A notification here, breaking news there, a brief informational signal there. We reach for our phones almost automatically, and before we know it, we find ourselves in a vortex of bad news: violence, war, and crises dominate our news feeds.
The shift was gradual: the pandemic was followed by the war in Ukraine, then earthquakes and natural disasters, and the wars in the Near East. The news pages are filled with brutal and depressing reports and images.
What is a Doomsday Scroll?
Over time, we kept browsing different portals that presented us with the same frustrating themes. Do we want to stop? of course not.This is exactly doomsday scroll. The word is composed of the English term “doom” (ruin) and the German term “Scrollen” (scroll). It describes the almost endless consumption of bad news. Since the outbreak of COVID-19, doomsday scroll A place has been earned.
The negative impact is deeper
This phenomenon sounds contradictory, but in some ways it is. This is where the so-called “negativity bias” attacks. Humans have a natural tendency towards negativity. For example, criticism affects our behavior and cognition more than praise. So is the bad news.
“Our brains process negative words faster, better, and more intensely, which makes us remember them better,” says neuroscientist Maren Ulner. Our brains try to fight uncertainty, we want to be prepared for the threats that await us. The more bad news we read and the more information we gather, the better prepared we feel. A fallacy.
Application tips
Apps are precisely programmed to keep us hooked. To do this, they use various psychological techniques. Endless scrolling is based on infinite scrolling.
Another trick is the “pull to refresh” mechanism, when we refresh the timeline we don’t know what will happen. This releases the happiness hormone dopamine. We feel great and we want more.
The brain is under constant stress
Watching or reading stressful news can negatively affect our serotonin levels. The results can be exhaustion, inner tension, irritability, low mood, anxiety and sleep disturbances.
The stress hormone cortisol also plays a role here, allowing us to cope with demanding situations in the short term. However, permanently elevated cortisol levels can be harmful and we are actually under permanent stress.
The extent and impact of doomscrolling varies, but research shows a link between receiving bad news and higher levels of anxiety, depression, stress, and even PTSD-like symptoms.
Neuroscientist Maren Urner also talks about the role of the media itself, which exploits this effect because bad news generates more clicks and sells more copies. What can and should the media do better? “First and foremost, journalists must always ask themselves ‘What now?’ Describe the problem but offer a solution. The key word is constructive journalism.
strike a balance
There is no single formula for consuming news correctly. Everyone has to find this habit for themselves. But there are some tips that can help you break out of a catastrophic spiral:
- Focus on reliable, in-depth news and less on sensational media.
- Set a fixed time and duration for reading news, such as 20-30 minutes in the afternoon.Do not do scroll The whole day goes on and on.
- Disconnect notifications or push messages. Instead, read a daily digest of the latest news.
This article was originally published on March 26, 2022, and updated on October 26, 2023.
(millions/ms/LGC)