Loving doom and gloom

A new word I learnt from Anu Garg's A Word A Day post, is 'doomscroll'. Which means to scroll through the news or other online material compulsively, especially negative or distressing stories. I know someone who simply loves disaster news and movies like Earthquake, Twister, The Day After Tomorrow, The Great Flood and Burning Train - she watches them over and over again. In fact, the newspaper was often described as gloom bearer, as it carpet-bombed any news of disaster, disease, death, doom and despair, the five Ds. That is sought to be changed, as more and more readers say they like to be entertained rather than be made to feel distressed. Thence came about the concept of infotainment. Some say they read the sports pages first, but even that gets sullied by reports of match-fixing and drug use.

Precisely because we are drawn to bad news that terms like rage-bait have gained so much currency that it has been chosen as 2025 word of the year. It refers to content that tries to provoke anger as a means of gaining attention or making money through online popularity via number of viewings. Rage-bait is usually inflammatory content posted online to gain revenue through clicks as it gathers momentum with strong reactions and trolling.

Spiritual masters say do not begin or end the day consuming bad, sad news, just think happy thoughts. Some TV channels and newspapers have started offering segments titled Good News.