Reading time: 5 minutes
In a world dominated by the media, news—especially negative news—is unavoidable and omnipresent in our everyday lives. Social media, television, and radio constantly provide fresh updates on political, economic, criminal, or war-related events from all over the world, minute by minute. This uninterrupted flow of news has dramatically changed society’s knowledge and perception of the world, leading to both positive and negative outcomes, as happens with all revolutions. On the one hand, people have increased their awareness and knowledge of current affairs; on the other hand, they are also experiencing information overload. As Dr. Richard Mollica, a professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, says, “We are not getting any messages about hope — it’s all negativity.” Interestingly, psychologists have observed how excessive exposure to bad news affects people’s well-being, physical and mental health, and overall life satisfaction. These observations have led to the identification of a new phenomenon: doomscrolling—spending an excessive amount of time reading (or scrolling through) large quantities of negative news and even obsessively searching for worrying material.
“It has been one onslaught after the other,” agrees Dr. Aditi Nerurkar, a lecturer in the Division of Global Health and Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School. “Our brains and bodies are expertly designed to handle short bursts of stress. But over the past several years, the stress just doesn’t seem to end. Doomscrolling is our response to that.”
Tess Brigham, a mental health expert, certified coach, and licensed therapist, has devoted her career to helping young people find their purpose and create a life they are excited to live. She has also studied doomscrolling, defining it as a way for people to feel in control in a world that constantly feels out of control. Indeed, by mindlessly scrolling through negative articles, individuals are attempting to fulfill their evolutionary need for safety. However, they end up trapped in a vicious cycle: by obsessively consuming negative content, they only heighten their anxiety and foster paranoid thoughts.
This addiction to bad news affects not only psychological well-being but also physical health, leading to symptoms such as nausea, headaches, muscle tension, neck and shoulder pain, low appetite, difficulty sleeping, and even elevated blood pressure. According to Harvard experts, doomscrolling can cause “popcorn brain”—a phenomenon that occurs when excessive time spent online overstimulates the brain. As they explain, “It’s the real, biological phenomenon of feeling like your brain is popping because you’re being overstimulated online. Then, it becomes hard to engage with the real world, which moves at a much slower pace.”
The phenomenon of doomscrolling intensified during the COVID-19 pandemic, prompting several studies to investigate the relationship between exposure to distressing COVID-related news and overall health. One study found an association between daily exposure to pandemic-related social media content and elevated depression and PTSD symptoms during the initial months of the pandemic in the United States. The study also revealed that individuals with a history of childhood maltreatment or preexisting vulnerabilities were more likely to engage in doomscrolling. Even more interesting is the bidirectional relationship between social media use and psychopathology among vulnerable individuals. People affected by PTSD, depression, or a history of maltreatment turned more frequently to pandemic-related information, potentially as a maladaptive coping strategy. At the same time, exposure to distressing social media content had a strong negative impact, amplifying perceptions of health risks, intensifying negative emotions, and worsening symptoms. Moreover, given the strong association between negative emotions and childhood maltreatment, individuals with such histories were more vulnerable to the negative emotional effects of social media exposure. The authors of this study underlined that their findings were based on a sample of young adults and focused solely on social media consumption, excluding traditional media. Relying on social media for public health information is stressful because the user is overwhelmed with a wide range of news and may also have a personal connection with the stories of the authors.
How to prevent doomscrolling?
As Dr. Mollica and Dr. Nerurkar suggest, it is possible to preserve our mental-health through simple strategies aimed at creating “digital boundaries that can give your brain and body a chance to recalibrate to normal”:
- Keep your phone off your nightstand: keep your phone out of easy reach so that in the morning you can’t compulsively grab it. In this way, you can wake up naturally and acclimate yourself avoiding exposure to sources of stress
- Follow suit in your workspace: place your phone out of easy reach while working
- Don’t bring your phone to the dinner table
- Switch your phone to grayscale: it makes scrolling less enticing by dialing back the saturation levels of colors on your screen
- Opt out of notifications: it is also about defining boundaries, are you using your device or is your device using you?
- Focus on community news
- Just say no: be in control of the news you read or listen to
- Focus on the good: experience and share positive emotions by engaging in volunteering activities, charity programs or join emotionally freeing activities
- Talk to your doctor: if you feel overwhelmed by doomscrolling seek professional advice
To conclude, the development of the media has proven to be a double-edged sword—allowing society easy access to information while also giving rise to bad news addiction. With this in mind, citizens, institutions, and society as a whole must confront the new challenges posed by the pervasive presence of technology. By raising awareness of the dangers of mindlessly consuming media and absorbing news, people can learn to prioritize their psychological well-being and take greater control over the quality and quantity of information they expose themselves to.
By Sofia Nelam Singh
sofianelam.singh01@icatt.it
Sitography
https://www.health.harvard.edu/mind-and-mood/doomscrolling-dangers
A.P.E. 
Lascia un commento