Doomscrolling is slowly eroding your mental health

Doomscrolling(do͞omˈskrōliNG) is slowly eroding(əˈrōd) your mental(ˈmen(t)l) health

Checking your phone for an extra two hours every night won’t stop the apocalypse(əˈpäkəˌlips).

By Angela Watercutter

It’s 11:37pm and the pattern shows no signs of shifting. At 1:12am, it’s more of the same. Thumb(THəm) down, thumb up. Twitter, Instagram, and—if you’re feeling particularly wrought(rôt)/masochistic(ˌmasəˈkistik)—Facebook. Ever since the COVID-19 pandemic left a great many people locked down in their homes in early March, the evening ritual(ˈriCH(o͞o)əl) has been codifying(ˈkädəˌfī): Each night ends the way the day began, with an endless scroll(skrōl) through social media in a desperate(ˈdesp(ə)rət) search for clarity.

To those who have become purveyors(pərˈvāər) of the perverse(pərˈvərs) exercise, like The New York Times’ Kevin Roose, this habit has become known as doomsurfing, or “falling into deep, morbid(ˈmôrbəd) rabbit(ˈrabət) holes filled with coronavirus content(kənˈtent,ˈkäntent), agitating(ˈajəˌtāt) myself to the point of physical discomfort, erasing(əˈrās) any hope of a good night’s sleep.” For those who prefer their despair be portable(ˈpôrdəb(ə)l), the term is doomscrolling, and as protests over racial(ˈrāSHəl) injustice and police brutality(bro͞oˈtalədē) following the death of George Floyd have joined the COVID-19 crisis in the news cycle, it’s only gotten more intense. The constant stream of news and social media never ends.

Of course, a late-night scroll is nothing new—it’s the kind of thing therapists(ˈTHerəpəst) often hear about when couples say one or the other isn’t providing enough attention. But it used to be that Sunday nights in bed were spent digging through Twitter for Game of Thrones(THrōn) hot takes, or armchair(ˈärmˌCHer) quarterbacking(ˈkwôrdərˌbak) the day’s game. Now, the only thing to binge(binj)-watch is the world’s collapse(kəˈlaps) into crisis(ˈkrīsis). Coronavirus deaths (473,000 worldwide and counting), unemployment(ˌənəmˈploimənt) rates(rāt) (around 13 percent in the US), protesters in the street on any given day marching for racial justice (countless thousands)—the faucet(ˈfôsit) of data runs nonstop. There are unlimited seasons, and the promise of some answer, or perhaps even some good news, always feels one click away.

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https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2020/06/doomscrolling-is-slowly-eroding-your-mental-health/