It’s no more a secret how much time we all spend on social media. People stalk celebrities to peek-a-boo in friends’ and family life. We spent almost 3 hours of the day surfing Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, and other social media feeds. If we are to agree with ourselves, we get more inclined to scroll through negative stories and posts on social media. Are we getting into doomscrolling?
Let’s read more on doomscrolling and how can we get rid of this habit?
What Does Doomscrolling Mean?
Human nature tends to think negative notions more often than it should. Our attention towards scrolling negative news, articles, series, stories and posts is more than anything else. This is known as doomscrolling. Believe it or not, doomscrolling addiction is bad. The repercussions of such an addiction are scary. The alarming rate of depression, panic attacks, anxiety issues, poor mental health, and stress are all some consequences of this habit.
If we do not pull the leash now, we will never be able to overcome it.
Why Is Doom Scrolling Addictive?
Bad news or posts give you the adrenaline rush. ‘We want to know more!’ It increases with every succeeding post. What seems to be one piece of negative news on social media becomes many by the end of the day. Scrolling social media posts throughout the day is a Social media scrolling addiction. It causes unrest in the mind. The sooner we stop this obsession, the faster the compulsion to view crimes, political unrest, and war-related posts will diminish.
What Does Scrolling Do To Your Brain?
1. Strengthen Your Negative Thoughts
Doomscrolling affects mental health. You will realize in our not-so-good mood, negative thoughts pour. We like to reconfirm our thoughts, and these posts do so for us. It acts like reassuring the thoughts and strengthening the negative thinking. You start living in a doomed world. Here you fall prey to petty news ruining your life with sadness and disbelief. That’s why every parent should prevent their child from dangerous social media apps.
2. Affect Your Sleep Cycle
Bedtime is the time when your mind and body both need rest. Scrolling feeds before going to bed is a common practice. News of demises, murders, conspiracies, war-related and pandemics increases the apprehension within. As a result, it affects the sleeping pattern. You sleep late and wake up in a bad mood. Your day is ruined. You become the victim of mindless scrolling which is associated with depression.
3. Cognitive Bias
One of the negative effects of doomscrolling is you become the dupe to cognitive biases. It affects your thinking process. The pessimism kills within, some stories affect the mind. You are not able to take the right decision from wrong. Slowly, you swindle in Doomscrolling depression. You rely on social media posts for decision-making. Doesn’t this sound scary?
4. Affect Attention Span
Too much involvement in negative news stories, posts, and feeds deteriorates your mental health. It affects the attention span. The depressing, devastating, and disheartening news control your psyche. You do not concentrate on the work assigned as you are in the denial zone in your subconscious mind. Your mind stops working. It hampers at work front, family, and you at large.You should track time you spend on particular website.
How Do I Stop Doom Scrolling?
1. Turn Off Notifications
Based on our browsing history, the search engines provide news feed accordingly. It is better to turn off notifications as it will help you divert your interest in scrolling other subjects. When you are away from such instances of negativity, you will automatically heal from Doomscrolling addiction. The push notification distracts your mind. It forces you to scroll through depressing news and stories disturbing your physical and mental health.
2. Spend Time With Family And Friends
There is no b3.COGNITIVE BIASetter way of spending time with family and friends. Dedicate quality time with them by playing games, karaoke sessions, dinners, outings, picnics, long drives, walking, exercise, and fund-raising meetings and indulge yourself in lucrative work. There are several things to do with your family and friends. Let the Social media scrolling addiction fade away.
3. While Scrolling Close Your Eyes And Examine Your Thoughts
We got to practice being conscious while scrolling. Doomscrolling is stoppable when despite negative feeds; you only scroll what you are looking for. For instance, if you are looking at war updates, you only scroll through news regarding it and move to other news. You thereby close your eyes towards other feeds and become mindful about scrolling.
4. Use Parental Control App
The target audiences of mindless scrolling depression are not only adults but children too. When they come across news regarding suicides, deaths, threats, crimes, murders, rapes, and devastating news, children are under the radar of anxiety issues. Kids suffer from chronic depression. A parental control app is safe because parents can spy the social media feeds that children can view and scroll. Children remain in their sanctity.
5. Schedule Time For Creative Things
Who says there is no ‘me time? Bring back the creativity in you. It can go from cooking to gardening; writing to music, dance, and art… The list of doing creative things is endless. It is possible only when you desire to do so. We can walk that extra mile and put the extra effort into scheduling the time for creative things. Keep your device in silent mode and your creativity in active mode.
Final Thoughts On Doom Scrolling
Social media scrolling addiction is uncontrollable.Be it the Gen Z or the Millennial, the rate at which doomscrolling takes place is dreadful. This day cases of depression, panic attacks, and anxiety issues are increasing only because of the negativity in our minds. The only we can help ourselves is to refrain from downbeat and off-putting posts. You must keep up with news and things happening in and around us. As stated earlier, we got to be mindful of what we are looking at. Let us shoo away the parasite called- doomscrolling.
Smart measures to ensure safe device usage by your children.
