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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

#11

Post by geofft »

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?

Do something offline that avoids giving your brain the sense of "Something new must be happening and I need to know what it is." I like video games, which is sort of a compromise (there's still more to do, you can see the number go up, etc., but there's no realtime pressure), but reading a physical book or listening to music are both good options to (and avoid emitted light, for bonus points).

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

#12

Post by moultano »

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 books." Just pick the most notorious page turner you can think of.

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

#13

Post by ponker »

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.

Even better is to physically turn your phone off at least one hour before bed. If you need to be available for emergency calls then in do not disturb mode with your family set to punch through Do Not Disturb.

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

#14

Post by ImprovedSilence »

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?

When I can, I try to get off my computer. Go do some woodworking or read a book or go for a walk. Get some hobby, any hobby, that gets you away from screens and utilizing your own brain instead of looking things up on the internet or over analyzing stuff cuz you read too much about it online. Just get away from the damn machine. Then, when it's time for bed, I don't even think about scrolling, my mind if off in whatever I was doing, and how I'm going to do it different/better/what i'll do next. I do find myself falling into the same traps and roped back at times though. Or just clear out all your reddit subs and replace em with porn ones. Clears out the "doom scrolling" real quick anyway...

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

#15

Post by hoorayimhelping »

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?

Put down your phone - stop staring at it at the gym, in line, on the toilet, at any time there's a lull in the activity - try just observing things around you. Read novels, especially before bed. Stop feeling like you have to be an informed and empowered member of society at all times on all issues. Develop hobbies that aren't related to tech - especially ones that force you to get outside and don't require high tech, expensive equipment. Get hobbies that force you to interact with people who aren't college educated and who aren't highly liberal tech people in a coastal bubble. Train for something hard - a marthon, a weightlifting competition, a martial arts tournament. You'd be amazed at how quickly all this shit becomes noise when you have things to do, and you get away from the bubble you're in.

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

#16

Post by dbtc »

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…

I recommend Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy

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

#17

Post by geofft »

troughway wrote: post #3

You’re better off unplugging entirely. Forgo all forms of news and pop media for at least 6 months and focus on your life. You’ll be happier and you’ll get shit done. I think a lot of this has to do with the West not really doing anything to address death. It’s out of sight and out of mind, so when it’s knocking at our door we are feeble minded and scared because we are ignorant of the cycle of life and death. Everyo…

There is certainly a Western philosophical/religious tradition of meditating on death, for what it's worth. It's why I love Lent and the traditions/rituals around it - "Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return."

Here's a very contemporary take on it that I came across recently, blending the eremitic nature of the Covid lockdown and the cause of praying for those who have died of it: http://www.stbedeproductions.com/office-of-the-dead-revisite...

You might also enjoy The Slavery of Death by Richard Beck, who blends his training in clinical psychology with his religious background to argue basically what you're arguing - that we try very hard to pretend death doesn't exist and that it works poorly - and from there argues that our fear of death should be understood as the primary problem of humans from a theological perspective, and that sin is a result of that fear, not a root cause. (He does draw on Eastern Orthodox thought to make that point, but I think that's not as far east as you mean by "Eastern," if I understand you right.)

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

#18

Post by troughway »

geofft wrote: post #17
troughway wrote: post #3

You’re better off unplugging entirely. Forgo all forms of news and pop media for at least 6 months and focus on your life. You’ll be happier and you’ll get shit done. I think a lot of this has to do with the West not really doing anything to address death. It’s out of sight and out of mind, so when it’s knocking at our door we are feeble minded and scared because we are ignorant of the cycle of life and death. Everyo…

There is certainly a Western philosophical/religious tradition of meditating on death, for what it's worth. It's why I love Lent and the traditions/rituals around it - "Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return." Here's a very contemporary take on it that I came across recently, blending the eremitic nature of the Covid lockdown and the cause of praying for those who have died of it: http://www.stbedep…

Nice, will check it out. I’m aware of stoicism but even that is too “out there” for our society.

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

#19

Post by clairity »

the hypocrisy of this story is thick, from a news organization where every other story (and that's not much of an exaggeration) is about how we're all going to die from covid because everyone else is being a jerk in endlessly various ways.

but to their credit, they did air a story recently featuring maria hinojosa, founder/host of latino usa and the first latina host at npr, that was not especially kind to npr itself (spoiler: she left and was more successful as a result).

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