Doomscrolling

By: Caia Bevis

We all know what it’s like to be sitting on your phone in the dark at three in the morning, knowing very well that you should be sleeping… and you just can’t seem to put your phone down. That curiosity of what the next TikTok video may be or the next Instagram reel might hold is just so tantalizing that you can’t just go to sleep, even though you know that your alarm is going to go off in just a few short hours. It is going to take every ounce of willpower you don’t have to get out of bed. It is a constant struggle. So why do we do this?

According to an article posted by the Cleveland Clinic, doomscrolling stems from the idea that we as humans are naturally drawn to bad news, and when we find some small nugget of misery, we can’t help but research it until our eyeballs fall out of our heads (Gilmer, 2023). Why do you think true crime shows and podcasts are so popular?

So how do we stop doing it? The most effective method for me is something called localization (Gilmer, 2023). It works by plugging your phone in on the other side of the room when you go to bed so that you can’t reach it. Then you can go to sleep without the distraction of your phone and all the chirps and beeps and buzzes. Another bonus from doing this is that when your alarm goes off, you have to get out of bed to turn it off, so it forces you to get up and start your day.

Works Cited

Gilmer, M. (2023, February 16). Everything you need to know about doomscrolling and how to avoid it. Cleveland Clinic. https://health.clevelandclinic.org/everything-you-need-to-know-about-doomscrolling-and-how-to-avoid-it/