Doomscrolling
Meaning
The act of compulsively consuming a continuous feed of negative news, especially on social media, despite its detrimental effect on mental well-being.
Origin
The world was in lockdown, and a silent, global predator stalked the streets: COVID-19. As fear and uncertainty gripped populations, people turned to their phones for information, only to find themselves ensnared in an endless digital vortex of bad news. This compulsive habit of endlessly scrolling through alarming headlines and distressing updates, often late into the night, quickly earned itself a name. Coined around mid-2020, "doomscrolling" perfectly captured the addictive, self-destructive cycle of seeking out more negative news, a new psychological phenomenon born from the anxiety of a pandemic-stricken world and the ubiquity of social media.
Examples
- After an hour of doomscrolling through articles about the latest global crisis, she felt her anxiety levels rising.
- He found himself doomscrolling late into the night, unable to pull himself away from the endless stream of disheartening headlines.