# Doomscrolling and its impact on mental health

- **Episode:** [122](https://agents.truthliesandwork.com/episodes/122.md) (2024-08-19)
- **Type:** news-roundup
- **Tags:** doomscrolling, mental-health, news-roundup
- **Time:** 2:30–9:07 (start 150s)
- **Listen:** [https://truthliesandwork.com/122?t=150](https://truthliesandwork.com/122?t=150)

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[2:30] Leanne Elliott: Yes, let's start with my favorite time of the week. Al, it is time for the news roundup. Cue the jingle
[2:34] Al Elliott: Okay, Lee, what have you got?
[2:39] Leanne Elliott: I don't want to get us off to— on a downer. I just said— I've already said I'm in a better mood. I don't want to get off on a downer, um, but I feel this needs to be addressed. There's a lot of, a lot of stuff happening out there, isn't there, in the news? Um, there's a lot. There's between the riots and the election and the wars, and it's, it's a lot. So I want to kind of refresh ourselves about doomscrolling, and this is because I found probably a very, very well, um, timed article in by the British Psychological Society on this. So doomscrolling, we all know what it is by now, right? It's that habit of endlessly scrolling through the bad news even when we know it makes us feel terrible. And it is easier now than ever. As I said, there's a lot going on. There's the escalating war in Ukraine, the ongoing saga of the 2024 US election, and there have been some shocking riots across England primarily. Um, it's a very anxious and worrying time. So doomscrolling, um, you know, you can see it's keeping up with what's going on. It can seem like a logical activity. Information is power. The more you know, the more you can prepare and plan for the future. But the truth is, it's a pretty unproductive and even damaging activity. So a recent study published by Computers in Human Behavior Reports by Reza Shahbahagh and colleagues sheds some light on just how damaging doomscrolling can be, and not just in the moment, but how it actually shapes our broader outlook on life and human nature. As I mentioned, this is highlighted in a recent article from the BPS's Research Digest. So the research Researchers surveyed 800 university students from Iran and the United States, 2 very different cultures, but did see very similar results. They wanted to understand how compulsively consuming negative content online, or doomscrolling, relates to something called existential anxiety. So this type of anxiety taps into deep fears about death, the meaning of life, and our place in the world. Participants who admitted to frequently doomscrolling reported higher levels of existential anxiety, showing that the habit might be more than just a bad mood. It could actually be altering how we see ourselves in the world. But that's not all. The study also found that doomscrolling can make people more pessimistic and even more mistrustful of others. In the Iranian group of participants, for instance, there was a notable increase in misanthropy— basically a dislike or distrust for other people— and among those who regularly engage, engage in doomscrolling, this was higher. While the link wasn't as strong in US participants, the pattern was still there, suggesting a global impact. Now here's the kicker: while it might seem like the solution is as simple as logging off, it's not always that easy. Doomscrolling can be addictive, and breaking the habit is tough. But I think it's important— it's understanding the potential impact it could have, um, on our mental health is a really important first step in helping us to regain a bit more balance and hopefully a more optimistic perspective. So what to take away from it: doomscrolling, it is more than just a bad habit. It's more just a bad mood. The latest research is showing it's something that can actually shape our mental health and our view of the world and our place in it in profound ways. If you are finding yourself trapped in the cycle at the moment, it may be time to try and step back and log off and reconnect with the good that is still out there. For more insights, I will leave a link to the full study in the show notes. Al, what do you think?
[6:19] Al Elliott: I've got a real-life example of this. We were on holiday last week, so we had basically 10 days off, finished on the Thursday night, came back to work On Monday, just gone. And I was trying not to look at work stuff, and I found myself being drawn into BBC News, particularly these riots around in the UK. And I genuinely was depressed. I don't look at the news normally. I just don't look at the news. Leanne does. I don't, because I do feel depressed. It does affect me quite, quite badly. And I just found myself trying not to think about work, trying not to do work stuff, and replacing it with this. And I was— 2 days, I felt so depressed
[6:53] Leanne Elliott: Yeah
[6:53] Al Elliott: And then I just went back to just ignoring everything and looking at happy dogs on, on YouTube. And I went back to my normal self, my normal happy self. So I'm 100% behind this doomscrolling. I mean, some people say, oh, it's important to keep, to keep abreast of the world. There's a great— there's a guy who wrote The 4-Hour Workweek, Tim— oh, I always forget his surname. You know, you're shouting it already. You know who I'm talking about. And he says that he never reads the news because it's— first of all, it gives you something to talk about when you meet someone. So what's going on in the world? And they'll, and they'll be like, oh, well, this and that and the other. It gives you something to talk about. But secondly, you can then filter out 90% of it and find the stuff which is just going to be relevant to your life. So yeah, I think don't, but replace it with something healthy. That's the other thing is doomscrolling. If you go, oh well, I'm not doomscrolling, then what are you replacing it with? If you're not careful, then the algorithm will reward what you look most at and quite a lot of them are connected. So if you start looking at other stuff on YouTube, for example, which is a bit depressing, then potentially that can serve you more of that
[7:48] Leanne Elliott: Yeah. And I do get, you know, wanting to stay abreast of things. I want to stay abreast of that. I want to know what's going on. It's important for my work. It's important for my profession to know what's going on in the world. But I balance it out with things I follow. So on my news app, I follow, you know, the business channels, the BBC channels, the news channels. I also follow Hello magazine and Grazia magazine and Scientist magazine. So I know that then my feed will be more eclectic, and I'll make sure that I spend time tapping on the lighter things, like what Cheryl Cole has been spotted wearing in London. It's ridiculous, but it's that lighter content that just balances up my feed. Um, so I still know what's going on in the world, But it's not dragging me down with every single story that, that I read. But yeah, some really interesting insights there. So yeah, doomscrolling can potentially cause an existential crisis
[8:35] Al Elliott: Yeah. Just quickly before I go on to the thing that I found, uh, quick shout out to Jeremy Klein. Jeremy has got the Change Life Work podcast. Great podcast. We've been on as guests. It's a really good podcast. But he sent a link to me the other day, uh, to a Pat Flynn, he's Smart Passive Income guy. Um, and he has a chat with, and I don't know how to say the author's surname, So I'll just put a link in the notes, but basically he's written a book called, uh, Interrupt— Distractium— Distractia— check the show notes. Um, and the idea is that if you are gonna be distracted from something, then make sure you know what you're being distracted from