WEBVTT - 252. The psychology of doomscrolling 0:00:00.120 --> 0:00:04.280 Hello everybody, Welcome back to the show. Welcome back to 0:00:04.320 --> 0:00:07.920 the podcast, new listeners, old listeners. Wherever you are in 0:00:07.960 --> 0:00:10.480 the world, it is so great to have you here, 0:00:10.600 --> 0:00:14.160 back for another episode as we, of course break down 0:00:14.200 --> 0:00:18.840 the psychology of our twenties. It is a pretty wild 0:00:18.920 --> 0:00:22.560 thought to realize that we have more information in our 0:00:22.600 --> 0:00:26.639 fingertips than any generation ever before. We are more in 0:00:26.720 --> 0:00:32.760 touch any terrible news story, any terrible tragedy, any groundbreaking discovery, 0:00:32.880 --> 0:00:36.720 niche profile piece like. We can access that from our 0:00:36.800 --> 0:00:42.200 phones at any hour, in any instance, and it's great 0:00:42.280 --> 0:00:45.839 in many many ways. We are very informed people. But 0:00:46.159 --> 0:00:52.080 it is quite frankly, not something that humans have necessarily 0:00:52.120 --> 0:00:54.880 evolved to deal with. I was watching this YouTube video 0:00:54.920 --> 0:00:57.760 the other day, very very random. It's going to sound strange, 0:00:57.760 --> 0:00:59.800 but it was like a day in the life of 0:01:00.160 --> 0:01:03.320 a medieval peasant. And I was watching this video and 0:01:03.360 --> 0:01:06.880 I was thinking, this individual would have only had to 0:01:06.959 --> 0:01:10.200 worry about the world that was ten to twenty kilometers 0:01:10.240 --> 0:01:13.679 around him or her. They would only have the information 0:01:13.800 --> 0:01:16.920 given to them by the church, or by their neighbors, 0:01:17.000 --> 0:01:20.560 or by whoever the king, their queen. They didn't know 0:01:21.000 --> 0:01:24.520 what was going on halfway across the world in Persia 0:01:24.680 --> 0:01:26.840 or Rome, and how that would affect them. They didn't 0:01:26.840 --> 0:01:30.600 know about the natural disasters in Asia or Africa, like 0:01:30.640 --> 0:01:35.360 the discoveries in Australia. It seemed almost a lot simpler 0:01:35.720 --> 0:01:37.920 that way. And it is such a privilege to have 0:01:38.440 --> 0:01:41.319 access to the information that we have now, and it's 0:01:41.360 --> 0:01:44.360 definitely improved the ways in which we are very conscious 0:01:44.480 --> 0:01:49.200 global citizens. But it has its downsides. And as people 0:01:49.200 --> 0:01:53.000 in our twenties, we are one of the first generations 0:01:53.120 --> 0:01:56.320 to have grown up this way. We have grown up 0:01:56.480 --> 0:02:01.560 always having this constant information so in the palm of 0:02:01.600 --> 0:02:04.040 our hands, and it's given rise to this phenomenon known 0:02:04.080 --> 0:02:07.480 as doomscrolling. Doom scrolling has a few meanings, but at 0:02:07.520 --> 0:02:11.919 its core, it is when we accidentally or consciously spend 0:02:12.400 --> 0:02:18.800 way too much time consuming online negative content, whether it 0:02:18.880 --> 0:02:24.120 is news articles, news contents about tragedies and terrors, or 0:02:24.240 --> 0:02:28.120 just actually hateful content like nastiness in any form on 0:02:28.120 --> 0:02:32.040 the Internet. You know, seeing me in comments, seeing cruel 0:02:32.120 --> 0:02:35.400 videos that are constantly like somehow thrown in our face 0:02:35.440 --> 0:02:39.960 by the algorithm that is not policed. This has a 0:02:40.160 --> 0:02:44.080 very deep, yet i would say hidden, emotional and psychological 0:02:44.120 --> 0:02:47.080 consequence for us. And we all know that we don't 0:02:47.120 --> 0:02:50.400 feel very good when we spend too much time online, 0:02:50.720 --> 0:02:52.520 But I think we also need to get better at 0:02:52.600 --> 0:02:56.960 labeling why that is and controlling the reasons why we 0:02:57.000 --> 0:03:02.720 do it. Anyways, you know, despite feeling like all this dark, terrible, 0:03:02.840 --> 0:03:06.520 horrible news content is making us feel worse about ourselves, 0:03:07.400 --> 0:03:09.640 we often can't stop. And I'm one of those people. 0:03:10.080 --> 0:03:11.959 I know that this is going to make my mental 0:03:11.960 --> 0:03:15.440 state worse, but I cannot look away. I keep looking 0:03:15.600 --> 0:03:18.880 for new information. In part, I think that it's because 0:03:18.880 --> 0:03:21.960 we are addicted to our phones, but also there is 0:03:22.000 --> 0:03:25.639 this element of seeking out more information is a way 0:03:25.680 --> 0:03:28.200 that we soothe ourselves, and in this day and age, 0:03:28.240 --> 0:03:31.280 like when everything is quite stressful and there are a 0:03:31.360 --> 0:03:35.040 lot of reasons to feel unhappy about the world. By 0:03:35.080 --> 0:03:39.000 scrolling on our phones and using social media, that is 0:03:39.040 --> 0:03:42.440 a form of distraction from those feelings. But it can 0:03:42.480 --> 0:03:46.200 also end up meaning that we are more constantly exposed 0:03:46.360 --> 0:03:51.720 to situations that are honestly quite harmful to be viewing 0:03:52.200 --> 0:03:55.440 all the time. We also then feel this obligation right like, 0:03:55.480 --> 0:03:57.600 I want to be informed, I want to know what's 0:03:57.640 --> 0:04:01.480 going on. You can kind of see the trap that 0:04:01.480 --> 0:04:05.360 we're falling into. It's the same formula for any toxic habit. 0:04:05.480 --> 0:04:09.040 It is both like the devil and our savior. Doom 0:04:09.080 --> 0:04:13.080 scrolling and like reading the news or being informed makes 0:04:13.160 --> 0:04:15.800 us feel better for a second, and then it makes 0:04:15.840 --> 0:04:18.520 us feel worse, and then we try to feel better 0:04:18.960 --> 0:04:22.160 by going back and scrolling some more, and we get 0:04:22.200 --> 0:04:25.320 back to the same place that we started. So today 0:04:25.480 --> 0:04:29.720 I want to focus in specifically on a rise in 0:04:29.800 --> 0:04:34.800 doom scrolling, how it has been slowly changing our brains 0:04:34.839 --> 0:04:37.279 and how we think about the world, especially as people 0:04:37.279 --> 0:04:39.960 in our twenties, and what we can kind of do 0:04:40.040 --> 0:04:42.560 about it. You know, we are seeing all these consequences, 0:04:42.600 --> 0:04:44.680 but we also don't want to be someone who is 0:04:44.720 --> 0:04:46.640 out of touch. We want to know what's going on. 0:04:47.240 --> 0:04:50.880 So how do we get into a healthy space and 0:04:50.960 --> 0:04:56.640 a healthy place with scrolling, with the news, with accessing 0:04:56.640 --> 0:05:00.400 the internet, whatever it is? What are the alternatives excited 0:05:00.400 --> 0:05:03.320 for this episode? This is something that I personally needed 0:05:03.360 --> 0:05:05.039 to hear about. I know that there is like a 0:05:05.080 --> 0:05:07.560 lot of just a lot of tension and stress and 0:05:07.600 --> 0:05:10.280 like political angst in the world at the moment, understandably, 0:05:10.960 --> 0:05:13.880 and this is an important topic to talk about in 0:05:13.920 --> 0:05:17.919 this time because when we speak about mental health, it 0:05:18.040 --> 0:05:22.960 is a huge contributor. So, without further ado, my lovely listeners, 0:05:23.320 --> 0:05:31.200 let's get into the psychology of doom scrolling. So doom 0:05:31.240 --> 0:05:34.720 scrolling we have a definition already. It's basically when we 0:05:34.760 --> 0:05:38.679 spend an excessive time consuming or being shown negative news 0:05:38.720 --> 0:05:42.800 content or online content that ultimately ultimately makes us feel 0:05:42.800 --> 0:05:46.520 pretty pessimistic. But it's also a really new term, and 0:05:46.600 --> 0:05:50.400 it was coined during the pandemic. So I am sure 0:05:50.440 --> 0:05:53.720 we all clearly remember how we were glued to our 0:05:53.800 --> 0:05:57.200 phones for any type of news or updates to do 0:05:57.279 --> 0:06:01.960 with lockdowns, case numbers, vaccine rollout during that like that, 0:06:02.080 --> 0:06:05.400 during that time, during twenty twenty to twenty twenty one, 0:06:05.480 --> 0:06:09.720 I have very distinct memories actually of checking the case 0:06:09.800 --> 0:06:13.240 numbers in my area, like in my city, three four, five, 0:06:13.400 --> 0:06:15.840 ten times a day to see if they'd gone down, 0:06:15.880 --> 0:06:20.120 and reading every article, reading any press release that could 0:06:20.120 --> 0:06:22.599 potentially tell me that numbers were decreasing or we like 0:06:23.080 --> 0:06:25.839 had a cure, which neither of those things were never true. 0:06:26.520 --> 0:06:31.080 So basically, during that time, researchers and a little psychologists 0:06:31.120 --> 0:06:36.160 were seeing that because everything was so unknown and so scary, 0:06:36.720 --> 0:06:39.720 we just wanted as much information as we could get. 0:06:39.880 --> 0:06:42.600 We just wanted to know more. It was very soothing 0:06:42.640 --> 0:06:45.640 in a strange way. But we also had all this 0:06:45.720 --> 0:06:51.679 empty time and space to consume more and more social 0:06:51.720 --> 0:06:54.560 media content than ever before, and we were taking full 0:06:54.600 --> 0:06:57.960 advantage of that. And these two kind of factors are 0:06:58.000 --> 0:07:01.839 what led to doom scrollings, what led to people just 0:07:01.960 --> 0:07:05.360 feeling completely overwhelmed by some of the content that they 0:07:05.360 --> 0:07:08.760 were accessing. Now, obviously we are no longer actively in 0:07:08.800 --> 0:07:10.920 a pandemic, but there are still a lot of things 0:07:10.960 --> 0:07:15.040 that have taken place in you know, the last few months. 0:07:15.080 --> 0:07:18.600 It's ironic, I'm literally recording this like a week after 0:07:18.640 --> 0:07:21.080 the US election, and I'm sure a lot of us 0:07:21.160 --> 0:07:23.320 are doom scrolling at the moment and will be in 0:07:23.360 --> 0:07:27.160 the next few months. But if you want some numbers 0:07:27.320 --> 0:07:31.320 around just how common this is, twenty twenty four survey 0:07:31.440 --> 0:07:34.240 that interviewed five thousand American adults who are pretty good 0:07:34.280 --> 0:07:37.560 sample size found that about thirty one percent of adults 0:07:38.200 --> 0:07:42.360 will doom scroll on a regular basis. But this percentage 0:07:42.560 --> 0:07:46.920 is a lot bigger the younger you are, so for millennials, 0:07:46.960 --> 0:07:50.280 it's forty six percent. For gen Z it's fifty one percent. 0:07:50.920 --> 0:07:54.880 That's half of us, half of us. And honestly, you know, 0:07:54.960 --> 0:07:59.160 I'm not even surprised by that number, considering all the 0:07:59.160 --> 0:08:01.480 people I talk to who are like, yeah, of course 0:08:01.520 --> 0:08:04.040 I feel really burdened by this. Of course I can't 0:08:04.040 --> 0:08:07.320 stop as well. It's a very very common thing. Something 0:08:07.360 --> 0:08:09.320 we have got to take note of here though, before 0:08:09.360 --> 0:08:11.280 we go any further, is that there are actually two 0:08:11.320 --> 0:08:14.560 types of doom scrolling. There is passive and active. So 0:08:14.680 --> 0:08:17.920 the passive doom scroll is when you can't you know, 0:08:17.960 --> 0:08:21.160 you're not really going in search of any more information. 0:08:21.760 --> 0:08:25.320 You're not seeking out negative news. You may not even 0:08:25.400 --> 0:08:28.520 be on like a news website, but you find it anyway, 0:08:28.960 --> 0:08:33.360 especially on Instagram, especially on TikTok or Twitter, whatever it is. 0:08:34.320 --> 0:08:39.640 We have, like in our normal environments, we have semi 0:08:39.800 --> 0:08:41.720 like a little bit of control over what we see. 0:08:41.760 --> 0:08:44.240 Like when you're in your home, you get to choose 0:08:44.240 --> 0:08:46.040 the furniture, you get to choose the people that you 0:08:46.080 --> 0:08:48.240 invite in, you get to choose all those things. You know, 0:08:48.800 --> 0:08:52.040 you have a way of controlling your environments and based 0:08:52.080 --> 0:08:54.480 on your preferences and based on what you like. When 0:08:54.480 --> 0:08:57.120 you go online, you do not have that control. You 0:08:57.160 --> 0:09:00.560 have no control over what you're going to see, even 0:09:00.600 --> 0:09:03.000 if you try and train your algorithm to be suited 0:09:03.000 --> 0:09:06.080 to what you want to consume. About one third of us, 0:09:06.160 --> 0:09:08.840 according to a recent study by the National Institute of Health, 0:09:09.440 --> 0:09:12.360 we get our news online even when we don't follow 0:09:12.440 --> 0:09:14.880 news sites, because it pops up, because it's the thing 0:09:14.920 --> 0:09:18.640 that is noteworthy, because lots of people interact with that content. 0:09:19.160 --> 0:09:22.240 And I think even that is shocking and its own right. 0:09:22.360 --> 0:09:25.360 A third of us using social media as our primary 0:09:25.400 --> 0:09:28.000 news source. But that's kind of the day and age 0:09:28.000 --> 0:09:31.200 that we are in, and news sites and newspapers have 0:09:31.280 --> 0:09:34.160 adapted to us, have adapted to that, and you know, 0:09:34.160 --> 0:09:37.240 I guess it's better than nothing. But it's not just news, right, 0:09:37.320 --> 0:09:40.520 It's not just the news. It's watching an Instagram reel 0:09:40.559 --> 0:09:43.800 and opening the comments and seeing all the trolls. It 0:09:43.960 --> 0:09:47.480 is the videos that are toxic or mocking or mean 0:09:48.480 --> 0:09:53.839 that also leaves a negative mark, especially considering how high 0:09:54.000 --> 0:09:55.840 a lot of our screen times are at the moment. 0:09:56.160 --> 0:09:58.520 You know, if you spend two to three hours on 0:09:58.559 --> 0:10:01.240 social media a day, which is the average amount that 0:10:01.320 --> 0:10:04.080 people spend a lot of stuff is going to be 0:10:04.080 --> 0:10:07.439 filtering through a lot of stuff that you know. Can 0:10:07.440 --> 0:10:09.760 you just imagine this. It's like you're scrolling, You're like, oh, 0:10:09.760 --> 0:10:12.440 beautiful picture of my friend, picture of a celebrity, picture 0:10:12.440 --> 0:10:17.080 of a puppy twenty dead in landslide. That is still 0:10:17.200 --> 0:10:21.200 information that is coming into your brain. So that's passive. 0:10:21.320 --> 0:10:24.960 The second type of doom scrolling is active doom scrolling, 0:10:25.000 --> 0:10:27.160 and it's what we typically think of when I say 0:10:27.320 --> 0:10:30.720 doom scrolling. It's like more of a conscious habit of 0:10:30.800 --> 0:10:35.000 constantly scrolling through news headlines and most of the time 0:10:35.360 --> 0:10:39.800 news that isn't very good, because then it wouldn't be noteworthy. 0:10:40.480 --> 0:10:43.160 I will say, we do have to pay attention to 0:10:43.200 --> 0:10:44.880 what is going on in the world, and it is 0:10:44.920 --> 0:10:48.280 important to stay informed, and it's important to know what 0:10:48.440 --> 0:10:52.160 is happening around you in politics, with the environment, with 0:10:52.240 --> 0:10:55.800 foreign policy, with human rights. But we can do this 0:10:55.920 --> 0:11:00.520 in a way that doesn't become crippling. I have a 0:11:00.559 --> 0:11:03.080 friend Erin who has been a guest on the show before. 0:11:03.120 --> 0:11:05.640 We Love Erin, big friend of the show, and she 0:11:06.160 --> 0:11:07.720 I hope she doesn't mind using the story. I don't 0:11:07.720 --> 0:11:11.160 think she will, But she is incredibly invested in climate change, 0:11:11.240 --> 0:11:12.960 in the state in the environment, Like that's what she 0:11:13.000 --> 0:11:16.800 does for work. She protects wetlands in Australia, like she 0:11:16.840 --> 0:11:21.840 goes to protests. She's studying horticulture next year. She's so passionate, 0:11:21.880 --> 0:11:25.440 she's so invested. One of the most beautiful souls and 0:11:25.520 --> 0:11:30.280 most passionate, you know, just souls for these issues. But 0:11:30.320 --> 0:11:34.319 she was telling me, you know how dark that can 0:11:34.360 --> 0:11:37.960 get for her, because she's so drawn to seeking out 0:11:38.480 --> 0:11:42.520 further information, as much information as possible about the state 0:11:42.559 --> 0:11:45.640 of all of these things, about the state of the environment, 0:11:45.720 --> 0:11:49.599 about what species is going extinct, what government is not protecting, 0:11:50.120 --> 0:11:53.120 which habitat, And it's become a bit of a compulsion 0:11:53.960 --> 0:11:56.400 needing to find out more, not wanting to be in 0:11:56.440 --> 0:12:00.880 the dark, and therefore consuming all of the worst content 0:12:01.440 --> 0:12:03.559 and all the worst headlines day in and day out. 0:12:03.679 --> 0:12:06.960 And as her friend, you know, it's it's very hard 0:12:07.000 --> 0:12:09.959 to see because you obviously know she cares a lot, 0:12:10.280 --> 0:12:13.160 and this is an element and an aspect of how 0:12:13.240 --> 0:12:17.520 much she cares. But it can make people incredibly pessimistic. 0:12:18.559 --> 0:12:21.680 Why do we do it other than just the fact 0:12:21.720 --> 0:12:24.360 that we want to know more. Why is it? Well? 0:12:24.760 --> 0:12:28.199 The first reason is that when we feel that we 0:12:28.280 --> 0:12:31.360 know more, we assume that that's going to make us 0:12:31.840 --> 0:12:35.800 more equipped in the future. So even though it's terrible, 0:12:36.600 --> 0:12:39.800 at least we are not in the dark. At least 0:12:39.800 --> 0:12:43.600 it is not uncertain. At least we have all the details. 0:12:44.160 --> 0:12:48.439 So this explanation is really based in anxiety and one 0:12:48.480 --> 0:12:51.520 psychiatrist from the Media Psychology Research Center, he put it 0:12:51.520 --> 0:12:54.040 really really well in an article that I was reading 0:12:54.120 --> 0:12:57.080 when I was researching this episode. What he said was 0:12:57.080 --> 0:13:01.080 that basically, doom scrolling is just a compulsive need to 0:13:01.240 --> 0:13:04.000 try and get answers when we're afraid. And not only 0:13:04.120 --> 0:13:07.640 is it a compulsive need, that's a very human need right, 0:13:08.360 --> 0:13:13.160 more information, more details, that provides more of an illusion 0:13:13.200 --> 0:13:18.200 of security. So doom scrolling is actually this really twisted, 0:13:18.559 --> 0:13:22.800 dark and I would say counterintuitive self soothing behavior. I 0:13:22.840 --> 0:13:26.480 always think about it like, maybe this won't make sense. 0:13:26.720 --> 0:13:29.280 I think it will. When you go through a breakup 0:13:29.360 --> 0:13:32.480 and you keep checking on your ex's social media to 0:13:32.760 --> 0:13:35.439 make sure they're not with someone new, to see who 0:13:35.440 --> 0:13:38.959 they're following. You want to know exactly how their post 0:13:39.000 --> 0:13:43.520 relationship journey is going, even though it's painful. That is 0:13:43.640 --> 0:13:45.880 very similar to what we're doing here, because the alternative 0:13:45.960 --> 0:13:51.520 hypothetical of not knowing that is exponentially worse in our brain. 0:13:52.000 --> 0:13:55.720 And that's anxiety for you. Anxiety. As we know, it 0:13:55.840 --> 0:13:59.520 loves to feed on the empty spaces. It loves to 0:13:59.559 --> 0:14:03.280 feed on the unknown. It loves to feed on a 0:14:03.360 --> 0:14:05.839 lack of answers because that is where it can do 0:14:06.559 --> 0:14:09.520 its most like the most of it's catastrophizing, right, that's 0:14:09.520 --> 0:14:11.400 when it can have the most fun. Like, it's a 0:14:11.400 --> 0:14:15.600 pretty sneaky being. So doom scrolling is just to really 0:14:15.600 --> 0:14:19.600 wrap that up. It's control seeking, it's information seeking for 0:14:19.680 --> 0:14:23.240 the sake of certainty. This behavior is also really rooted 0:14:23.320 --> 0:14:27.760 in our brain's limbic system, according to some recent research 0:14:27.920 --> 0:14:31.720 at Harvard. So you've probably heard of our limbic system before. 0:14:31.880 --> 0:14:35.200 It is basically our lizard brain. It is our old 0:14:35.360 --> 0:14:38.920 animal brain, very ancient part of us. And our limbic 0:14:38.960 --> 0:14:42.600 system is what promotes and is responsible for self preservation. 0:14:43.160 --> 0:14:46.160 It drives our fight or flight response to danger, and 0:14:46.240 --> 0:14:49.760 it is typically what fuels us to scroll for threats. 0:14:49.960 --> 0:14:53.120 You know, we are being hypervigilant. We are scanning the 0:14:53.240 --> 0:14:55.840 danger using the resources that we have now, which is 0:14:55.880 --> 0:14:58.040 the Internet, and the more you scroll, the more you 0:14:58.080 --> 0:15:01.000 feel you need to know. There are two groups who 0:15:01.000 --> 0:15:03.560 are more prone to this than anyone else. According to 0:15:03.600 --> 0:15:07.680 that same paper from Harvard, it's women and it's people 0:15:07.680 --> 0:15:10.960 with the history of trauma. Why is that. It's because 0:15:10.960 --> 0:15:16.240 the need for hyper vigilance in those two populations runs deep. 0:15:16.360 --> 0:15:18.960 It is in our DNA, it is in our bones, 0:15:19.040 --> 0:15:21.560 it is in our memories. And you know, there was 0:15:21.560 --> 0:15:24.840 this really it was fascinating, but it was also just 0:15:24.960 --> 0:15:29.720 actually quite devastating. It was a study into refugees and 0:15:29.840 --> 0:15:33.360 refugees who had recently immigrated to a new country and 0:15:33.400 --> 0:15:37.240 the rate at which dooms growing happened in these communities, 0:15:37.640 --> 0:15:40.120 and what they found was that it was so much higher, 0:15:40.880 --> 0:15:44.160 especially when you think about, you know, news from their 0:15:44.160 --> 0:15:46.440 home countries. You know, they may still have family there, 0:15:46.800 --> 0:15:49.320 they may still have loved ones there, and the fear 0:15:49.840 --> 0:15:53.200 and the need for knowledge really extends beyond them. And 0:15:53.200 --> 0:15:56.000 it's not like the news industry or journalists are helping 0:15:56.080 --> 0:15:59.480 us through this. Even for the average person, they know 0:15:59.640 --> 0:16:01.880 that we are more drawn in by news stories that 0:16:01.960 --> 0:16:05.760 elicit a sense of urgency and fear our brains are 0:16:05.760 --> 0:16:10.600 trained to pay attention to those into instances and stimulus 0:16:10.640 --> 0:16:14.880 and environments and whatever that is creating that kind of 0:16:14.880 --> 0:16:18.600 emotional reaction, and so they publish more of that stuff, 0:16:18.920 --> 0:16:22.800 They make the titles more grappy. Everything seems disastrous, and 0:16:22.800 --> 0:16:26.000 we're paying so much more attention to that compared to 0:16:26.600 --> 0:16:30.280 the overall picture of what the world is really like. 0:16:30.960 --> 0:16:32.800 So why do we do this? Well, firstly, we do 0:16:32.880 --> 0:16:37.040 this because of something called the negativity bias. The negativity 0:16:37.080 --> 0:16:41.520 bias is basically this cognitive bias whereby we tend to 0:16:41.600 --> 0:16:45.200 pay more attention and we remember negative information more than 0:16:45.240 --> 0:16:49.320 positive information because it's more important for our survival. And 0:16:49.880 --> 0:16:51.600 one way that we are really seeing this and that 0:16:51.640 --> 0:16:55.040 we know that this applies to news that we see 0:16:55.080 --> 0:16:57.720 on our phone or just news in general, is because 0:16:57.760 --> 0:17:01.080 of some amazing researchers at McGill in in Canada. So 0:17:01.800 --> 0:17:05.040 these researchers invited some participants to come into their lab 0:17:05.119 --> 0:17:07.320 and they said, come into our lab. We're going to 0:17:07.359 --> 0:17:09.760 do this study on eye tracking. We just want to see, 0:17:09.800 --> 0:17:14.080 like how your eyes move in response to images. Of 0:17:14.119 --> 0:17:17.080 course that's not true. What they wanted to know was 0:17:17.320 --> 0:17:21.359 are we automatically and immediately drawn more to good news, 0:17:21.760 --> 0:17:24.359 neutral news or bad news or is it just all 0:17:24.400 --> 0:17:27.879 the same? Is it just you know, our brain scans 0:17:27.880 --> 0:17:32.159 from top to bottom. So basically, they had these people 0:17:32.160 --> 0:17:33.679 in a room and they were like, oh, you know, 0:17:33.760 --> 0:17:36.520 before we like get into the actual experiment, just pick 0:17:36.600 --> 0:17:39.359 like some news articles that you want to read while 0:17:39.400 --> 0:17:41.760 you wait, like you can just have a little browse. 0:17:42.240 --> 0:17:43.840 They were then asked to read them. It didn't really 0:17:43.880 --> 0:17:46.320 matter if they actually read them. It was just kind 0:17:46.320 --> 0:17:49.200 of like to keep up appearances. And then they did 0:17:49.280 --> 0:17:54.520 the study and what they found was that overwhelmingly, when 0:17:54.520 --> 0:17:56.360 they were given this site, and there was an equal 0:17:56.400 --> 0:18:01.560 amount of negative, positive and neutral stories, overwhelmingly the place 0:18:01.600 --> 0:18:07.480 our eyes go to first worthy most scary, negative, distressing headlines, 0:18:07.920 --> 0:18:13.480 things about corruption, death, natural disasters, and not the neutral stories. 0:18:14.040 --> 0:18:16.159 And when they asked them afterwards, and this is the 0:18:16.200 --> 0:18:19.000 second component to this study that is so interesting, When 0:18:19.040 --> 0:18:22.760 they said, okay, do you think that the news these 0:18:22.840 --> 0:18:24.679 days is it more good? Is it more bad? Is 0:18:24.720 --> 0:18:28.080 it more you know, neutral, almost all of them were like, 0:18:28.119 --> 0:18:30.639 oh no, the news is so bad. Everything is going 0:18:31.200 --> 0:18:33.560 so wrong at the moment. You know, the majority of 0:18:33.600 --> 0:18:35.600 the stories I saw on that news site were negative, 0:18:36.160 --> 0:18:40.359 despite the fact that it was completely even we grab 0:18:40.520 --> 0:18:45.160 onto negative information because it is novel, because it is noteworthy, 0:18:45.240 --> 0:18:48.400 and because we think that it's more important. I think 0:18:48.440 --> 0:18:51.320 this is really important to be aware of whenever you're 0:18:51.359 --> 0:18:54.439 surfing like the ABC or the Guardian or the New 0:18:54.520 --> 0:18:58.080 York Times or whatever it is. I think that it's 0:18:58.200 --> 0:19:01.520 not all bad, but we are tricked by both external 0:19:01.560 --> 0:19:05.280 forces like the mainstream media, but also internal forces like 0:19:05.320 --> 0:19:09.840 our negativity bias into believing. So I want to give 0:19:09.880 --> 0:19:13.960 you one final explanation as to why before we go 0:19:14.000 --> 0:19:16.640 into how we can stop it, and it actually comes 0:19:16.680 --> 0:19:20.520 down to the psychology of how social media apps are designed. 0:19:21.400 --> 0:19:25.560 No surprises here. Social media is addictive. Probably also not 0:19:25.600 --> 0:19:28.920 a surprise. It was made that way because your attention 0:19:29.359 --> 0:19:32.080 is money. That's the whole business model of these apps. 0:19:32.480 --> 0:19:34.520 The more they can keep your attention, the more that 0:19:34.560 --> 0:19:38.320 you will buy things from ads. So it's really don't 0:19:38.359 --> 0:19:40.280 beat yourself up if you find it really hard to 0:19:40.320 --> 0:19:43.840 set those digital boundaries like they are doing everything in 0:19:43.880 --> 0:19:48.440 their power to make sure that doesn't happen. Instagram and Facebook. Actually, 0:19:48.480 --> 0:19:50.639 I remember at one stage I read an article about 0:19:50.640 --> 0:19:56.879 how they had literal neuroscientists on their payroll on their teams. 0:19:56.920 --> 0:20:00.480 They were paid employees, and their job was b basically 0:20:00.560 --> 0:20:04.560 like tell us how we can keep people hooked. And 0:20:04.600 --> 0:20:06.600 one of the ways that they were like, hey, this 0:20:06.640 --> 0:20:08.800 is a way you can do this, it's called the 0:20:08.840 --> 0:20:13.439 infinite scroll. And this plays a really important part in 0:20:13.520 --> 0:20:16.600 why we doom scroll. So the infinite scroll means that 0:20:17.480 --> 0:20:19.919 we are never going to run out of content to see. 0:20:20.520 --> 0:20:22.560 I remember, like back in the day, in like the 0:20:22.600 --> 0:20:26.720 early like twenty tens, when Instagram was first released, like 0:20:26.800 --> 0:20:31.120 twenty thirteen, twenty fourteen, you would go on Instagram and 0:20:31.560 --> 0:20:36.000 when everybody, when you'd seen everything, when basically everyone that 0:20:36.040 --> 0:20:39.000 you followed had posted within the last five days and 0:20:39.040 --> 0:20:41.760 you'd seen it, it would just be the end of 0:20:41.800 --> 0:20:43.960 the screen, like you couldn't go any further. You would 0:20:44.000 --> 0:20:47.639 hit like a wall. And nowadays, no, no, no, that 0:20:47.800 --> 0:20:50.159 is not happening. That is not happening. They do not 0:20:50.240 --> 0:20:51.800 want you to exit the app. They want you to 0:20:51.840 --> 0:20:55.639 stay on the app. And so you'll start seeing recommended content, 0:20:55.720 --> 0:20:58.399 You'll start seeing all this other stuff that you're not 0:20:58.440 --> 0:21:01.959 necessarily following, but you stay hooked because it's just like 0:21:02.000 --> 0:21:05.119 all this dopamine flooding into your brain. It's junk food 0:21:05.119 --> 0:21:08.200 for the mind. And I say this metaphor quite literally. 0:21:08.720 --> 0:21:11.720 The information that we feed our brains just like what 0:21:11.760 --> 0:21:15.520 we feed our body. It really matters. You become a 0:21:15.560 --> 0:21:17.880 product of what your brain is receiving, and that really 0:21:17.920 --> 0:21:20.840 influences your worldview. And if you are a doom scroller, 0:21:20.920 --> 0:21:24.480 I'm included in that, so there is no criticism here. 0:21:24.480 --> 0:21:27.800 But if you are a doom scroller, what you're receiving 0:21:27.880 --> 0:21:29.919 is going to be pessimistic and it's going to be bleak, 0:21:30.720 --> 0:21:34.400 and that results in a lot of anxiety, a lot 0:21:34.400 --> 0:21:37.959 of like apathy, like oh my god, who cares? Like 0:21:38.000 --> 0:21:40.919 the world is just so terrible. It results in a 0:21:40.920 --> 0:21:44.959 lot of existential anxiety, which is like a sense that 0:21:45.000 --> 0:21:47.760 like the world is just there's no point, what does 0:21:47.800 --> 0:21:50.600 life even mean? It can also give us something that 0:21:50.640 --> 0:21:53.200 we call popcorn brain. I don't know if you've heard 0:21:53.200 --> 0:21:55.920 about this recently, you will be hearing about it more 0:21:55.920 --> 0:21:58.359 in the future. But I read another article I think 0:21:58.440 --> 0:22:04.160 either in Yale or Harvard Magazine. Can't remember. I'll keep 0:22:04.160 --> 0:22:07.040 you updated if I find it, But basically this article 0:22:07.119 --> 0:22:09.480 is like popcorn brain happens when you spend too much 0:22:09.520 --> 0:22:13.720 time online and your brain is actually so overstimulated with 0:22:13.760 --> 0:22:17.119 information that it almost feels like it's popping. It feels 0:22:17.119 --> 0:22:20.200 so overstimulated that you're like pop pop, like you're moving 0:22:20.240 --> 0:22:22.240 from one thing to another, and like it's just fast 0:22:22.280 --> 0:22:25.320 and fast and fast. That is not normal, and that 0:22:25.359 --> 0:22:28.320 makes it really hard to engage with the real world, 0:22:28.480 --> 0:22:31.800 and it makes us feel really anxious. And feeling anxious 0:22:31.880 --> 0:22:34.960 and numb about the world is not normal, and it's 0:22:35.000 --> 0:22:37.640 not something that I think we should normalize, and it's 0:22:37.640 --> 0:22:41.399 not something that I think should define our life. Luckily, though, 0:22:41.520 --> 0:22:43.560 the same way that we get trapped in a doom 0:22:43.600 --> 0:22:46.520 scrolling cycle, we can also get out of it, and 0:22:46.560 --> 0:22:48.960 we can find a way to have a healthy relationship 0:22:49.000 --> 0:22:52.320 with our news, with our content, with our phones, whatever 0:22:52.320 --> 0:22:55.000 it is. So I want to talk about how we 0:22:55.040 --> 0:22:57.680 can find our way out and the kind of behavioral 0:22:57.720 --> 0:23:00.680 and mental shifts that can get us there. After this 0:23:00.960 --> 0:23:08.080 short break, I'm just going to quickly repeat what I 0:23:08.119 --> 0:23:10.280 said before, because I think it's a really important point. 0:23:10.640 --> 0:23:14.280 You can still be informed and know what's going on 0:23:14.480 --> 0:23:17.159 and not be addicted to the negative news cycle. Or 0:23:17.200 --> 0:23:20.159 you can have both. You can still acknowledge that the 0:23:20.200 --> 0:23:25.560