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'Doomscrolling' breeds anxiety – how to stop the cycle

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

#81

Post by jacobolus »

pests wrote: post #63
dgzl wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

History will always be in the making.

Sure, but sometimes the history involves a superpower teetering on the brink of fascist dictatorship, or a once-in-a-century pandemic wreaking havoc around the world. Events that will define the space of possibilities for decades to come.

At those times it’s a bit more important to stay at least partially informed than when the biggest crisis is a new highway project going over budget or a political leader’s extramarital affairs.

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

#82

Post by nextlevelwizard »

currymj wrote: post #29
creato wrote: post #23

I don't like the implication that mental health is just feeling good. Maybe if more people would read and understand the news, and feel bad about it , they'd be willing to do even trivial things like wear a mask. In my opinion, good mental health should be considered to be that your feelings align with reality. If reality sucks, it's not mentally unhealthy to feel bad about it. Feeling bad should spur making changes…

I would be willing to bet that refusing to wear a mask is strongly correlated with spending a lot of time reading about news and politics online.

Wearing a mask in completely about politics in the USA. Most if not all social media posts about people wearing masks have people wearing completely useless fashion items on their faces. I'm sure it is mostly because they don't know better and partly to virtue signal.

In any case there hasn't been any studies related to efficacy of wearing a mask in public to reduce the risk of infection, so not wearing a mask is not as crazy as some people make it out to be.

This all said if I would use public transport I would be wearing a mask (just not a cloth mask or a surgical mask) or if I visited other places which were packed with people, but best solution is to just not go to places which have a lot of people in them.

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

#83

Post by cryptoz »

recursive wrote: post #56
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.

Added bonus of the alarm going off in the morning across the room helps that 2-3 seconds of initial wake up to be more "productive" in waking up - gotta stand and walk for a second before the alarm goes off. Less likely to fall back asleep after just that little interruption.

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

#84

Post by ohbleek »

xvector wrote: post #75
zozin wrote: post #59

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…

The feeling of reading through well-written long-form articles is very satisfying. Do any HN’ers have recommendations for websites with well-written long-form articles?

Longreads.com is the site for you.

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

#85

Post by Eyght »

zozin wrote: post #59

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…

> 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'd like to applaud you for admitting this to yourself. I feel like a vital part of successfully navigating the internet age is to realize this very fact.

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

#86

Post by dd36 »

xvector wrote: post #75
zozin wrote: post #59

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…

The feeling of reading through well-written long-form articles is very satisfying. Do any HN’ers have recommendations for websites with well-written long-form articles?

Propublica

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

#90

Post by lemming »

I need Twitter for support for my product, but I don't really use it that often. So a while ago I set it up to be basically write-only: I use Zapier to send me emails for @mentions and relevant search terms, and I reply to those from a TweetBot instance which only has columns for mentions and the same search terms. So I can reply if something needs replying to and send product updates, but otherwise I don't see Twitter at all. It's been a huge time saver and mental health improvement.
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