Doomscrolling dangers

What was the first thing you did when you woke up this morning? If you reached for your phone and scrolled through the news — scanning headline after headline blaring bad tidings — you're doing something called doomscrolling. And you're definitely not alone.

It's an understandable urge: with wars raging across the world, frequent mass shootings, multiple climate disasters, and a polarized populace poised to vote in another presidential election, our newsfeeds are ablaze with distressing information. Many of us scan it hungrily, constantly; we hit refresh, and the stream starts anew.

The phenomenon of doomscrolling — one of the Oxford English Dictionary's words of the year in 2020 — rose to prominence during the pandemic when our upended lives prodded us to relentlessly track the latest COVID casualties. But more than four years later, we're still living through tremendous social, political, and economic unrest, and doomscrolling has emerged as an insidious threat to our minds and bodies, Harvard experts say.

With the media's propensity to blast mostly bad news (as the saying goes, "if it bleeds, it leads"), "we're not getting any messages about hope — it's all negativity," says Dr. Richard Mollica, a professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School.

"It has been one onslaught after the other," agrees Dr. Aditi Nerurkar, a lecturer in the Division of Global Health and Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School. "Our brains and bodies are expertly designed to handle short bursts of stress. But over the past several years, the stress just doesn't seem to end. Doomscrolling is our response to that."

Women particularly vulnerable

Who's susceptible? Every last one of us. "If you have a device, it's open season for doomscrolling," Dr. Nerurkar says.

The behavior is rooted in our brain's limbic system — often referred to as the lizard or reptilian brain — that's dominated by a structure called the amygdala. It promotes self-preservation and drives the fight-or-flight response to danger, fueling us to troll for threats.

"Stress stokes our primary urge to scroll," she says. "We're hypervigilant and scanning for danger. The more you scroll, the more you feel you need to."

But two key groups are especially vulnerable: women and people with a history of trauma, Dr. Mollica says. Women are hit harder by doomscrolling because "most of violent media is about hurting women and children," he says.

Meanwhile, people who've lived through violence doomscroll out of fear, says Dr. Mollica, who is also director of the Harvard Program in Refugee Trauma at Massachusetts General Hospital. "They don't feel safe in the world and want to get a handle on what's going on so they can calm their anxiety. But in these same people, doomscrolling acts as a trigger."

Physical and mental ripple effects

Perhaps unsurprisingly, stomach-churning news has a tendency to turn our stomachs. But nausea is far from the only physical effect of doomscrolling. Others can include headaches, muscle tension, neck and shoulder pain, low appetite, difficulty sleeping, and even elevated blood pressure, according to Harvard experts.

"When people doomscroll for hours, they're sedentary for a long time too," Dr. Nerurkar notes. "The ripple effects are vast and problematic."

In the wake of the pandemic, doomscrolling's mental health effects have been examined more extensively. An April 2023 research review published in Applied Research in Quality of Life analyzed three separate studies involving a total of about 1,200 adults, suggesting doomscrolling is linked to worse mental well-being and life satisfaction.

An August 2024 study of 800 adults published in Computers in Human Behavior Reports reinforces those findings, suggesting doomscrolling evokes greater levels of existential anxiety — a feeling of dread or panic that arises when we confront the limitations of our existence. Yet another study in Computers in Human Behavior in April 2024 provided additional perspective, suggesting that employees who doomscroll while at work may become less engaged with their professional tasks.

On a practical level, Dr. Nerurkar says, doomscrolling can give us "popcorn brain," which happens when we spend too much time online. "It's the real, biological phenomenon of feeling your brain is popping because you're being overstimulated online," she explains. "Then it's hard to engage with the real world, which moves at a much slower pace."

How to cut back

While keeping abreast of current events is essential, doomscrolling provides no extra benefits. "We need to stay informed, but not at the expense of our mental health," Dr. Nerurkar says. "And cutting back is not about abstinence; it's about decreasing reliance."

How to accomplish this? Strategies mainly revolve around creating "digital boundaries that can give your brain and body a chance to recalibrate to normal," she says.

Dr. Nerurkar and Dr. Mollica suggest these approaches:

Keep your phone off your nightstand. That doesn't mean it can't be in the bedroom, but keeping your phone out of easy reach means you can't compulsively grab it upon waking. "It could be the biggest game changer for your stress from doomscrolling," Dr. Nerurkar says. "You're acclimating yourself instead to wake up to the light, look at your bed partner, and go to the bathroom and brush your teeth, creating a buffer to your stress response."

Follow suit in your work space. Similarly, place your phone in a desk drawer or 10 or more feet away from where you're planted during working hours.

Don't bring your phone to the dinner table. At mealtime, leave your phone more than an arm's length away, and set it to silent mode.

Switch your phone to grayscale. This type of visual boundary makes scrolling less enticing by dialing back the saturation levels of colors on your screen. "There's some early data that this decreases screen time," Dr. Nerurkar says.

Opt out of notifications. These types of beeps and dings — which alert us to new headlines, emails, messages, and the like — are self-selected. Opting out is as simple as reviewing your phone's settings. "This is about re-establishing some boundaries," Dr. Nerurkar says. "Are you using your device, or is your device using you?"

Focus on community news. Local headlines tend to be less doom-and-gloom and more uplifting. "Stick to the environment you live in," Dr. Mollica says.

Just say no. Tell people who are sharing depressing or violent stories that you're not interested. "This puts you in control," Dr. Mollica says. "You're not giving your power to someone else."

Focus on the good. Volunteer at a charity or another altruistic organization such as an animal shelter. Or take part in emotionally freeing activities, like a dance class or nature walks. "You need to share positive emotional experiences with others," Dr. Mollica says.

Talk to your doctor. If you find you can't stop doomscrolling or that it makes you extremely upset, it's time to discuss it with a professional. "A small percentage of people really need professional help, and the best place to start is by talking to your primary care doctor about it," Dr. Mollica says. "Certain problems are very hard to overcome on your own."

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