Doomscrolling, or whatever alternative term you prefer to use, is becoming more of a problem for many people during the pandemic, as it is linked to our survival instincts looking for potential threats. Unfortunately, it also has a significant negative impact on mental health.
Set Limits
- For a phone or tablet, use your Screen Time feature or an app that can limit the amount of time you spend on particular apps and websites
- For a laptop or desktop, control the time you can spend on certain websites using a browser extension
- Disable push alerts for news apps (or remove them altogether), and remove news stories from your device Today View
- Control your exposure to news stories by changing your source(s)
Be Selective
Go through your list of accounts you follow, and decide whether the content is good for your mental health. In Facebook you can still like something or friend someone but remove them from your news feed. In other social media platforms you may only have a follow or unfollow option—if it’s something you want to be able to find again, bookmark it.
When someone posts on Facebook, they can choose who to share the post with. If you have friends whom you don’t want to unfollow but they sometimes post things you’d rather not see, try asking them if they would change their post settings so you don’t see those posts. If they’re not willing to do so, it’s time to unfollow.
If you decide to be really drastic, you can even get rid of your Facebook news feed altogether.
When you go on social media for a specific purpose (e.g. to send or read a message or partake in a group), avoid looking at your news feed at all—bookmark those pages in advance so you can head straight there, or you could even block the screen with your hand when you log on so you don’t see anything on your feed.
Some news sites have categories for good/uplifting news. While that’s great, be aware that, depending on the source, navigating to the stories themselves may lead to lots of negative headlines/links as with any other news page.
You can remove the Top News section from your Youtube homepage when signed in, and also remove specific channels from your recommended content.
Digital Pruning
I’ve heard this referred to as “digital amputation”, but I prefer the term pruning. This is more drastic than the other solutions, so it’s worth trying them first, and the limits of this should be tailored to your own self-awareness.
An example would be blocking yourself from social media altogether, using one of the apps mentioned above. You may decide to be more selective about which social media you block yourself from. This could be a permanent measure, or a temporary one as a detox to help break doomscrolling habits.
Need to Vent?
Sometimes we all need to get out some of the negativity we’ve absorbed. But to avoid inflicting negativity on other people—for example anyone following you on social media—vent in private. Vent at the walls if you live alone, or write it out in a notebook or type it up (a “brain dump”), but don’t share it. Delete or destroy it if you want.
A brain dump is something that many journalers do, which can be a good outlet, but it’s important to follow it up with something positive. Which brings me onto …
Do Something Positive
Follow up time spent doomscrolling (and venting if applicable) with something good for your mental well-being. This could be a hobby you enjoy, listening to some calming music, something creative, writing a list of gratitudes as mentioned in my journaling post.
If you have any tips not mentioned here or in my previous post, please share in the comments!
Other Helpful Links
Healthy internet use habits
How to stop doomscrolling in 6 steps
Some Good News Youtube channel
3 ways to stop doomscrolling
What is doomscrolling and how to stop
Changing the content of your timeline
How to stop doomscrolling and why you should
Unhack your smartphone
How to practise gratitude when everything sucks