefrontal cortex is the rational counterpart. It dictates our complex thinking, decision-making, and most importantly, impulse control. When we doom scroll, the brain’s amygdala begins to dominate our behavior as we are controlled by its emotional, survival-driven responses. This results in a less active prefrontal cortex, which weakens our ability to control the impulses to doom scroll, even if we know it’s an unhealthy behavior. Continued doom scrolling gives more control to our amygdala, which overrides the prefrontal cortex’s logic. 

Hyperarousal and the Stress Response

The more we doom scroll, our brains and bodies may enter a state of hyperarousal, a state of heightened alertness regulated by the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis, three glands that operate the body’s stress response. When we are constantly exposed to negative stimuli, the HPA axis releases the stress hormone cortisol, which pushes us into hyperarousal. While in this state, it becomes a struggle to disengage from negative news, because the amygdala is constantly seeking more details to resolve the “dangerous situation.” 

Impact on Neuroplasticity

Doom scrolling is a vicious feedback loop, and the habit can literally be carved into the brain through neuroplasticity. As the brain consistently rewires itself, the brain’s neural pathways are formed by repetitive behaviors. If we’ve made a habit of doom scrolling after dinner, this strengthens the brain’s neural circuits associated with subconsciously seeking negative information. We begin to condition the brain to expect and find negative news, which ingrains the cycle. 

Addiction-like Mechanisms

Behavioral psychologists have found that doom scrolling has several similarities with behavioral addictions. Addiction activates the brain’s nucleus accumbens, a region that plays a role in reward processing, and is constantly implicated to crave more of the addicting behavior. The nucleus accumbens sends a message to the brain to crave doom scrolling, because it simultaneously enjoys the rewards and emotional responses.  

Cognitive Overload

As the brain becomes wired to doom scroll through a variety of mechanisms, it becomes easier for us to experience cognitive overload. Our weakened prefrontal cortex has a lower threshold of focusing, problem-solving, and critical thinking over long periods of time. We may find ourselves easily overwhelmed by tasks that were once simple, and the brain seeks to comfort the amygdala through the dopamine provided by doom scrolling and other social media activity.

Is Doom Scrolling an Addiction?

To know if doom scrolling could actually be considered as an addiction, let’s first consider what constitutes an addiction. Addiction is a neuropsychological disorder characterized by a persistent and intense urge to use a drug or engage in a behavior that produces natural reward, despite substantial harm and other negative consequences.  

Common addictions include alcohol, drugs, gambling, dieting, shopping, and even internet use. Doom scrolling could fall under a category of internet use addiction, which is characterized as compulsive use over time that begins to impair a user’s daily life. 

Signs of a Doom Scrolling Addiction

According to Sandra McElliott, MA, MHP, clinical manager of adult outpatient services at Greater Lakes Mental Healthcare, “Addiction starts as something positive that activates the dopamine receptors,” McElliott says. “But then you’re constantly chasing that high, which doesn’t return.”

Compulsive doom scrolling, as the name suggests, leaves us in a constant state of dread that can negatively impact our mental health and relationships. Are you worried about your scrolling habits? Here are some signs you may have developed an addiction to doom scrolling: 

• You spend more than an hour a day reading the news on social media and other digital platforms. 
• You experience headaches, neck aches, backaches, dry eyes, and other sight problems from poor posture and constant exposure to screens.
• You’re experiencing insomnia or irregular sleep from reading the news. Our screens emit a blue light that halts the production of melatonin, a chemical that makes us sleepy.
• You have lower hygiene practices; you may skip and or delay bathing to read news.
• Your mind is constantly thinking about checking the news or hearing the latest updates.
• You experience euphoria when you read news on your phone or computer.
• You experience anxiety, stress, extreme irritation, or anger without an internet connection.
• You feel guilty about how long you doom scroll, or that you’ve had to cancel planned activities because of doom scrolling that impacts time management.
• You self-isolate often in order to doom scroll.
• Your work or academic performance begins sharply falling.
• Your relationships become more distant.

If you think you may have developed a doom scrolling addiction, it doesn’t have to dictate your life or your brain. It just means it’s time to change your online habits.

Strategies to Combat Doom Scrolling

Once you’ve acknowledged your doom scrolling habits, it will be easier to change them. Here’s a few strategies you can implement:

Alternative Behaviors

The best way to combat a doom scrolling addiction is to fill your attention with something else entirely. Here’s a few alternative behaviors you can do:

1. Adjust your feeds to show more positive content, that may be educational, inspirational, or include accessible calls-to-action. 
2. Get off the screen and out into the real world! Redirect your attention to hobbies you love or something entirely new, from sports teams to ceramics classes to gardening. 
3. Volunteering can help mitigate feelings of helplessness when you’re actively working to improve your local community. Whether you’re interested in political organizing, climate restoration projects, or animal care, there’s usually a group you can join to make your corner of the world a bit better.

Mindful Consumption

It’s impossible to not stay informed in today’s culture, but you can be more intentional about how you choose to engage with the news. 

1. Set time limits around particular apps and sites that you tend to gravitate towards, or place a limit on your daily screen time overall.
2. Filter your news feeds by unfollowing or blocking accounts that tend to cause you more stress or anger. Mute your uncle that posts fake news; block the reactionary political account. Certain apps even let you remove content with particular phrases and hashtags from your feed.
3. Engage in mindfulness practices that work to strengthen the prefrontal cortex, such as meditation, learning languages or musical instruments, or even playing memory games. 

Digital Tools

Sometimes changing our online habits is easier said than done. But if you find yourself struggling to break the habit, there’s several apps and tools that can help you manage your screen time or block negative content.

• StayFocusd is a Chrome extension that limits your time on distracting websites. You can set time limits for specific sites, and when you reach your daily limit, StayFocusd will block access to those sites for the rest of the day. This is a great resource if you tend to doom scroll on your computer. 
• Forest is a creative phone app that plants trees while you focus. When you want to concentrate on work, social time, or a hobby, you open the app, which will begin growing a digital forest. But when you exit the app to doom scroll, your tree will wither and die. 
• Freedom is a digital wellness tool that blocks access to both sites and apps for your desired hours of the day. You can even create customizable lists and scheduled recurring sessions that sync across all your digital devices, so you’ll be able to break the doom scrolling habit for good. 

Done with Doom Scrolling

It’s good to stay informed on current events. But when you find yourself doom scrolling through horrible headlines, it may be time to step away from the news. While the brain’s neural and psychological responses can make it difficult to end a doom scrolling addiction, it’s not impossible. 

With the help of mindfulness techniques, offscreen activities, and helpful digital wellness tools like Freedom, you can find more time in your day to accomplish your work, ace your exams, nurture your relationships, and enjoy meaningful hobbies. Next time you find yourself spiraling into a doom scroll, take a deep breath, put away your device, and find a moment of freedom.

Written by Lorena Bally