What Is the Appeal of Doomscrolling?
Chloe Kubalak
February 23, 2025
After repeatedly opening TikTok, hours after its ban was initiated on the morning of Jan. 19, I deleted the app.
The frustration of repeatedly clicking on the app, only to see the message, “Sorry, TikTok isn’t available right now,” pressured me into removing the app from my phone. Since that day, the mobile app has remained absent from U.S. app stores, causing me, and many others, to be in TikTok withdrawal for almost two and a half weeks. This doesn’t seem like an extensive amount of time, but with an app that knows you about as much as your best friend, it feels like a huge absence. Why was I angry in the first place, and why couldn’t I have just been patient and stopped clicking on the app icon?
Social media platforms such as TikTok serve as escapism from the real world for many internet users of all ages, with algorithms getting more progressive and connected to users’ interests.
The app’s For You Page (FYP) constantly provides its consumers with content that it knows the viewer will enjoy. This customized content arises from the TikTok “algorithm,” which collects data about previously watched videos and begins recycling subjects to keep users online. While this seems like an intelligent and valuable move for social media platforms to get in tune with what their patrons enjoy, entertainment has reached an extreme. Patrons spend exorbitant amounts of time on the app, consumed by content that brings about negative symptoms.
“Doomscrolling,” or “doomsurfing,” are both defined by the Merriam-Webster Dictionary as “spend[ing] excessive time online scrolling through news or other content that makes one feel sad, anxious, angry, etc.” It’s typically a mindless act, but it keeps users on the app without their realizing how quickly time is passing. Doomscrollers lose awareness of how much time they’re spending on social media without even taking in the content that they are dedicating their time to.
I believe that this phenomenon originally began and gained popularity during 2020 and 2021, the peak times of COVID-19, yet it still affects people almost four to five years later. If an app is supposed to be in tune with our emotions and provide us with what we want to see on a daily basis, why can it be so negative and impossible to ignore the lasting symptoms?
Participants of doomscrolling research and discussion boards report that they face looming thoughts related to the media they consume such as one by the user offlinebound on Reddit, “..the world is kinda ending, as we knew it.” Another user by the name of mdeleo1 writes on the same thread, “I know that collapse is inevitable, and near-term collapse is probable, but so few seem to acknowledge this in daily life...It can make you feel quite alone..” We constantly search and crave content that proves our points, and makes us realize that other people are on the same page.
People are practically addicted to seeing content that proves this point. These thoughts, as expressed by research conducted during the pandemic on behalf of the Mayo Clinic, can also be followed by procrastinating on sleep, lack of sunlight and exercise, and poor mental and social health. All of these side effects represent the detrimental effects of doom-scrolling, verging on a plea for help as users spend hours watching content that exacerbates upset or frustrated feelings. So, why do we do it? Why do we keep scrolling in search of content that is inherently negative?
Because what else is there? It’s easy to scroll. It’s easy to be sucked into short-form content on an endless loop that only slightly validates our feelings and gives us a dopamine rush in the middle of the night, keeping us awake.
While there is no adherent cure to end doomscrolling for everyone everywhere, there are some ways to begin preventing the cycle. As cliche as it may sound, we need to focus on living in the moment.
Users on a discussion thread discuss their various ways of coping with this phenomenon, or, as the title suggests, “How can I regain myself after doomscrolling?” Some users discuss setting timers to limit the amount of time spent on apps such as Instagram and TikTok, making a checklist to keep track of feelings and information gathered, and finding other hobbies or activities to participate in. User PanBerbeleck makes an important point, to firstly forgive yourself for doomscrolling.
Everyone wants to feel something, whether it is negative or positive, so when you want to stop the endless cycle of scrolling, think about why you’re doing it in the first place. What is your motivation that got you onto this app in the first place, and how can you trace back your steps?