Does scrolling on your mobile phone cause an existential crisis? That is the question that a team of international experts has tried to answer in a study published in the journal Journal of Computer Science in Human Behavior Reports.
Researchers surveyed 800 college students in the United States and Iran and found that doomscrolling (or spending excessive time consuming negative news) was linked to feelings of existential anxiety, distrust and suspicion of others, and hopelessness.
Lead author Reza Shabahang, a researcher at Flinders University’s School of Education, Psychology and Social Work, said constant exposure to negative news had become a “source of vicarious trauma”, where people are negatively affected despite not experiencing the trauma firsthand.
“When we are constantly exposed to negative news and information online, it can threaten our beliefs about our own mortality and the control we have over our own lives,” she said.
Researchers found that constant exposure to negative news was associated with thoughts such as “life is fragile and limited, humans are fundamentally alone, and individuals do not have full control over their lives.”
For Iranian students, doomscrolling was also associated with misanthropy, or a deep feeling of hatred and distrust towards humanity.
The researchers hypothesized that constant exposure to negative news reinforced the idea that “humanity is imperfect and there is no justice in the world.” They found that such reminders challenged people’s “fundamental assumptions about the justice and benevolence of the world.”
However, they also noted that the students included in the sample were “convenient”—that is, they were selected based on their accessibility to the research. They also wrote that the sample size “was not appropriate to draw clear conclusions about the nature of this association.”
Helen Christensen, a professor of mental health at UNSW and board director of the Black Dog Institute, said the research was an interesting preliminary study but the results could be biased due to the sample size.
He also added that doomscrolling may be associated with anxiety, but this may only occur while participants are doing it.
He said it was impossible to say whether doomscrolling caused existential anxiety or misanthropy, or whether “doomscrolling and anxiety are associated with each other for (another reason).”
However, Dr Joanne Orlando, an expert in digital behaviour at Western Sydney University, said the findings were “not surprising” and suggested they could apply to people of all ages.
The long-term effect of doomscrolling on a person’s mental health was comparable to being “in a room where people are constantly yelling at you,” Orlando said.
“It really affects the way you understand the world and your place in it.”
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She said it was important for people to be aware of how social media and the news made them feel, and suggested delaying looking at the news or social media when they woke up.
He also said that the media “need to think about redefining what they see as news.”
The impacts of social media on the mental health of young Australians were raised in a joint presentation This month, from mental health organizations ReachOut, Beyond Blue and Black Dog Institute.
Beyond Blue chief executive Georgie Harman said social media can both harm and benefit young people’s mental health, but the responsibility “cannot fall solely on users”.
He called on social media companies to “step up and play their part.”
“People tell us very clearly that they don’t like being caught up in doomscrolling and that they want to have a say in the content that’s served to them,” he said.
“Our question then is: what are social media platforms going to do to address this?”