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WHAT IS THE first thing you do when you wake up in the morning? If you’re like the majority, you will reach for your phone and engage in a spot of doom scrolling — scanning the headlines in the various news outlets that compete to catch your eye with the latest news.
Wars rage, stocks sink, tariffs teeter, while low pressure approaches from the southwest and threatens to submerge the country in mist, drizzle and gloom.
I am one of the millions that wake up every morning, and apart from a quick detour to the kitchen for a hot coffee, I return to bed with my phone while I put my brain on hold.
It’s an understandable urge. The world is in a precarious place with wars, climate disasters and migration filling the news feed with horror, negativity and intolerance. Many of us fall for the clickbait and refresh our feeds constantly for the latest update.
As social, political and economic unrest continues to spiral, doomscrolling is now emerging as a significant threat to our physical and mental health.
‘It has been one onslaught after other,’ lecturer in the Division of Global Health and Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School, Dr Aditi Nerurkar told Harvard Health.
‘Our brains and bodies are expertly designed to handle short bursts of stress. But over the past several years, the stress just doesn’t seem to end. Doomscrolling is our response to that.’
Doom scrolling is rooted in the area of the brain called the amygdala, that promotes self-preservation and drives the fight or flight response to danger, reminding us to be vigilant for threats.
‘Stress strokes our primary urge to scroll,’ suggests Dr Nerurkar. ‘We’re hypervigilant and scanning for danger. The more you scroll, the more you feel you need to.’
Women are more vulnerable to scrolling than men because of their tendency to nurture and protect, while much of the violence portrayed in newsfeeds involves women and children.
But doom scrolling has the potential to have a long-term impact on our well-being. Nausea, headaches, muscle tension, low appetite, difficulty sleeping, even high blood pressure, according to experts at Harvard.
A research review in Applied Quality of Life (2023) that analysed three separate studies involving 1,200 adults suggested that doomscrolling is linked to worse mental well-being and life satisfaction.
Another paper in Computers in Human Behaviour (2024) reported that doomscrolling was linked to increased levels of existential anxiety – a feeling of dread or panic that arises with the suggestion that life as we know it is about to end.
A similar phenomenon to doom scrolling is zombie scrolling. I am not a particular fan of bad news, but I do engage in a bit of zombie scrolling – much more than is good for me.
I make excuses. ‘I’m working.’ ‘I’m researching.’ ‘I’m looking for news hooks for something I want to write about.’
It’s all lies. I’m zombie scrolling like the rest of us. And I am not alone. Neither is it confined to the early morning hours. My phone is on the desk at work. Break times are spent scrolling the most recent health reports, while the latest news floats in and out of my feed, distracting me with its intoxicating mix of disaster, revelation and shock.
Zombie Scrolling Syndrome refers to habitual mindless scrolling with no real destination or benefits. There is evidence that this behaviour could be linked to mental health conditions, including depression and anxiety.
Signs of zombie scrolling include an inability to be away from your phone and even ignoring personal hygiene due to technology overuse.
We all know that feeling. Recently, on transferring my sim card into a newly purchased smartphone, a technological hitch caused me to be without my phone for two days. I can admit to feeling acute anxiety and unease, only relieved by an expert in the nearest phone shop agreeing to complete the operation for a fee which I would gladly have tripled if it meant restoring my precious device in good order.
Are you a doom or a zombie scroller? If so, it may be impacting your health in ways that you do not realise. Thankfully, there are steps you can take to prise yourself away from what has become an addiction.
One estimate suggests that the average person scrolls through 300 feet of content in a single day. What keeps us so glued to our phones? The answer, like most things, is in our brain.
Like mice in a lab, pulling a lever in the hope of a reward, we click on news stories in the hope of a hit that releases that pleasure hormone, dopamine, in our brain. It is the random nature of these rewards that sparks the habitual nature of scrolling – never quite sure when that dopamine hit is going to occur.
We are most likely to revert to zombie scrolling in awkward situations. Sitting alone in a café or a pub, waiting in a queue, sitting on a bus – all those moments when we relieve our anxiety by a spot of zombie checking.
But this type of scrolling impacts our health as well. Facebook’s own research found that Instagram – which is used by almost three-quarters (71%) of young adults according to research from the UK Pew Research Centre, negatively impacts mental health. The research suggests that this is because the carefully curated images on the app elicit feelings of negativity and inferiority.
The other side of zombie scrolling is the impact on what we could be doing otherwise. That hour in bed in the morning could be spent out in the fresh air, walking to work, an early morning swim or even an extra hour of sleep.
How often do we walk into a restaurant and see couples or families, all zombie scrolling? All those interactions and experiences that could be happening – lost in the ether of endless clickbait, blocking real interactions between people who are losing the ability to connect emotionally.
Zombie scrolling has after effects too – eye strain, brain fatigue (or ‘brain rot’), difficulty focusing and symptoms of addiction.
There are things we can do to cut back and lose the addiction while still staying abreast of the news. What is needed are digital boundaries that give the brain a chance to recalibrate.
The experts suggest keeping your phone out of reach at night, preferably out of the bedroom altogether. Similarly, in the workplace, the phone could be kept on mute and in a drawer.
Don’t bring your phone to the dinner table or into a restaurant or café, especially if you are in company. Switch your phone to grayscale so that it doesn’t light up every time you hit a news story. Opt out of notifications, including headlines and emails, to help you resist the urge to constantly zone in on the latest beep that registers a new notification.
Other measures include taking up new activities that keep you active and interested while defining a time and place for catching up on the news.
The bottom line is taking back control – you are in charge of your phone and your time, rather than your phone being in charge of you.
Limiting the time and place for scrolling makes it all the more engaging when you do get around to it, giving it the time and space in your life that it deserves.
Dr Catherine Conlon is a public health doctor in Cork.
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FFFG: politely asking industry to behave since 1916.
@ed ed: I disagree. Enforcement in the years 1916 – 1923 was more effective than anything since.
@ed ed: enforce a maximum % above ECB rate for all primary residential mortgages….. the banks exist only because we bailed their behinds out. They need a licence to operate, and make this a condition of it.
@Brian Keelty: Pepper would be even bigger if we hadn’t bailed out the pillar banks, you do realise this?
Disgraceful the way this government will not take action for the better of its citizens and stand in the sidelines shouting is just bizarre. Time up FFG.
@Vincent Hughes: Oh yeah,and sf will march into all the energy providers/banks/supermarkets/insurance companies etc etc and DEMAND they lower their prices for ‘the people’…..they will be laughed out the door and told ‘if you want to subsidise it,go right ahead’.
@uUleRhCu: As sure as night follows day, Here’s Terry with his anti SF nonsense on a non SF story, If SF do DEMAND services to do what you’ve said – at least they would be TRYING not like FFG who have had a bite at the cherry for 100 years and get laughed at constantly… Let’s give someone else a bite of that cherry, I don’t think anybody could be as inept as FFG.
@KTH: you’re 100pc right.
@KTH: this absolute nonsense that things can’t get any worse is exactly that.nonsense.And sf are the gift that keeps giving in regards to their silly promises that they will ‘fix’ things that they have no control of…pearse Doherty had a big whinge at the government recently about hotel costs!!!.what has that to do with the government……finally I will be as vocal as I am now about the next opposition and peoples stupid call outs to the government to fix things that they can’t.
@uUleRhCu:
I never said things cant get any worse did I?
So you’re the one talking nonsense.
What has hotel costs got to do with the government?
Do the hotel lobby not go cap in hand all the time looking for more favourable VAT rates all the time?
Who is that they ask for their “special” VAT rates?
Oh yeah it’s the government.
So when the hotels GAZUMP their loyal customers with their prices it actually could be brought up by the government to address this.
@uUleRhCu: tbf here now John, current hotel costs have an awful lot to do with government. It was this government who decided to take in 100k (?) refugees with absolutely no where to accommodate them. They were then shoe horned in to hotels at a large expense to the tax payer. This has basically decimated the supply of hotel rooms in this country and ultimately driven prices through the roof. I say that with no real fondness for SF but it is very fair to blame the price of hotels on the government as it is 100% their fault.
@Journal Commenter: hotel prices were high before the Ukrainian war.
@uUleRhCu: they weren’t cheap that’s for sure. But come on, theres no comparison now. If there is an event on in Dublin you have hostels looking for anywhere from €400 to €800 for a bed in a 10 bed dormitory. I’ve seen it first hand. And that is solely because there is no demand due to the massive amount of hotels housing immigrants and that absolutely is government policy. It is also having massive adverse effects on the tourism industry here. The government cop a lot of unfair criticism for stuff beyond their control, but when it comes to accommodation costs it is largely on them. Lets be fair both ways.
@Journal Commenter: *there is no supply that should say. There is plenty of demand haha.
@Journal Commenter: 175 euro for 7 October in the rochestown lodge,not a chance.
@Thomas: I have a wedding next year in west cork. There is a large number of rooms reserved for the guests. Mind you they want close to the bones of 350 per rooms per night for the privilege. As if weddings are not expensive enough as it is without throwing close to 700 on top for the two nights stay. Absolute gouging when they are already making a fortune from the wedding you would imagine. I certainly won’t be paying it anyway.
@Journal Commenter: I don’t blame,we’re having our kids after christening party in said venue,il be spending a few hundred euro,meal etc,like yourself I won’t be paying that to stay.
@Thomas: apologies, I don’t blame you.
@Thomas: I’m lucky all the same though, I have a friend who actually lives fairly close to the wedding venue and he invited me and the missus to stay with him and his wife for it. Il get him a good bottle of whiskey and bring himself and the wife out for a nice lunch before we head off again as a thank you. But the sad thing is a lot of wedding guests are travelling from all over the country and there is next to nothing available in the area to rent other than the hotel rooms in question, so most will be forced in to paying that kings ransom. Disgusting greed from an industry that not long ago was crying and pleading to be helped when Covid raged. As the saying goes, eaten bread is soon forgotten! I hope ye enjoy the christening all the same and have a good day out from it!
@Journal Commenter: Thank you,and you enjoy the wedding,and west cork bye the way,lovely spot.
@Journal Commenter: are you suggesting the government should ignore their international and EU obligations in regards to taking in migrants? SF are fully behind the migration numbers, so where will that leave you?
This country is in bits:
Law and disorder
Mortgages
Housing Crisis
More excise duty on petrol/diesel is being discussed
Homeless
Cost of living
Skilled workers moving abroad
Road deaths
Climate crisis
And you can add and add and add to this
nothing is getting better
The country is an absolute disgrace and it’s all down to FF and FG.
General Election as soon as possible, please.
No votes for FF or FG at all – will put anyone else all the way down the ballot paper.
No backdoors for these greedy greedy men/women on over 100k a year in their private cars and government-sponsored holidays on private jets.
@Someone Financing The Welfare Leeches:
A wonderful contribution to a serious situation. Well done.
Please go back under your bridge where you use a puddle as a mirror.
@Rafa C: The republic is starting to look like (and I cant believe I am typing this), A Failed State!
@Gerard Hayden: Starting? It’s been failing for decades!
@Rafa C: the space button is your friend Rafa.
At the end of the day a CEO of a bank is only interested in making a profit – so the house will always win. They just pretend to listen to government and the game goes on. If government really interested in tackling costs of mortgage they should look to remove dual income calculation and base it on one pay etc. we are still living with low interest rates (even though they are going up). But we know high property prices benefit property agents/lawyers/banks and government – and they will tell us it’s our fault when it all comes tumbling down!!!
@Shane C: Why base borrowing on a single income? All that would do is give preference to individual borrowers over couples/families
@Mick Duvanny: good point but then again we got house inflation due to us lumping gross incomes together in the first place – surely house price would reduce based on single income?
Pepper are a disgrace.
That debt still has to be paid so the term will just be extended after the 2 years at low rate. More interest for them overall.
And more debt for those stuck mortgage holders.
glad I left ireland
@John Terry: “energy providers/banks/supermarkets/insurance companies etc…”
Gov can always:
Energy providers – see Nationalisation of EnergyvSystem: Motion [Private Members] Vol.1031 No. 2, 12 Dec 2022
Banks: create a state or county bank of last resort for lending / mortgages
Supermarkets – make them publish figures for turnover / profit on a regular basis
Insurance companies: create a state or county insurance company of last resort
With the stroke of a pen, government can do any of these without breaking EU rules.
I often wonder why Ulster bank and KBC jumped ship !
@:
@Trent: both of them called it wrong. All the Banks making record profits with the ECB hikes. Bad management decisions!
@Dave X: no they didn’t. Ulster bank wanted out of the Irish market for years. Nat west make more than enough profits without needing UB and the pain in the ass of having to deal with the CBI and the hoop jumping required to do business in Ireland is my understanding from what Iv been told by people within the bank itself. It has nothing to do with bad management decisions or getting it wrong.
‘Non-entity’ – quite the Freudian slip there lads …
have your say