Speaker 1: Welcome to Brainstuff, a production of I Heart Radio. Hey
Speaker 1: brain Stuff, Lauren boll Obam. Here, chances are you've done it.
Speaker 1: Chase down a rabbit hole on your smartphone, compulsively scrolling
Speaker 1: through posts and news feeds and videos and podcasts, lamenting,
Speaker 1: staggering gas prices, self serving politicians, or the next crippling
Speaker 1: aspect of whichever pandemic we're on now. This obsessive time
Speaker 1: sucking activity is called doom scrolling, and you might want
Speaker 1: to rein in your habit for The article of this
Speaker 1: episode is based on has to Work. Spoke by email
Speaker 1: with Jacob T. Fisher, Assistant professor in the College of
Speaker 1: Media at the University of Illinois and an affiliate of
Speaker 1: the Beckman Institute of Advanced Science and Technology and the
Speaker 1: Illinois Informatics Program. He explained that the term doom scrolling
Speaker 1: describes quote a state in which someone feels an almost
Speaker 1: obsessive drive to continuously scroll through their social media feeds,
Speaker 1: paying at ten and to distressing, depressing, or generally negative information.
Speaker 1: Wild doomscrolling could involve a mix of good and bad news.
Speaker 1: It's usually the bad, negative, tragic, or sad news that
Speaker 1: keeps us scrolling How stuff works. Also spoke by email
Speaker 1: with psychologist Joshua Claypo, PhD. He said, quote, we will
Speaker 1: bypass positive news when we are in a doomscrolling state
Speaker 1: of mind. Coincidentally or not, the rise of the term
Speaker 1: doomscrolling also coincides with the development of social media algorithms
Speaker 1: to better understand the viewing habits of users. A Fisher said,
Speaker 1: it's pretty generally agreed on that it first started to
Speaker 1: become popular on Twitter in the late twenty teens, but
Speaker 1: the term didn't break out into general usage until the
Speaker 1: beginnings of the COVID nineteen pandemic. That said, doomscrolling is
Speaker 1: hardly a new concept. Remember nine eleven. If you remember
Speaker 1: nine eleven, millions of Americans sat glued to their televisions
Speaker 1: watching the terrorist attacks against the United States unfold. And
Speaker 1: we've all seen the way traffic slows down to gawk
Speaker 1: at the aftermath of a car crash and play. Po
Speaker 1: pointed to the old headline news idiom If it bleeds,
Speaker 1: it leads. But now we're not restricted to news hours
Speaker 1: or even seven news channels. Smartphones give us notifications to
Speaker 1: tragedies in real time, providing both professionally produced news and
Speaker 1: running commentary from other media consumers at our fingertips. So
Speaker 1: what makes us so curious? Clay Post said, it's borne
Speaker 1: out of a very primal evolutionary behavior. We are drawn
Speaker 1: towards sad, bad, dangerous, and tragic news because it serves
Speaker 1: a protective purpose. He explained that our brains are hardwired
Speaker 1: to be inquisitive about things we perceive as bad so
Speaker 1: that we can learn from them on a subconscious level.
Speaker 1: Fisher said that social media companies know this and have
Speaker 1: created algorithms to keep people scrolling a The more you
Speaker 1: look at a certain genre of content, the more likely
Speaker 1: you are to get that content in your feed as
Speaker 1: you keep scrolling. Doom Scrolling is rarely an intentional action,
Speaker 1: though Clay Poe called it quote more of an obsession
Speaker 1: than an addiction. Obsessions are defined as ritualistic routines that
Speaker 1: become a part of everyday life. They're generally rooted in
Speaker 1: fear that if the routine isn't followed, something bad might happen.
Speaker 1: So what might doom scrollers be afraid of? According to
Speaker 1: a University of Florida study, doom scrolling is often associated
Speaker 1: with the fear of missing out or FOMO, which results
Speaker 1: in a desire to remain constantly connected to one's smartphone.
Speaker 1: They also found that men and young people were more
Speaker 1: apt to be doomscrollers, as were the politically engaged, but
Speaker 1: that left leaners and right leaners were equally prone to
Speaker 1: the obsession. The researchers weren't so much focused on the
Speaker 1: emotional effects of doom scrolling, so they couldn't conclude whether
Speaker 1: the action causes anxiety. However, they did suggest that doom
Speaker 1: scrolling and anxiety may feed off of each other regardless,
Speaker 1: Wallowing in negative information for hours on end can hack
Speaker 1: away at your emotional well being. The clay Posts said
Speaker 1: this can lead to quote negative affect, cynicism about the world,
Speaker 1: irritation and anger, and an overall emotional state of negativity
Speaker 1: that often sticks for hours or days after doomscrolling. It
Speaker 1: clouds our perception of the world by drawing us into
Speaker 1: the real world, but only one part, the negative part.
Speaker 1: So how do we stop? Keep in mind that doomscrolling
Speaker 1: is an unconscious behavior, a clay Post said, we need
Speaker 1: to be snapped out of it. Sounds competing behaviors, changes
Speaker 1: in our routine all will help prevent the situation where
Speaker 1: we find ourselves an hour later having scrolled and scrolled
Speaker 1: and scrolled. Some experts suggest setting an alarm that limits
Speaker 1: your scrolling time or leaving your smartphone in another room
Speaker 1: for a while. However, Fisher said it's important to remember
Speaker 1: that social media sites are painstakingly designed by some of
Speaker 1: the world's brightest and most well paid people to be
Speaker 1: attention grabbing and attention keeping, so it may feel like
Speaker 1: you're fighting an uphill battle. He continued, I believe social
Speaker 1: media and other big tech companies have a responsibility to
Speaker 1: ensure that their users have the ability to structure their
Speaker 1: digital lives in a way that lets them retain agency
Speaker 1: over their attention and focus on things that matter to them.
Speaker 1: A doom scrolling, like other potentially detrimental information seeking and
Speaker 1: sharing practices online, is often framed as individual responsibility, but
Speaker 1: it's important to see it as a natural outflow of
Speaker 1: the business model that powers social media. Here's another idea.
Speaker 1: Add a couple of mobile games to the home screen
Speaker 1: of your phone and reach for those instead of your
Speaker 1: news or social media apps. A columnist for Wired found
Speaker 1: that this cure in her doom scrolling and didn't turn
Speaker 1: into another giant time Stuff. Today's episode is based on
Speaker 1: the article doom scrolling is messing with your mind, but
Speaker 1: you can break the habit on how stuff works dot Com,
Speaker 1: written by Jennifer Walker. Journey brain Stuff is production of
Speaker 1: by Heart Radio in partnership with how stuff Works dot Com,
Speaker 1: and it's produced by Tyler Klang. For more podcasts from
Speaker 1: my heart Radio, visit the heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,
Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.