We Should be Outraged by Doomscrolling

Doomscrolling. Tip-tapping away on your device like you have all the time in the world. Like there aren't people to see, sunsets to enjoy, or books to read, each of which can enrich your life to no end. How much time will you spend in your life doomscrolling? How much time will you lose not doing the things that you've dreamed of, the things that make life worth reminiscing about?

My goal in asking these questions certainly isn't to stress you out over the fleeting nature of life, but rather to put doomscrolling into perspective. This term, along with ones like brain rot, trivialise the act of wasting away on your phone consuming meaningless, and barely enjoyable content online. We shouldn't allow these terms to be used so flippantly. The act of doomscrolling, and the fact that large companies profit handsomely out of us participating in it, should be something that we should take very seriously, and, in truth, something we should be completely and utterly outraged by.

How is it that we can sit back and accept that the social media tycoons of the world make it their very business to waste our precious and short lives? How is it that we, as individuals, allow ourselves to be willing participants in this game?

As the years have gone on, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok and co have slowly gotten more and more addictive, and our screentimes have gotten more and more extreme. Now, in 2026, many of us are trying to move away from these apps. And, as many of us have found, it's difficult. Gen Z and Gen Alpha have grown up with social media; our brains have grown around it, just like that tree in Washington that slowly enveloped the bicycle left against it.

The younger generations' relationship with social media is a complicated one. It's not quite accurate to say that we've simply picked up a bad habit and use our phones too much. Really, we've grown up around something comparable to a drug. These platforms are engineered to exploit our brains, unrelentingly triggering dopamine releases by exploiting our evolutionary desire for connection, as well as our foraging instinct: our desire to find and enjoy new things.

What changed the game with social media is short form content. TikTok, Reels, and Shorts provide an endless, auto-playing conveyor belt of novelty that our brains find absolutely irresistible. Each video is different enough to trigger that dopamine hit, and similar enough to keep you watching. The algorithm doesn't just respond to what you like, it anticipates what you're about to like before you even know yourself. You never have to make a decision, never have to seek anything out. The foraging is done for you, on an infinite loop.

The worst part of this song and dance is the aftermath. As Stanford psychiatrist Anna Lembke explains, "Upon signing off, the brain is plunged into a dopamine-deficit state as it attempts to adapt to the unnaturally high levels of dopamine social media just released." This is why social media might feel good when we're using it, and sometimes brutal when we stop.

The cruellest part is that as well as taking us away from more productive and meaningful aspects of life, it decreases our ability to actively engage in them. Instead of losing one's self in a sunset, a deeply human experience enjoyed by our ancestors for thousands of years, we find ourselves reaching for our phones. We miss subtle nuances of films because we were looking at our phone in our laps. Instead of laughing with our friends, we're sitting in silence in our own grey little worlds.

Overuse of social media makes us less curious, less imaginative, less motivated and ultimately less able to enjoy the beauty of life for what it really is. We should talk about our social media use with more seriousness, and refuse to allow doomscrolling and brain rot to be normal aspects of our lives.

If these ideas resonate with you, I'd like to encourage you to check out my upcoming app, YourScroll, which helps you to use social media mindfully by challenging you to use your brain to create something. Click here for more info.