War in Ukraine, Israeli-Palestinian conflict, attacks in Arras and Brussels, news items… The news can be a source of anxiety and uncertainty for many people. In these situations, searching for information on social media can help you better understand the context and gain perspective. But it can also cause stress in the face of events whose outcome is uncertain, and lead to a desire for even more details. This need to collect information in order to protect oneself from danger and to have the feeling of being in control of the situation can lead to scrolling through information threads for hours and hours, without being able to stop… In this case, we are talking about a phenomenon of “doomscrolling” (“morbid scrolling”).
This concept, relatively new in the field of mental health, is characterized in particular by frenetic search without a specific aim and an excessive focus on anxiety-provoking and negative information due to negativity bias, an immersive activity which will lead to long sessions navigation in a state of intense concentration, according to work published in 2022 in Applied Research in Quality of Life. As there are still few studies on this subject, it is not possible to know precisely the number of cases in the general population.
People who are anxious and prone to Fomo are more affected
The elements already available in the scientific literature nevertheless suggest that people in a situation of doomscrolling would encounter difficulties in properly regulating psychological stress, indicates a study published in 2021 in Perspectives in Psychiatric Care. Rather than trying to reduce their negative emotions, individuals would try to control the anxiety-provoking situation by collecting all the negative information. In other words, they would reevaluate the stressful situation by seeking information that unfortunately confirms their view of events. By adopting this unsuitable strategy, Internet users would find themselves stuck in a vicious circle which could be summarized as follows: “I feel bad, because I am uncertain about a situation, which produces harmful emotions ; so I try to control all the negative information, but this news says that everything is bad, so I feel bad, etc.”
As one can assume, the doomscrolling is preferentially found in people who have anxious personality traits. Several studies also associate the behaviors of doomscrolling to a provision at Fomo (from “Fear of missing out”, “fear of missing out”), or the pervasive apprehension that others might have rewarding experiences that one would miss, as well as the desire to stay continually connected to see what others are doing. But this difficulty in regulating negative emotions in doomscrollers is perhaps not sufficient to explain their attitude. THE doomscrolling has in fact a compulsive nature, in the sense that the person can no longer stop scrolling through depressing information. This characteristic could reflect another psychological vulnerability: a difficulty in self-regulation of behavior linked to impulsive personality traits, specify the work published in Perspectives in Psychiatric Care.
This idea would be consistent with studies which show that doomscrolling is generally associated with problematic use of social media. There is, in fact, a common denominator between these two behaviors: the deficit of cognitive control and, in particular, of inhibitory control, that is to say the system which allows us to resist automatic actions or intuitive thoughts, with the aim of adopting a reasoned and analytical approach to situations. A weakening of this system could explain why individuals find it difficult to escape the vicious circle of doomscrolling on social networks.
Unfortunately, their difficulty would be increased by the predatory designs of digital platforms like the timelines, which allow infinite scrolling, or even algorithms which highlight negative information. Basically, predatory designs are there to keep us on social networks as long as possible by capturing our attention, but they could have deleterious effects for users. doomscrollers, who would have more difficulty extracting themselves from the threads of anxiety-provoking information. This hypothesis obviously remains to be confirmed by new scientific studies, but it invites us to consider the role of social networks in the development of deregulated behaviors linked to digital technology.
THE doomscrolling, an activity that is harmful to our mental health
To determine whether there is a link between the doomscrolling and our mental health, researchers have tried to measure the associations between doomscrolling and well-being indicators with a sample of Internet users representative of the general population. They showed that individuals who are most engaged in doomscrolling are more likely to experience psychological distress problems which will in turn negatively affect well-being, life satisfaction and the impression of having a harmonious life. Another study, published in 2022 in Psychological Trauma, shows that the doomscrolling is associated with more depressive symptoms and post-traumatic stress, the harmful effects of this behavior being increased by the extent of individual psychological vulnerabilities.
In order to help vulnerable people who engage in this harmful practice, one of the solutions could be to put in place regulation of social media platforms. It would be particularly beneficial if applications of Social networks limit information scrolling times either by default or by allowing configuration, so that users can regain control.
In the absence of this regulation, it is possible to prevent this behavior by helping people to become aware of it, so that they can better protect themselves from it. This involves explaining the doomscrolling to adults, adolescents, and children to enable them to recognize this behavior when they manifest it. By playing on metacognitive skills, that is to say the awareness of their attitude, we could help them to escape this harmful practice more easily. It is fundamental that people understand what this behavior means and what it reflects in them, that is to say a form of anxiety and a difficulty in regulating it effectively. By being aware of this, they would be more likely to put in place strategies to stop this intensive search, or even drastically limit consultation of social networks over a given period in order to preserve their mental health.
Ultimately, we should be able to say to ourselves: “But why am I doomscrolling? It’s not helping me at all… Isn’t it time I put down my smartphone?” And if this behavior persists and becomes uncontrollable to the point of causing psychological distress, it is then necessary to seek help from a mental health professional.
* Séverine Erhel is a lecturer in cognitive psychology at Rennes II University.
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