What Is Doomscrolling? Meaning, Origin and How to Stop
Doomscrolling means spending too much time scrolling through online content, especially news, that makes you feel sad, anxious or angry. Merriam-Webster defines the verb doomscroll that way and traces the word to doom plus scroll. You keep going not because it helps, but because the feed never ends and stopping feels like missing something.
The word took off in March 2020, at the start of the pandemic. Today it's also used for any long, joyless scroll through social media or short videos, not only the news.
Doomscrolling definition
Merriam-Webster lists doomscroll as a verb (doomscrolled, doomscrolling, doomscrolls): to spend excessive time scrolling through online content, especially news, that makes one feel sad, anxious, angry and so on. Its etymology is simply doom plus scroll, and it dates the first known use of the word in this meaning to 2020.
Australia's Macquarie Dictionary describes it as continuing to read news feeds online or on social media even though the news is mostly gloomy and often upsetting. Both definitions share three parts:
- Bad content: news or posts that leave you worse off.
- Too much time: far longer than you meant to spend.
- Scrolling: a feed that keeps loading the next item, so there's no natural end.
The spelling varies. Doomscrolling, doom scrolling and doom-scrolling all mean the same thing; the dictionaries use the closed form.
Where the word came from
The word history site Wordorigins traced the term back in detail. Doom and scroll had been paired loosely online since at least 2011, but the first use in today's sense it found is a tweet from 8 October 2018 that thanked someone for breaking the spell of the writer's "doom-scrolling" down a feed. In 2019 the singer KT Tunstall started the hashtag #BeatTheDoomScroll to ask followers for uplifting posts.
The word went mainstream in March 2020. According to Wordorigins, a tweet on 14 March 2020 by Ellen Muehlberger, a history professor, about "nervously doomscrolling" was the spark, even though she had only a few thousand followers. Within ten days the Winnipeg Free Press was writing about doomscrolling, and the Times of India called it new slang for being unable to stop reading apocalyptic news.
Dictionaries followed. Macquarie Dictionary named doomscrolling its 2020 Committee's Choice Word of the Year, calling it a salient marker of a year of troubling news. Merriam-Webster added the word in September 2023.
Doomscrolling isn't only about news anymore
The original doomscroll was a news feed during a crisis. The word has since widened: Wikipedia's article on it now describes excessive time spent on digital content that brings up negative emotions, and names short-form videos and user-generated posts next to news. Many people use it for the late-night hour lost to Shorts, Reels or TikTok that leaves them tired and a little hollow, even when no single clip was bad.
What the two versions share is the shape of the feed. A page that loads more content as you reach the bottom, or a video feed where one swipe brings the next clip, removes the natural stopping points where you would otherwise put the phone down. That design has a history of its own, told in who invented infinite scroll.
What research says about doomscrolling
The research is young. An early study built to measure doomscrolling came from three University of Florida advertising researchers, Benjamin K. Johnson, Bhakti Sharma and Susanna S. Lee, published in January 2022 in the American Psychological Association's journal Technology, Mind, and Behavior. According to the university's summary:
- They built and tested a survey scale for doomscrolling and found it measured something more than simply wanting to stay informed.
- Men and younger people reported doomscrolling more than women and older adults. Political leaning made no difference.
- Doomscrolling went along with fear of missing out and being constantly connected to a smartphone.
- It is unclear whether doomscrolling causes anxiety or anxiety leads to doomscrolling. The authors think the two feed each other, but proving cause and effect needs more research.
That last point matters. Studies like this find links, not proof that scrolling damages mental health. What they do support is a common experience: the scroll often starts from worry and leaves you more worried. Johnson noted that many doomscrollers notice the habit is making them feel bad, and that this awareness is where new media habits can start.
Signs you're doomscrolling
- You open an app to check one thing and look up twenty minutes later.
- You feel worse than when you started, but keep going.
- You refresh for updates when nothing new can have happened.
- It happens most in bed, late at night, when you meant to sleep.
- You can't remember most of what you just saw.
One or two of these now and then is normal. If they describe most evenings, it's a habit worth changing, and changing what's on your phone is a practical place to start.
How to stop doomscrolling
Aim for friction and stopping points rather than willpower alone, starting with what's already on your phone.
- See where the time goes. On Android, open Settings, then Digital Wellbeing. The dashboard shows screen time per app, how often you open each app and how many notifications you get. Pick the one or two apps that cost the most.
- Set an app timer. In Digital Wellbeing, tap App timers, then Set timer next to the app. When the time runs out the app closes and its icon dims until midnight.
- Protect the late evening. Bedtime mode in Digital Wellbeing runs on a schedule or while the phone charges, and can switch the screen to grayscale and dim the wallpaper. A grey feed is far less gripping.
- Pause distracting apps during focus time. Focus mode pauses the apps you choose and hides their notifications, on demand or on a schedule.
- Choose where your news comes from. Read news at set times from a source with an end, such as a newsletter or a front page, instead of a social feed that refreshes forever.
The built-in tools are free and work well for whole apps. Their limit is that they're all or nothing: an app timer locks messages and search along with the feed, and once the limit is dismissed or reached the next day, the feed is back unchanged.
When the doomscroll is short videos
If your doomscrolling happens mostly in YouTube Shorts, Instagram Reels or TikTok, you can remove the stopping-point problem directly. Dam It! is an Android app that blocks the swipe to the next video in those feeds through Android's Accessibility Service. The video you're watching keeps playing, and videos you open on purpose from a link, a notification or a thumbnail still work, so messages and search stay usable. You can pause protection by holding the dashboard button; there's no strict mode.
Where it doesn't fit: Dam It! doesn't touch news sites, X, Reddit, Facebook or your browser, and it isn't available on iPhone. For news doomscrolling, app timers, Focus mode and a fixed news routine are the better tools. For a wider comparison, see the best apps to block Shorts, Reels and TikTok.
If your doomscroll is mostly short videos, Dam It! stops the next swipe and leaves the rest of each app alone.
Doomscrolling and your attention
People often blame doomscrolling for a shorter attention span. The well-known claim that humans now focus for less time than a goldfish has no study behind it, as explained in the goldfish attention span myth. Real measurements of how often people switch screens are more modest and more useful, and they're covered in what research says about the average attention span.
Questions people ask
What does doomscrolling mean?
It means spending excessive time scrolling through online content, especially news, that makes you feel sad, anxious or angry. Merriam-Webster defines the verb doomscroll this way.
Who coined the word doomscrolling?
No single person is credited. Wordorigins found "doom-scrolling" in today's sense in a tweet from October 2018, and a March 2020 tweet by history professor Ellen Muehlberger set off its wide use.
Is doomscrolling bad for you?
Research links doomscrolling with anxiety, fear of missing out and constant phone use, but it can't yet say which causes which. The University of Florida researchers think the two feed each other.
Is doomscrolling the same as scrolling on TikTok?
Not exactly. The word started with bad news, but it's now widely used for any long scroll through feeds or short videos that leaves you feeling worse.
How do I stop doomscrolling at night?
Use Bedtime mode in Android's Digital Wellbeing to turn the screen grey on a schedule, set app timers for the apps you scroll most, and charge your phone away from the bed.