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My Struggle with Doom Scrolling

allthatjazz.me

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Re: My Struggle with Doom Scrolling

#71

Post by koliber »

jy14898 wrote: post #30

Does everyone really mean doom scrolling when they talk about these issues? For me personally, it's definitely about dopamine and not about negative emotions, yet everyone uses the phrase doom scrolling - am I the odd one out? For example, if I'm feeling stressed/anxious, I'll scroll/browse/distract myself to avoid the negative feelings. I'm not seeking them like doom scrolling says.

I understand the "doom" in doom scrolling differently.

You're right that in general it's about getting those random dopamine hits when something nice appears in the news feed.

However, after some time, you got a lot of the nice stuff and no exciting stuff appears anymore. At that point, you're still scrolling, hoping for a dopamine hit. It does not come because you are satiated, desensitized and the algorithm no longer has good stuff to offer you.

I get it here on Hacker News. After coming too often and scrolling too much, I already clicked on all the good links. All that is left is either not interesting, or stuff I've looked at before. I still scroll, doomed to find nothing. And yet I scroll.

Re: My Struggle with Doom Scrolling

#72

Post by crabbone »

Idk... reading on a phone experience is so awful, I never really wanted to read anything there anyways. Every now and then I need to fight one or the other proprietary jail on the phone to get essential services to work. Like Google Play sometimes wants me to give it my email. So, I had to reset it to get around it. I don't read mail on the phone anyways. I have to have it to receive messages from son's school, the worthless but mandatory 2FA for work, GPS, bank...

I just don't understand how this can be such an enticing experience. I couldn't bring myself to read the news on my phone even when that was the only device I had for a few weeks.

So... maybe a solution is to try a better device / medium?

Also, being used to Linux, using Android feels really awful because of programs trying to control what you can do instead of the other way around. It could be really infuriating. Also, everything is mildly broken / really trashy quality in terms of UI interaction (things move on their own when they shouldn't, UI element partially drawn offscreen, very variable response time, absolutely garbage keyboard).

So... maybe another solution is to get used to Linux, and just the taste of freedom will deter you from using smartphones?

Re: My Struggle with Doom Scrolling

#73

Post by duxup »

My thing about doom scrolling is that if I’m scrolling for very long it likely means I’m not running into much worthwhile content…

At that point I’m just annoyed and I quit.

I wonder, are people doom scrolling for a long time seeing a lot of content they LIKE?

Re: My Struggle with Doom Scrolling

#74

Post by _tk_ »

I am struggling with this myself at the moment, but I find that just doing something else entirely - away from my phone or laptop - is way more effective than deleting apps. Activities like buying groceries, cooking, going for a walk etc all create a sensation when I'm done with them, that I enjoy a lot more than what I feel after an hour of scrolling.

Re: My Struggle with Doom Scrolling

#75

Post by n00b_heal »

gunian wrote: post #66
n00b_heal wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

yes, "distraction" but distraction from "what"? That's the subtle difference. Where basically back in the 1920s but instead of physical cocaine it's digital now

slow death? grew up in a cult now prevented from getting any employment living in a house full of cult fanatics scrolling the only thing to do. way cheaper than drugs. less side effects. idk nice to have something to entertain me on the road to dying imo it's not as bad as people make it seem people just like coming up with struggle stories once they have jobs and life etc

more like sleeping and dreaming I guess. Do you think the more free people are the more they gotta somehow justify their freedom with simulated struggles?

Re: My Struggle with Doom Scrolling

#76

Post by bigfudge »

yuppiepuppie wrote: post #44
jy14898 wrote: post #30

Does everyone really mean doom scrolling when they talk about these issues? For me personally, it's definitely about dopamine and not about negative emotions, yet everyone uses the phrase doom scrolling - am I the odd one out? For example, if I'm feeling stressed/anxious, I'll scroll/browse/distract myself to avoid the negative feelings. I'm not seeking them like doom scrolling says.

Yeah, unless not stated in this article, this is not doom scrolling. This seems more like an addiction issue, which is great that it’s being addressed. But it wouldn’t fit the definition of doom scrolling, which is an obsessive compulsion for searching of negative news.

That's not what I thought doom scrolling meant. I thought it specifically referred to the existential doom of endless scrolling for a dopamine hit.

Re: My Struggle with Doom Scrolling

#77

Post by uludag »

jy14898 wrote: post #30

Does everyone really mean doom scrolling when they talk about these issues? For me personally, it's definitely about dopamine and not about negative emotions, yet everyone uses the phrase doom scrolling - am I the odd one out? For example, if I'm feeling stressed/anxious, I'll scroll/browse/distract myself to avoid the negative feelings. I'm not seeking them like doom scrolling says.

I definitely associate negative emotions with my doomscrolling behavior. Angst is the best word I can find to describe the feeling. For me it usually focuses around some major news cycle (war, politics, catastrophes, etc.).

Re: My Struggle with Doom Scrolling

#78

Post by bdhcuidbebe »

Im trying a ”new” thing, in fact something I abandoned years ago. Namely rss.

I made some scrapers for the sites i follow that lacks full rss feeds, and can now enjoy distraction free focused reading again, without inflammatory comment sections.

However, I’m here commenting so I guess im still under the spell. :-/

Re: My Struggle with Doom Scrolling

#79

Post by normie3000 »

dqv wrote: post #48
jy14898 wrote: post #30

Does everyone really mean doom scrolling when they talk about these issues? For me personally, it's definitely about dopamine and not about negative emotions, yet everyone uses the phrase doom scrolling - am I the odd one out? For example, if I'm feeling stressed/anxious, I'll scroll/browse/distract myself to avoid the negative feelings. I'm not seeking them like doom scrolling says.

No. I think it's one of those situations where the word has changed meaning for certain groups of people, like a game of telephone, because dopamine scrolling and doom scrolling are semantically close. It's kind of like how gen alpha has a different view of what "preppy" means than what previous generations would have thought.

What does preppy mean for alphas?

Re: My Struggle with Doom Scrolling

#80

Post by normie3000 »

dailykoder wrote: post #38

I am so f-in glad I deleted facebook like 10 years ago and never hoped onto anything else. I only hate that I visit HN every few minutes, when I get bored at cagie. But apart from that, just don't use social media. It's really as simple as it sounds. The only hard thing is to find something to fill the free'd up time with.

What is cagie?
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