Doomscrolling ~ “the action of continually scrolling through and reading depressing or worrying content on a social media or news site, especially on a phone.”
Many phones now have an option for their owners to see how long they have used their phone in a day. This setting is typically called “screentime,” and this phenomenon has become a looming danger in the lives of young and older people. As of 2024, individuals aged 18-34 had an average of 8.8 hours a day. Although significantly lower, it is still frightening that individuals 65 years and older averaged 5.2 hours.
Now, with these statistics in mind, consider how much of what you personally absorb from the internet is wholly positive versus what is wholly negative. Then ask yourself, how long are you on the internet yourself?
If you can check your phone and find yourself within a prison of screentime, be honest with yourself and see if it’s a similar experience to the above description of “doomscrolling.”
Doomscrolling does not just have to be watching clips of the news; it can be anything:
Perhaps it is spiraling from a headline about a natural disaster, then clicking through to political unrest, economic collapse predictions, climate crisis threads, and ending up on a conspiracy theory subreddit at 2 AM.
Perhaps it is reading about symptoms online of what was once the common cold, to end up with Google telling you, you have a terminal illness.
Or still yet, maybe it is reading of an Earthquake, which ends up with you connecting dots from signs in Revelation, and trying to trace what the mark of the beast will be.
Doomscrolling takes many forms, but as Christians, be cautious of viewing your doomscrolling under the guise of being informed. Being informed does not equate to growth. In an age of mass information, many are falling into depression, anxiety, and fear, although being the most informed generations of all time.
We, as Christians, are told to be students of the Word and to shun that which is profane; yet, the profane has become the dopamine release trigger for billions (2 Timothy 2:15). Information itself does not equate to growth, but absorbing the pure truth of God can cause it. Information can be tidbits of reality, but not point to a better future.
It is when we grow in the grace and knowledge of God that the brokenness of man is functionally restored. In grace and truth, you mature. Mature to the point where, spiritually, you can be like Job as his friend had described in Job 8:7, “Though thy beginning was small, yet thy latter end should greatly increase.”
Remove these bitter distractions and find righteous replacements, which are those things that are good in the sight of the Lord (Philippians 4:8).