Doomscrolling is the act of spending an excessive amount of time watching short-form content or watching large quantities of user-generated content or news, particularly negative news, on the web and social media.
The concept was coined around 2018, and became more widespread in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. The World Health Organization (WHO) observed that the pandemic was accompanied by widespread misleading information, conspiracy theories, and false reports, which it referred to as an ‘infodemic.’
Surveys and studies suggest doomscrolling is predominant among youth. More specifically, research indicates that doomscrolling tends to be more common among males, individuals in younger age groups and those who actively follow political events. It can be considered a form of internet addiction disorder. In 2019, a study by the National Academy of Sciences found that doomscrolling can be linked to a decline in mental and physical health. Numerous reasons for doomscrolling have been cited, including negativity bias, fear of missing out, increased anxiety, and attempts at gaining control over uncertainty.
The practice of doomscrolling can be compared to an older phenomenon from the 1970s called the mean world syndrome, described as ‘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.’ Studies show that seeing upsetting news leads people to seek out more information on the topic, creating a self-perpetuating cycle.
After three years of being on the Merriam-Webster ‘watching’ list, doomscrolling was recognized as an official word in September 2023.
The term was first used in 2018, when it was coined by Ashik Siddique, now co-chair of Democratic Socialists of America. The term continued to gain traction in the early 2020s through events such as the COVID-19 pandemic, the George Floyd protests, the 2020 U.S. presidential election, the storming of the U.S. Capitol in 2021, the Russian invasion of Ukraine since 2022, and the Gaza war since 2023, all of which have been noted to have exacerbated the practice of doomscrolling. Doomscrolling became widespread among users of Twitter during the COVID-19 pandemic and has also been discussed in relation to the climate crisis.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, it is argued that mobile devices became central communication tools which were so significant that they were referred to as ‘the primary, and addictive, lifeline for society’ during this period, including for news concerning ‘police brutality, misinformation and political anxieties.’ This consumption of news also reflected competing demands for timely updates and periodic disengagement since users faced the dilemma of needing information fast, but also sometimes avoiding it in order to personally manage the intake of such news.
Infinite scrolling is a design approach which loads content continuously as the user scrolls down, thus eliminating the need for pagination. Consequently, this feature can exacerbate doomscrolling as it removes natural stopping points at which a user might pause. Research has also demonstrated that the tendency of social media platforms to amplify negative content may worsen this continuous scrolling behavior, leading users to remain engaged with unfavorable news for extended durations. Doomscrolling has also been linked to platform level incentives where these digital news environments use features such as gamified interfaces and automated or algorithmic recommendation systems to keep audiences engaged and to prolong time spent on their services.
Social media companies play a significant role in the perpetuation of doomscrolling by leveraging algorithms designed to maximize user engagement. These algorithms prioritize content that is emotionally stimulating, often favoring negative news and sensationalized headlines to keep users scrolling. Researchers have also linked doomscrolling to a broader sense of permacrisis, where being constantly exposed to distressing news fosters continuous cycles of consuming negative information.
The business models of most social media platforms rely heavily on user engagement, which means that the longer people stay on their platforms, the more advertisements they see, and the more data is collected on their behavior. This creates a cycle where emotionally charged content—often involving negative or anxiety-inducing information—is repeatedly pushed to users, encouraging them to keep scrolling and consuming more content. Despite the well-documented negative effects of doomscrolling on mental health, social media companies are incentivized to maintain user engagement through these methods, making it challenging for individuals to break free from the habit.
The act of doomscrolling can be attributed to the natural negativity bias people have when consuming information. Negativity bias is the idea that negative events have a larger impact on one’s mental well-being than good ones. Jeffrey Hall, a professor of communication studies at the University of Kansas in Lawrence, notes that due to an individual’s regular state of contentment, potential threats provoke one’s attention. One psychiatrist at the Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center notes that humans are ‘all hardwired to see the negative and be drawn to the negative because it can harm [them] physically.’
As opposed to primitive humans, however, most people in modern times do not realize that they are even seeking negative information. As per the clinic director of the Perelman School of Medicine’s Center for the Treatment and Study of Anxiety: ‘People have a question, they want an answer, and assume getting it will make them feel better … You keep scrolling and scrolling. Many think that will be helpful, but they end up feeling worse afterward.’
Obsessively consuming negative news online can additionally be partially attributed to a person’s psychological need for control. Research also suggests that doomscrolling can be reinforced by platform features such as endless feeds and algorithmic recommendations, which encourage habitual scanning for timely negative information. A likely reasoning behind this is that during uncertain times, people are likely to engage in doomscrolling as a way to help them gather information and a sense of mastery over the situation. This is done by people to reinforce their belief that staying informed will provide them with protection from grim situations.
Some people have begun coping with the abundance of negative news stories by avoiding news altogether. A study from 2017 to 2022 showed that news avoidance is increasing, and that 38% of people admitted to sometimes or often actively avoiding the news in 2022, up from 29% in 2017. Some journalists have admitted to avoiding the news; journalist Amanda Ripley wrote that ‘people producing the news themselves are struggling, and while they aren’t likely to admit it, it is warping the coverage.’ She also identified ways she believes could help fix the problem, such as intentionally adding more hope, agency, and dignity into stories so readers don’t feel the helplessness which leads them to tune out entirely.
Some scholars suggest that the decrease in interest in news is not due to consumers being apathetic, but due to the misalignment between traditional news journalism, and what is subjectively viewed as engaging. Scholars describe doomscrolling as a ‘divergent effect to news avoidance,’ meaning that both behaviors are driven by the same media environment but result in opposite reactions, such as over-consumption versus withdrawal.
The Daily Omnivore 
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