The word doomscrolling entered the chat during the pandemic—but the act of compulsively and often unconsciously feeding our anxiety with alarming headlines and outrageous clickbait lives on long after lockdown.

Even though humans are wired for negativity, thanks to evolutionary factors and the brain’s need to prioritize threats for survival—a phenomenon known as negativity bias—Chris Tripoli, professorial lecturer in the Department of Psychology, says the intermittent rewards of doomscrolling are highly addictive. Just as the occasional jackpot can motivate chronic gambling, “we are continuously winding ourselves up on the way to each short-lived relief.” By the time good news finally pops up on our feed, “we are desperate for it—but we are more anxious than when we started.” 

While it’s important to be informed, Tripoli says people need “to be very intentional with how we spend our time and attention.”

“Well-informed people used to read the news once a day; this is still an option,” he says. “Nowadays, news tends to come at us from all directions, but we can build the skill of not engaging with it more than we intend to.”

Here’s how to halt the vicious cycle of doomscrolling:

• Curate—or delete—your feeds, including social media.
• Set time limits, use smartphone features such as Apple’s Screen Time to track your usage, and try apps like Flora, which rewards you by growing virtual trees while your phone is at rest.
• Move your phone or charge it in a different room so you can’t grab it every time you’re bored or anxious.
• Disable notifications, which can increase stress and interrupt daily activities.

• Distract yourself by reading a book, exercising, or talking to a friend.