Doomscroll often?

People do not crave frustration, horror, and disappointment. No, not normally. But when there is fear and uncertainty, the urge to scroll is like the urge to watch a scary movie. There is a cathartic feeling of facing fears without having to face them in real life.

Doomscrolling may begin like a compelling urge to find answers and explanations; just a brief forage for some small certainty on the phone. But actually useful information and valuable updates are rare, no? Like bad entertainment and cheap news, doomscrolling actually just kills time while confirming prejudices. SO, why do we keep craving disappointment and frustration?

It is hard to resist. Our minds unconsciously seek out potential bits of data in the immediate environment that might be useful, particularly in times of elevated threat. Think of the irresistible urge to slow down for accidents to see what happened. Rubbernecking does not actually prepare drivers for a future car accident. Did you develop an accident prevention or accident mitigation strategy based on those fleeting views? And rereading the news feeds will not actually prepare you for dangerous futures. But it felt like it might help a little, possibly. Just for a second.

Doomscrolling by definition does not provide meaningful substance or value. Like “spilling the tea” with friends, or combing through someone else’s archives, or rabbit holing, doomscrolling is a particular kind of discovery process. It gives the promise of an effortless “inside scoop”, but rarely delivers the “aha” moment. Doomscrollerd are the virtual metal detectorists on the beach, or researchers of the arcane, or crackheads in the alleyway. We crave information to confirm or deny our fears. So we scour the Web for the clues.

Like the urge to peep at someone or something forbidden, the news feed in America today gives a voyeuristic relief. Paradoxically, the fruitlessness of doomscrolling gives it its special, naughty kind of pleasure. Naughty quests for information like peeping, spying, or gossiping may cause harm to the “information being gathered”, which can be a woman’s privacy in the case of peeping, or the truth in the case of gossiping. Doomscrolling gives a fleeting, bittersweet victory over the sins of wasting time and cruel indifference.

The climax of doomscrolling comes at the culmination of a session. The secret goal was to escape from the pressure of caring about our world in crisis. With a touch of helplessness and despair, we pseudo-finally and forcefully put down the phone, (like it was sticking to us), and say exhaustedly to ourselves, “I CANT TAKE IT ANYMORE! IT IS TOO MUCH! I HAVE WASTED ENOUGH TIME AND ENERGY WORRYING!”

Now, gazing at the train crashing in slow motion, and its associated helplessness and horror, have been embraced and cast away. The completed action and gesture of disavowal, briefly satisfied the restless need for more information. We permitted ourselves the luxury of watching passively like a spectator, or a child.

So how does this all end again?