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'Doomscrolling' breeds anxiety – how to stop the cycle

npr.org

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Re: 'Doomscrolling' breeds anxiety – how to stop the cycle

#51

Post by flanbiscuit »

countername wrote: post #4

Yeah reading hacker news since 4 hours and didn't even planned to open it. Now the world is more dangerous and don't know if people are commenting or GPT-3 bots. Any solutions to find sleep?

I don't "doomscroll" much but I definitely "FOMO scroll". I'll scroll through HN and my multi-reddit of programming subreddits to see if there's anything cool and new to learn or see what's happening in the tech world. I don't feel anxiety but it's definitely something I don't need to be doing right before bed

Re: 'Doomscrolling' breeds anxiety – how to stop the cycle

#52

Post by 0xy »

phs318u wrote: post #38
0xy wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not to mention the journalistic malpractice of calling victims of being threatened with a firearm and having their vehicle attacked randomly "right-wing extremists", and then wiping the evidence of their false allegations from the internet without retracting or apologizing for it. The individuals who attacked the victims were charged by police. [1] [2] NPR is in the same class as the rest of the mainstream media who…

You're extrapolating from the evidence of one event to all (or most) events. What you're calling "journalistic malpractice" is possibly an editor with a story in need of a picture (everything has to be visual to sell the story), asking the photog pool for a suitable image. This happens all the time. Timing matters though. In the instance you quote, if the original story was published before the police charged the att…

The story was posted after they were charged, and it doesn't seem like they retracted or apologized for a libelous allegation against victims, no less.

Re: 'Doomscrolling' breeds anxiety – how to stop the cycle

#53

Post by randycupertino »

moultano wrote: post #12
countername wrote: post #4

Yeah reading hacker news since 4 hours and didn't even planned to open it. Now the world is more dangerous and don't know if people are commenting or GPT-3 bots. Any solutions to find sleep?

Read a really charming and escapist novel. Worst case, you end up staying up too late because the book is so good, but I haven't found anything more reliable for making me disconnect from the world and its churning. Substituting a book for Twitter for the hour before bed has markedly improved the overall quality of my life. To get yourself into the habit, don't read anything on your "to read someday list of important…

Any good book recommendations? I just finished Red Notice by Bill Browder which was fantastic.

Re: 'Doomscrolling' breeds anxiety – how to stop the cycle

#54

Post by mjrbrennan »

dvtrn wrote: post #31
unknownkadath wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Whoa, slow down there, Satan.

?? What? Blood Meridian has dark moments in the narrative sure, but it’s a beautifully written book and very easy spaghetti western adventure to get lost in before bed. It’s not like you’re dozing off reading The Necronomicon, c’mon.

I never thought I’d hear someone call Blood Meridian a “spaghetti western adventure”. Makes it sound like The Magnificent Seven!

Re: 'Doomscrolling' breeds anxiety – how to stop the cycle

#56

Post by recursive »

lilyball wrote: post #10

A few weeks ago I identified doomscrolling, particularly in bed, as a major source for my recent sleeping issues. As a result, I took a major step back from Twitter in general, and especially forced myself to stop reading Twitter in bed, or even in the late evenings. This produced an immediate improvement in both sleep quality and overall mood.

I recommend charging your phone far from your bed. I've been doing it for a few years.

Re: 'Doomscrolling' breeds anxiety – how to stop the cycle

#57

Post by [deleted] »

throwanem wrote: post #43
rayiner wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Half the people doomscrolling are sitting up worried about a different set of things. The point of the article is that it’s not healthy for anyone. You’re not going to cut off resurgent Marxism by refreshing Newsmax in a loop in a loop. You’re also overlooking a very important fact of life. Overlooking other people’s suffering is an inherent human defense mechanism, and it’s not necessarily a bad thing. You invoke it…

I will say, it must be nice to spend so much time worrying about problems that don't exist instead of all the ones that actually do. Seems like it'd be a real comfort.

[deleted]

Re: 'Doomscrolling' breeds anxiety – how to stop the cycle

#58

Post by dgzl »

sawaruna wrote: post #55

Maybe people should utilize social media for things they enjoy instead of solely sources of news. Of course people you follow will end up posting news anyway but it won’t be solely stream of ‘doom and gloom’.

I think news takes more of a front seat these days. Lots of history in the making.

Re: 'Doomscrolling' breeds anxiety – how to stop the cycle

#59

Post by zozin »

I deleted my Twitter a few months ago and my life is better for it. The need to be “in the know” was powerful, but I realized that I was consuming vast amounts of shallow information that resulted in shallow, uninformed opinions. I’ve been reading a lot more long-form articles and books; I’ve finished reading three books in the last month or so. When my Twitter habit was strong I would often start a book and give up 30-50 pages in, never to return.

I believe deleting Twitter also helped my mood. I am feeling more upbeat than ever. While circumstantial, I do attribute some of this change to no longer being bombarded by the negativity and one-shot-kill Tweets that are prolific on the platform.

Re: 'Doomscrolling' breeds anxiety – how to stop the cycle

#60

Post by phs318u »

0xy wrote: post #52
phs318u wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're extrapolating from the evidence of one event to all (or most) events. What you're calling "journalistic malpractice" is possibly an editor with a story in need of a picture (everything has to be visual to sell the story), asking the photog pool for a suitable image. This happens all the time. Timing matters though. In the instance you quote, if the original story was published before the police charged the att…

The story was posted after they were charged, and it doesn't seem like they retracted or apologized for a libelous allegation against victims, no less.

Definitely "laziness" then. I'm assuming that story isn't listed on https://www.npr.org/corrections/

Sadly, I think that the expectation that news is "free" has driven far more of this (across the board). It's particularly evident in previously "staid but solid" news orgs as they cut costs to survive. I don't know if there's a practical solution at the news-production end. At the news-consumption end, I guess the "grain of salt" is needed more than ever. But I would hesitate to read malice (i.e. an explicit intention to misrepresent) into most news orgs (for most of their news. Clearly owners have interests that may become apparent with the way they cover some news). The intersection of cost-cutting, and "knowing" and playing to your audience leads to lots of this sort of thing.

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