Your Journey: Stop Doomscrolling

In the modern era, our phone has become the go-to solution for most of our problems. In place of neutral social places like taverns and social clubs, we rely on our phones to be our retreat from the domains of work and home. When we’re bored, we turn to the endless churn of our social media feeds for comfort, but what we find when we’re there isn’t always what anyone would describe as comforting. 

We’re all the heroes of our own stories, but the heroes we admire in literature and on the screen find themselves undergoing spiritual and emotional transformations more often than they find themselves using the bathroom. If all of us are heroes, each going on a continuous, limitless, and recursive journey throughout the stages of our lives, then where are you in your journey? How does it relate to your current struggles? What lessons are here for you to learn? 

“We are stuck with technology when what we really want is just stuff that works.” Douglas Adams

What Is Doomscrolling? 

The algorithms behind our favorite social media feeds were designed in such a way to keep us engaged at all costs. If a post is created in such a way to keep you looking at it, it’ll be boosted and sent to the feeds of all your friends, regardless of whether or not it’s actually entertaining, true, or otherwise worth seeing. This incentivises content creators to make highly engaging posts that disturb and assault our sensory experience, but also keep us glued to our phone searching for more. 

This can become a vicious cycle. We turn to our phones for comfort and entertainment, but the feeds that we turn to are endless treadmills of second-hand suffering and unfulfilled desire. We seek a respite from our worldly concerns, but we unwittingly throw ourselves into the habitual worldly abyss of doomscrolling.

“You may live to see man-made horrors beyond your comprehension.” Nikola Tesla

Can ADHD Make Doomscrolling Worse? 

People with ADHD are at a higher risk for unhealthy phone usage, and often must take steps to manage and limit the impact that their phone has on their wellbeing. Although it can be harder to manage phone usage for someone with ADHD, the steps they have to take to protect their mental health are worth considering for any of us. 

• Are You Neurodivergent? Neurodivergence is an umbrella term that includes ADHD, autism, tourette’s syndrome, and a variety of cognitive conditions that alter the way one perceives and interacts with the world. Overstimulation is incredibly common among neurodivergent people, and many of us turn to our phones as a source of self-soothing comfort. Understanding where you are on the spectrum of neurodivergence can help you understand why you keep coming back to your phone, even when it results in a session of doomscrolling. 
• Take Responsibility For Your Focus. With mindful effort, people with ADHD can learn how to focus (even though it can be difficult). Often we go through much of our lives without thought; we act on “auto-pilot” without fully absorbing the world around us nor adjusting to it. Mindfulness is the conscious decision to exist in the present moment. If we are mindful, we can shape our screen time into something that brings us modest comfort instead of pervasive dread.  
• Replace Screen Time With Mindful Resting Time. It’s the end of a long day. You’re laying in bed or on your couch. What better time to start scrolling on your social media feed? When we turn to our phones during our times of rest, we often neglect to do anything else. If instead, we took that time to read a book, write in our journal, or spend quality time with a loved one, we’d find ourselves feeling better prepared, more well rested, and often more entertained than we’d be if we spent that time watching any number of ten-to-sixty second videos. 

How Do I Stop Doomscrolling?

Your relationship with your phone is deeply personal. Although your phone was designed to be attention-grabbing and even addictive, the habit of doomscrolling has more to do with us than it does our phone. 

The path ahead will look different depending on where you are in your journey. There will be more resistance going forward than there’ll be going back. 

• Shatter The Illusion Of The Way It’s Always Been. Maybe you’ve never considered the possibility that your phone usage is unhealthy. After all, every one of us can name someone who has a more unhealthy relationship with their social media feed than we do. This is often how I feel before I’ve fully considered something that’s in front of me. To get things started, the first step is to take a long hard look at yourself. (Preferably in the mirror; the front camera feels inappropriate in this context)
• Figure Out Where You Have A Problem. Monitor your screen time! There’s likely already a place in your settings where you can look to see what apps are eating up all of your time and when you most often use your phone. Armed with this knowledge, you can make adjustments to have a healthier relationship with your phone. 
• Uninstall The Apps That No Longer Serve You. If you’re navigating this phase of your journey, you probably already have an idea of what apps I’m talking about. The ones that seem to bring you more suffering than they do pleasure, and actively upset you with each usage. Your friends and mutuals will have to understand. Sometimes that app just needs to get uninstalled. 
• Quit Cold Turkey. Although this might not be feasible for you depending on your career path, quitting social media can be a tremendous boon to your mental health. Managing your screen time is challenging. Even when you’ve realized that you have a problem, the habitual allure of doomscrolling can be difficult to resist. Depending on where you are in your journey, this challenge may feel insurmountable. If you truly feel that way, then your best option could be to quit altogether. Many social media addicts have found peace and relief by downgrading their phone, deleting their social media presence, or otherwise unplugging from the online space. 
• Find New Outlets (Even Though They’re Not As Easy). Once you cut out your unhealthy social media usage, you will have a sudden influx of free time. So how will you spend it? We turn to our phones in search of something. We gaze into that glowing rectangle from our pocket for hours at a time out of desire. If you can figure out what you’ve been looking for when you open up your phone, you can devise a plan to better meet that need. Craving social interaction? Plan a meeting with your friends. Seeking out something to read? Crack open that book you’ve been putting off. 
• Re-Integrate Phone Usage In A Healthy Way. Ultimately, our phones are not evil. They are tools to be used or misused at our discretion. The end goal is not to shun innovation and use antiquated equipment to avoid the oncoming tide of soul-shattering technology. The goal is to understand our own limitations and pain points when it comes to social media, and accommodate ourselves accordingly. There are even apps we can install (like OneSec) that help us to be more mindful each time we open our problem apps. If we are mindful with our screen time, then we can use our phones for all their wonderful benefits, without being consumed in the bottomless abyss of outrageous content.

“Before you become too entranced with gorgeous gadgets and mesmerizing video displays, let me remind you that information is not knowledge, knowledge is not wisdom, and wisdom is not foresight. Each grows out of the other, and we need them all.” Arthur C. Clarke

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Sunny Ebsary is an educator, multi-modal artist, and writer specializing in the intersection of myth and mental health. Sunny’s writing walks the line between poetic and logical, giving readers a chance to interface with the mind and imagination. Sunny’s been putting pen to paper since he was a child, writing everything from albums, novels, and plays, to essays, interactive games, and of course, many articles! While studying both psychology and writing, he realized his real passion in life was helping others unlock their creative spark. Whether he’s leading a D&D game, directing a production, or diving deep into the brain, you can be sure Sunny will be ushering you toward finding meaning in your life.