Doomsday Scrolling - An Emerging Threat?

Animation credits: Today

Ever wondered that nowadays, why the people around you get irritated so quickly? Why is there always a sort of low energy being prevalent inside you and around you? Why is it getting harder to be optimistic nowadays or why is there a sense of pessimism around everything?

The answer is simple - A global pandemic, right?

Well, it's only a half-truth, we are currently fighting a two-front war. It's not only about the pandemic which we are facing but also an infodemic.

Doomsday simply means a day when the earth will end and when scrolling continuously through negative news makes you feel that the Earth is actually moving towards an ending, it’s called doomsday scrolling. Continuously scrolling through pandemic related news and social media feeds almost compulsively is what we called a Doomsday scrolling addiction.

While on the brighter side it helps us to keep ourselves updated with whatever is going around us, on the other hand, it pulls us towards an exaggerated sense of gloom and doom. It makes a continuous tendency to scroll through bad News even though they are depressing or saddening. A sort of addiction towards news feed eventually leads to an exaggerated sense of reality, which generally ends in a negative sense.

Doomsday scrolling is all through a new word, it drives us towards a ‘new Earth syndrome’- believing Earth To be more dangerous than actually, it is. As a result of continuous exposure to violence and bad behaviour around you, people tend to believe that the earth is no longer a safer place to live.

The human tendency to get attracted towards negative news quickly is also playing a significant component in Doomsday scrolling. For instance, if in a day 40,000 people recover from covid while 20,000 are the new cases. It’s human nature to see the new cases and cherish this pain and sadistic nature which the social networks have created.

Gradually it becomes a self-sustaining activity pushing you to a vicious cycle of web surfing, adversely affecting your mental health to a large extent.

Doomsday scrolling is gradually becoming an issue of global concern, especially in a country like India where a large chunk of the population is Net-Addicted with web surfing.

Animation credits: The New York Times

What to do?

Now the problem is pretty much clear, so the Final question is: How can we prevent ourselves? Or what is the way forward?

Indulging yourself with some positive news around the world can be helpful to a large extent. Social media nowadays is nothing but a vicious circle of negativity and misery, diverting your time from here can be an excellent boon to one's mental health.

Before believing the news blindly, just fact-checked it twice.

Multiple sources of news gathering will help in forming a more rational Viewpoint. Mental health is as important as physical health. One should not compromise with it, especially during these tough times of pandemic.

Again quoting that Humanity is fighting a two-front war at the time, one with a virus & the other with themselves. To prevent this one will have to start rethinking their relationship with this new platform.

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Devansh Tiwari

Guest Writer

B.A. (P) History + Poilitical Science third-year

Delhi college of arts and Commerce

My field of interest is International relations, particularly Geo-politics.

Analytical Journalism has always been close to my heart.

Being a frequent vister of parliamentary debates, you can ping me for discussion on any burning topic at any time.