Reuben Samuels | Focus Editor
What if doomscrolling is not the problem? What if you are?
This is the question I asked myself over the past summer, after spending six hours doomscrolling in a single day. I awoke from my screen-induced daze and realized that I had, as a result, missed several school assignments, all while half of my day was already wasted.
In hopes of stopping the active waste of my day, I searched for ways to quit doomscrolling and strive to be more productive. When I reflected, I noticed the impact that doomscrolling had made in my life.
Although I was reluctant to admit it, the impact of doomscrolling only distracted me from the stresses of life by creating a false reality where all that mattered was the current post on my feed. While there was a sense of joy created by this illusion, when the fantasy fizzled out, I woke up to realize that the stresses I had faced had developed into full-blown problems.
However, this is not a localized issue, as Gen Z has become so attached to doomscrolling that professionals have nicknamed them ‘The Doomscroll Generation.’ The Doomscroll Generation has been characterized by “feeling sad, empty or depressed and loss of interest in activities that were previously enjoyed.” Yet, as someone who has attempted to remove the action of doomscrolling from my own life to better myself, I have recently begun to question whether doomscrolling should be held responsible for the negative results often associated with it.
Though it is important to note that before we go on, I clarify the point I am attempting to make, especially so the keyboard conquerors of Yik Yak do not misinterpret my words. I am not here to refute any scientific research, as it is well-documented that excessive time spent doomscrolling is conducive to less-than-ideal outcomes for anyone. Instead, I would like to present the perspective that doomscrolling is a reinforcing negative, meaning that it is not the root of a problem. Still, it steepens the slopes of the issues an individual may already be facing.
This effect is illustrated well by the event dubbed “The Great Rewiring of Childhood.” Coined by Jonathan Haidt, “The Great Rewiring of Childhood” describes the shift from basic cell phones to smartphones in the pockets and hands of adolescents between 2010 and 2015. As a result, mobile technology has become widespread among Gen Z, completely altering childhood for this generation in comparison to prior generations. Due to this, in relation to rising rates of depression and anxiety within Gen Z, a majority of the public correlates this relationship and establishes doomscrolling as the link between the two.
Yet, this section of the public seemingly ignores the frequency of altering events and social media-based comparison, which has also run rampant throughout Gen Z. The effects of these could result in a form of bystander Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and rushes of anxiety.
However, instead of bystander PTSD or comparison anxiety being highlighted as possible sources for the rise in depression and anxiety with Gen Z, it is doomscrolling that is taxed with being the reinforcer of negative thoughts and the causation of sleep problems.
If anything, doomscrolling is the medication that many have been prescribed to medicate their anxieties, whether that be by procrastinating a heavy load of assignments for the week or dealing with a past trauma you may still be healing from.
But regardless of your circumstance, sometimes the only way out of it — just as I realized last summer — is to stop doomscrolling and to keep pressing forward.
