Digital Daze: How Doomscrolling Affects Your Mental Health

Doomscrolling, sometimes known as zombie scrolling, refers to mindless scrolling through what feels like an endless amount of negative news content and social media posts. Unfortunately, we all do it and mindless scrolling depression is one of the largest issues modern society currently faces. 

Studies suggest that roughly 77% of all employees in the United States regularly use social media throughout the workday. This addiction culminates in many spending several hours daily scrolling through their various social media timelines without any real, meaningful reason to do so.

Prolonged doomscrolling can have a severely negative impact on overall mental health, leading to overwhelming feelings of anxiety, dread, and hopelessness that lead to an increasingly negative worldview. It creates a sort of endless loop of negativity that can feel impossible to escape from at times. 

Today’s article will provide an in-depth overview of doomscrolling and mental health, examining its origins and risk factors and its negative outcomes on mental health and emotional well-being. Additionally, we will explore a few key strategies that can be deployed to counteract and fight against it.

Why Do People Doomscroll?

For many people, doomscrolling is not a conscious act. It is simply something that we do without much thought. We open our phones and navigate to our favorite social media platforms with good intentions, and then, before we know it, an hour or two has passed, and we have consumed nothing but negativity throughout that time.

Additionally, it is important to keep in mind that these social media platforms are built upon algorithms that are designed to keep you scrolling for as long as possible. The more time you spend scrolling, the more money the company makes through ad revenue. When using these social media platforms, always keep this in mind–your mental health is not your primary focus.

Who is Most Likely to Doomscroll?

According to well-known psychotherapist and coach Tess Brigham from the University of San Francisco, doomscrolling is much more common in individuals actively suffering from anxiety-related disorders and makes their symptoms and overall feelings worse.

That said, doomscrolling has likely affected us all at some point. Due to the highly addictive nature of modern social media algorithms, it is all too easy to get wrapped up in your timeline and spend hours zombie-scrolling through content that does not make you feel very good or provide any real, meaningful value to your life.

5 Tips to Stop Zombie Scrolling

While understanding zombie scrolling and some of its negative effects on mental health is a crucial first step in fixing the issue, this knowledge must be supplemented by actionable strategies to help you get your social media usage under control.

These psychological strategies can be used alone or in conjunction with each other to create a holistic plan that can empower you to stop doomscrolling and enjoy a healthy, balanced digital life. 

1. Practice Mindfulness

Pay close attention to your body as you use social media and scroll continuously. Each thought, feeling, and sensation is your body trying to tell you something, so do your best to listen.

This can really help you begin to understand and articulate some of the negative aspects of zombie scrolling and work as a major motivator to become more intentional with your usage.

2. Deliberate Self Reflection 

Incorporating a routine practice of self-reflection into your daily routine is beneficial for many areas of your mental health and overall well-being, but especially so with social media usage.

Think intentionally and critically about how and why you use social media. Ask yourself if you are enjoying the time you spend on social media and if it is bringing a net gain to your life. The key here is to be brutally honest with yourself, really dig into the root causes of your social media usage, and interrogate whether or not it is something that you want to continue moving forward.

3. Practice Thought Stopping 

Thought stopping is a cognitive-behavioral technique for ending or preventing obsessive and anxious thoughts. For example, when you open your favorite social media app, pause for a second and think consciously about what you are doing. 

4. Disconnect from Social Media

This is perhaps the most effective strategy you can use. By disconnecting entirely from the social media platforms you find yourself doomscrolling on frequently, you can take back control of your mental health and avoid the negative feedback loop entirely. If you are struggling with doomscrolling and mental health, consider stepping away from social media and seeing how it makes you feel.

Disconnecting from social media does not have to be a permanent decision. Sometimes, a short term digital detox is all you need to regain clarity of mind and enjoy a healthier relationship with it moving forward. 

5. Replace Social Media With a Healthier Habit

Many people use social media, intentionally or not, as a way to pass the time. It is easy to pull out your phone and spend a few minutes mindlessly scrolling through your time. Do this twenty or thirty times throughout the course of a day, and it adds up to a significant amount of time. Recent data suggests that the average person spends over 3 hours each day on their phone and checks it over 58 times per day.

As such, many have found that one of the hardest parts of limiting their social media usage is filling the time added to their day. Physical exercise is one of the most highly recommended replacement habits you can do instead of doomscrolling, as it provides a wide variety of health benefits both physical and mental.

Find Specialized Treatment At SoberMind Recovery

SoberMind Recovery is a Los Angeles recovery center offering a wide variety of specialized treatment programs, ranging from LGBTQ sober living to dual diagnosis treatment, as well as individual, group, and cognitive behavioral therapy. 

Our mission is to provide individualized, evidence-based care in a compassionate and high-quality manner and make a difference in the world of addiction.

Residents of the Los Angeles area are encouraged to call us today 100% free of charge at 818-835-9268 or 819-398-8047 to see if our compassionate, evidence-based treatment options are a good fit for you and your recovery plan.