What it means
Doomscrolling is when you keep scrolling through grim news and bleak posts long after it stops doing you any good, telling yourself you'll stop after just one more. It usually happens late at night, thumb on autopilot, brain marinating in worst case scenarios, and you end up more wired and more miserable than when you started.
Usage examples
"I told myself I'd sleep at eleven and then I was doomscrolling till two, reading about three different crises I can do nothing about."
"Put the phone down and stop doomscrolling, mate, you've been scrolling the same bad headlines for an hour and your tea's gone cold."
"I went on my phone to check the weather and somehow ended up doomscrolling through layoffs, floods, and a bloke predicting civilisation's finished by Thursday."
"She says she’s just catching up on the news, but every night it turns into doomscrolling and then she can’t sleep for toffee."
"I only opened Twitter for a sec and next thing I know I'm doomscrolling in the dark, fully convinced the world's on fire before bed."
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Where it comes from
It’s a plain blend of doom and scrolling. The word was already knocking about online by 2018, then it really took off in 2020 when people were glued to their phones through Covid, panic headlines, and nonstop bad news. It stuck because it named a habit loads of people instantly recognised in themselves.
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