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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

#161

Post by luxurytent »

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…

I felt exactly like this back in 2016 but around 2019 I began using Twitter again.

The thing that worked for me was simple: don’t use it on mobile. It promotes doom scrolling and shallow consumption.

I also continuously curate my list and mute plenty to keep garbage out. The result is a fairly positive and inspiring feed

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

#162

Post by SyneRyder »

Minor49er wrote: post #71
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…

This is basically why I deleted my Facebook account, which was the one social network that I was really ever on. I was checking it non stop, but there wad never anything good. It was a huge time suck. I'd read news of how Facebook keeps people addicted or how they try out psychological experiments on its users which left me uneasy. Finally, when the Cambridge Analytica scandal broke and revealed that Facebook sells a…

> The biggest problem with deleting your account is that your contacts assume that you just deleted them and think that you're mad at them or something. It can have a real world impact.

That's one reason I deleted my Facebook 5 years ago. I unfriended a casual acquaintance (who continually posted political rants), and they confronted me in person at a nightclub, demanding to know why. That just isn't healthy behaviour, and I don't need to be around people like that or on a network that encourages it.

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

#163

Post by black_puppydog »

ersii wrote: post #144

As of a hundred comments, none seem to have mentioned that this is not inherent in social media but in media in general. Remember to take breaks from the news cycles (whatever flavor of news and outlet you prefer) and try to not get emotionally engaged in what is really quite distant from your actual life. The news, wherever they come from and regardless of what they are about are mostly just a distraction from what…

I came here to something similar: I quit twitter and facebook a while back, and I have found myself spiraling wildly over the last months.

And I even agree that it's healthy to keep some emotional distance to the news.

But right now, the news will have a very real and direct impact on what I will do. I'm happy I followed them much more closely in February, which allowed me to get out of the big city just before the lockdown was announced, without too much logistic trouble.

These days it is about returning. Should I go back to renting an inner-city apartment? Depends on how this will go over the next few months. Which in turn largely depends on how people/ public discourse views mask-wearing. Should I visit my family? Well, depends on the situation here and there. Maybe I won't even be allowed to cross state lines by then? What's the contingency plan? Staying abroad for too long, even involuntarily, could reset my girlfriend's immigration status.

I think never in my life have I experienced a situation where the connection between "the news" and direct impact on my life was so immediate.

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

#164

Post by ManlyBread »

This is something I noticed a while ago. Some people just seem to be addicted to the feeling of impending doom. It's really tiring because the most of these topics are akin to someone standing with a sign saying "the doom is right around the corner" but then it turns out that around that corner there's just an another dude with the exact same sign.

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

#165

Post by nightcracker »

> Still, you incessantly scroll though bottomless doom-and-gloom news for hours as you sink into a pool of despair. This self-destructive behavior has become so common that a new word for it has entered our lexicon: "doomscrolling."

Imagine having the guts to call a behavior "self-destructive" when you are directly complicit in that behavior, and knowingly contribute to the effect by having a doomsayer bias for better clickbait.

Look no further than the current NPR frontpage to expose the hypocrisy: "The End Of $600 Unemployment Benefits Will Hit Millions Of Households And The Economy"

They know the effect that titles such as these have on people, yet they continue. It's as if a food vendor laces their food with heroin and then claim repeat customers are being "self-destructive".

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

#166

Post by everdrive »

0xdeadb00f wrote: post #141
septimus111 wrote: post #126

I have started unsubscribing to any subreddit the moment I notice a post is generating a negative emotion. Nowadays my feed is mostly woodworking, cooking and photography.

I get it, I really do. Negativity is shit. The world is a messed up place. Sure, we shouldn't be bombarded by this fact day in and day out, but I personally think it's a good thing to remind yourself now and then how fucked up the world we live in can be - to maintain a sort of tether to the "reality" of the world's current messed up situation; it puts a lot into perspective. Any thoughts? Am I wrong for thinking thi…

I think social media might just be the wrong format for it. Something non-addictive, such as a book, or a long-form news article would be a much better way to know the evils of the world.

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

#167

Post by Ensorceled »

peroporque wrote: post #118
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…

It can be sane. Just be very selective who you allow. I maybe follow a hundred people or so, but my block list is probably ten times as long. Even blocking anybody with "pronouns" in their Bio already helps a lot.

So, you've created a conservative echo chamber?

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

#168

Post by Ensorceled »

nightcracker wrote: post #165

> Still, you incessantly scroll though bottomless doom-and-gloom news for hours as you sink into a pool of despair. This self-destructive behavior has become so common that a new word for it has entered our lexicon: "doomscrolling." Imagine having the guts to call a behavior "self-destructive" when you are directly complicit in that behavior, and knowingly contribute to the effect by having a doomsayer bias for bette…

Do you have a suggestion for a "non-hypocritical" title for that article? Or are you saying NPR shouldn't be reporting on the cessation of one of the few pandemic response programs that help the average person?

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

#170

Post by lm28469 »

Ensorceled wrote: post #169

There are a lot of suggestions for "long form" and "books" here. Are none of you keeping up with this pandemic and what your country/state/city recommended behaviours, laws and bylaws are?

None of that is posted on websites with "doomscrolling". Most countries publish their laws and recommendations on their own websites.

People kept up with laws before twitter and reddit.

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