Doomscrolling — the habit of reading traumatizing social media posts and news headlines on the Internet — has become endemic throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. Watching trauma after trauma from news shows and clips. Doomscrolling and dealing with crisis after crisis at work, school, and home.
There’s great uncertainty as to what the future holds. It’s a stressful time. It’s a difficult time.
Isn’t it overwhelming to take on the deluge of bad news? Whether it’s a financial crisis, the COVID-19 crisis, news of a new Omicron variant, community gun violence, or mass shootings, it’s a heavy emotional burden to bear.
In the workplace, professionals may deal with their own set of crises. Workers prefer to see the future with moderate certainty. And employees certainly appreciate laid-out plans, structured projects, and knowing when and how things occur.
I remember uncertainty hitting me when I was about to graduate school, in the midst of searching for jobs. Where would I move to? Who would give me a job? And — would my salary be enough to both pay rent and pay off student loans?
This level of uncertainty left me feeling stressed. I had little funds left after paying my way through school and relying on loans. I spent much time with frugal finances, budgeting every dollar to groceries, and jumping on cheap US$1 bus trips (RIP Megabus).
Needless to say, living in uncertain times exhausted me. They drained me of time and drained me of my energy.
The news cycle of doom and extreme uncertainty
Fast forward to 2020 and 2021. After watching the pandemic disaster unfold — claiming friends, family and my coworkers’ families — I’ve felt a similar feeling of dread & anxiety creep into hours and hours of “doomscrolling” and “coronasomnia.” I’d catch myself each evening, my thumb flicking through the day’s negative news.
Doomscrolling is a catchphrase for scrolling through social media news feeds, reading bad news after bad news, and trying to make sense of this wide degree of uncertainty.
Coronasomnia is staying awake, dealing with insomnia, perhaps even dealing with panic attacks. All due to stress induced by the COVID-19 pandemic, the Omicron and Delta variants, and continuous issues with vaccinations.
You too may be facing an onslaught of bad news. And, when it comes to our response to uncertainty, we might freeze, feel trapped, and feel fatigued by the prolonged coronavirus pandemic.
So, how can you handle all this crisis & uncertainty? Now, I can’t say I’ve entirely figured it out, but I’m recovering from the doomscrolling using three steps, that I’d like to share with you:
- Recognize how negativity affects you.
- Turn down the negative in your digital life.
- Turn up the positive in your digital life.
This post will focus on the first. My next post, “Beat uncertainty & disaster — a guide for digitally-savvy millennials,” will focus on the next two.
How does social media impact your brain?
Social media has a profound impact on us. Apps come designed with addictive features: doomscrolling through the news feed rewards you with new visuals and new alerts.
And the algorithms are designed to deliver the content you click on, such as news — negative or positive. What delivers the most clicks? Negative news.
A majority of Americans report they consume news that causes them stress, fatigue, and even sleep loss — yet they continue to consume even more news! (American Psychological Association survey, Time.com)
It’s fear — producing adrenaline — that makes you stand ready. Negative news, outrage on social media, and social injustices make you on guard and attentive.
Because our human brains are wired to be on alert and avoid pain, we behave anticipating and aware of any potentially painful events. We all want to be in the know, to understand what’s going on, and to not feel left behind. And we certainly don’t want pain, rejection, and fear.
That same psychology study finds that 1 in 10 adults check the news each hour. And, 2 in 10 “constantly” check their social media newsfeeds— doomscrolling.
News headlines consume a lot of time and energy! Yet these same adults have little control over that day’s events!
This depressing energy drain hurts productivity. A separate study found that its respondents who consumed 3 minutes of bad news in the morning faced worse moods throughout their day (Shawn Achor, Michelle Gielan, Arianna Huffington cited in fastcompany.com).
And consuming all the negative politics on social media stresses 6 in 10 users, with 4 in 10 feeling “worn out” by these political discussions (lifehack.org).
How do crises and bad news lead to brain burnout?
I grew up watching evening news programs, which have evolved into a steady stream of “breaking news,” prioritizing shocking, anxiety-provoking stories. Sure, there’s a blip of weather, sports, and a lighthearted feel-good story at the end. But by and large, all the things that make you feel on edge...
- crime
- disasters — financial, economical, or natural
- scandals
...are things that grab, consume, and demand more of your attention, energy, and concentration.
But there’s really not much about these stories that are actionable. They’re largely beyond the viewers’ control.
Worrying about things that you can’t control leaves you feeling helpless. These are often things we have no control, no influence, no say in. So we feel helpless, leading to a cycle of fear. This ultimately hurts productivity!
Graham Davey, a United Kingdom-based psychology professor and editor-in-chief of Journal of Experimental Psychopathology, has studied television news shows & programs. They are “increasingly visual & shocking.” Bystanders record smartphone video clips that are intense, which are often incorporated in these shows & programs.
These intense videos stress their viewers, causing “mood swings, or aggressive behavior, or even PTSD” (time.com). The negativity in news programs induce sadness, anxiety, and worries. (time.com)
And the sad part is that their VIEWERS KEEP COMING BACK FOR MORE — EVEN IF THIS TRAUMA HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH THEIR DAY-TO-DAY LIVES! What a waste of time!
I remember hearing about the white supremacists and terrorists storming the U.S. Capitol in early January 2021. And I stopped my significant other from playing the clips on our Chromecast TV. I drew a boundary because I knew I could not immediately plan or act on this information—I didn’t need to expose myself to the horrific, violent videos of that day. (I later slowly watched these, at a more manageable pace.)
Why should you stop doomscrolling?
It’s so hard to break away! You likely have been distracted from work by the siren call of just one more link, one more post, to scroll through. It doesn’t help that social media apps are crafted to steal your attention. Notifications nudge you to click more and tap more. Notifications reward you with that newness, that novelty.
Despite the fact that the world can be a scary place sometimes, there are still many ways to help ourselves, in this way, we feel more safe and in control. Limiting your doomscrolling habits is one way to do just that.
Social media snippets oversimplify. And because it’s too much information, it can overwhelm you with too much stimulation. The way the brain is wired is to find threats, jump to a fight-or-flight adrenaline rush, whether it’s warranted or not.
I once treated a client who couldn’t break away from constant stream of YouTube clips, protests, riots, and so forth. He told me he felt that the world was going down a toilet.
I had to redirect him to watch healthier, more positive videos. Kittens. Pets. Yet, he couldn’t stop watching.
And I've heard similar stories from others.
But is this social media’s fault? I asked another friend, who ran social media for a huge grocery store chain.
She told me she had GOOD, positive feel-good stories — about food! Drinks! Much much happier stuff. Her Facebook feed was filled with posts from food companies and restauranteurs.
It made sense. She curated her feed and her social media connections to emphasize positive, feel-good things.
What should you do about negativity at work?
Your employer and co-workers are filling your inbox with bad news after bad news. Layoffs, office restrictions, return-to-work policies, salary cuts — it can be all too much to bear.
There’s something called “negativity bias.” Our brains are wired to avoid harm. They’re biased towards negative — not positive — news. We want positive rewards, but we also really don’t want to get hurt.
And, there’s the “availability heuristic”: this is another bias where people over-estimate things occurring, if they’re easy to think about. People may think these things are more likely to happen, or occurring more frequently. And the easiest thing that can come to mind is negative news.
Thus, “heavy news consumers end up miscalibrated and irrational” due to the availability heuristic cognitive bias. (fastcompany.com)
All of the above that we’re facing — negativity bias, availability heuristic, and negative news — can impact the way we feel and do work!
We might end up with Analysis Paralysis. That’s where we become overwhelmed by the depth of the problem. This leads to “slow, timid, or erratic decision making”, or even blowing past the problem, according to Monitor Deloitte.
Or, we might become irrational and impulsive. We might blow past the problem, oversimplifying the problem, using “fast, superficial assessments and simple answers.”
We don’t want to be paralyzed — and too slow.
But we don’t want to be impulsive — and too fast.
How should you tackle crises and uncertainty?
You don’t want to be too overconfident. You want to get clarity.
During crises, we need to reframe challenges to cope with uncertainty and gain power (hbr.org). We need to make solid decisions (mckinsey.com), and think through scenarios to make good decisions (www2.deloitte.com). And, while we can try to anticipate every scenario possible, having default behaviors & mindsets to fall back on helps so we don’t make rash decisions during crises. (mckinsey.com).
As Edmonson says:
“Transparency is ‘job one’ for leaders in a crisis. Be clear what you know, what you don’t know, and what you are doing to learn more.”
— Amy C. Edmondson, “Don’t hide bad news in times of crisis”, Harvard Business Review, March 6, 2020, hbr.org.
Transparency will help you make better decisions and move forwards. You can be optimistic, and realistic. But, don’t be blind to what’s happening, and don’t dismiss others’ concerns.
What is “hot” and “cold” cognition?
Ramit Sethi — a New York Times-bestselling author and personal development expert — says its important to go from “hot to cool”. “Hot” cognition differs from “cold” cognition. (Wikipedia: Hot and Cold Cognition), and are akin to the battle between human emotion vs Vulcan logic in Star Trek.
“Hot” is driven by emotion. Hot is driven by needs, immediate gratification, and impulsivity.
“Cold” cognition is driven by intellect, logic, and thinking.
It is fine to still need empathy, emotion, and acknowledge the difficulty of a situation. But by staying calm and cool, continue collecting information, and executing with the right info, you can tackle crisis and uncertainty.
We can beat the bad news game. Stay tuned for my next post, “Beat uncertainty & disaster — a guide for digitally-savvy millennials.”
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