The year 2020 has been absolutely ripe with awful things. There isn’t really any getting around that point.
No matter what your spiritual, political, or personal views are, 2020 has provided a tailor-made platter of nightmares just for you. Take that fact and mix it with nothing to do because COVID-19 as put a hold on most jobs, and you’re left with a bunch of people scrolling through bad news on their phones.
Social media is a saving grace at times, and a source of anxiety and depression at others. That endless void of scrolling through bad news has a name now– “doomscrolling.”
We’re going to give you some more insight into doomscrolling and how you can try to avoid it.
Understanding Doomscrolling
The thing that’s so insidious about doomscrolling is that you don’t know if you need to do it or not. If you’re not browsing the web and seeing what’s going on in the world, are you doing a disservice to yourself?
Should you be constantly aware of the suffering and plight of everyone around the world at all times? Survey says “yes” because everyone is doing it almost all of the time.
That said, the survey could be wrong. It’s not fashionable to be unaware of anything at this point in time, but it’s literally impossible to be aware of every issue that’s happening in the world. So, if you’re scrolling in order to be completely up-to-date, you’re fighting a losing battle.
It’s also important to think about whether or not you have the ability to improve the state of the world in any way. If you have the good fortune to donate to causes you care about, you should do that.
You should also share content that you think is important in hopes that others will become aware of the issues. All of these things have a positive end, but what’s the negative?
Thinking about Excessive Scrolling
The negative end of becoming aware of a myriad of issues is that you might not be helping those issues or yourself. Doomscrolling is an issue because it legitimately affects your mental health.
Constantly being pounded with bad news is not good for a person’s spirit, especially when times are hard as it is. You’re faced with less income, fewer opportunities to get out and see the ones you love, as well as a powderkeg of awful news from every corner of the globe.
It’s crucial to understand the issues that you can impact and change through your own contribution, but the others might just be taking up mental space and weighing you down.
Social media and the spread of news is almost objectively a positive thing. Issues are coming to light, masses of people are contributing to help those issues, and we’re faced with the potential for real change.
At the same time, terrible things have been happening around the world forever. 2020 might be one of the worst years to date, but we might not be wired to take all of this in at once.
If people in the 1870s had social media, they’d probably be doomscrolling too. There’s never a shortage of awful things, but that’s because the world is filled with almost 8 billion people.
There’s always going to be something newsworthy.
Potential Solutions to Your Doomscrolling Habit
If you’re looking to stay in the loop but cut down on your excessive scrolling, we’re going to throw some ideas your way.
It’s important to note that your dependence on social media is the source of your scrolling issue. Not to call anyone out, because almost everyone is on social media more than might be healthy. That said, social media is something that we have gotten by without for hundreds of thousands of years.
It may be more important because we’ve integrated it into modern life, but it’s key to understand that you do not need it. Any fluttering little justification for why you need it can get thrown out now.
Unless your profession requires that you use social media, you don’t really need it.
Further, absolutely no profession requires that you doomscroll. If you’re working a job that subjects you to that kind of torture, it might be time to leave.
So, let’s look at some quick options that could help you take the doom out of your life without being totally out of the loop.
1. Limit Your Social Media Use
Choose an amount of time per day or per week that you’re comfortable using social media. You can scroll through about 20 minutes of doom, put the phone down, and go outside to experience the life that’s actually around you.
It might be time to rekindle your relationship with your dab rig and engage with some non-scrolling hobbies.
Try it out, see if it helps, and see if your life is any worse now that you aren’t exposed to constant pressure to understand and impact things that you had no prior knowledge of.
2. Have Your Friends Pick the Important Things
See if you can ask a friend or two to send you newsworthy things that are actually important.
If something comes up, they can send it your way. Otherwise, you don’t need to use social media to see what people you knew from high school were doing today. You don’t need the flood of memes or the TikToks or anything of that nature.
3. Do a Happiness Experiment on Yourself
If you want to see how your scrolling habits are actually affecting you, let’s do a little experiment.
Write down your happiness level after sitting away from your phone for an hour. Then, scroll through social media for ten or fifteen minutes. Write down how happy you are after that experience.
Do this experiment 10 times or so. Examine the general trend of before and after you use social media. It could be the case that social media is actually making you happier.
Even though it’s probably making you less happy, it’s never a bad idea to check. This way, though, you’ll have some proof for whether or not you should be cutting social media out of your life.
Need More Insight into Lifestyle Issues?
Many people have developed an issue with doomscrolling over the past six months. Keep in mind that you’re not alone.
If you’re looking to get more insight into ways that you can stay sane and improve your quality of life, we’re here to help. Explore our site for more lifestyle tips and tricks.
