In praise of doomscrolling

Doomscrolling has had bad press. Which is unfortunate - as well as ironic - since bad press is precisely what doomscrollers are looking for. Psychologists warn that spending 47 mins in bed reading about wars, collapsing glaciers and following curated paranoia about dimagi naxals can increase anxiety. This misunderstands the activity. The point of doomscrolling is not to discover doom but to escape one's own.

Put down your phone and you're immediately confronted by unpaid bills, unanswered emails, impending deadlines, your dripping AC.... Pick up your phone again and - voila! - Hindus thinking they're in danger, MAGAmericans thinking they need to push back against aliens.... Bliss. Its elegantly narcotic. Each swipe supplies tiny dopamine rewards, while preventing the mind from settling upon anything troublesome enough to require action. Thanks to all-pervasive content - everything and anything - your own problems shrink drastically relative to floods, market crashes and celebrities experiencing 'difficult journeys'.

Also read: Nicking the gravitas off important people


Sure, moderation is advisable. 4 hrs of doomscrolling may leave the thumb sore, and humanity looking like an administrative error. But used judiciously, it offers modern civilisation an inexpensive tranquilliser. When your worries become unbearable, simply open the feed. There is always someone, somewhere, having a worse Wednesday.