Hole

In recent years, negative media has increased stress and mental health issues through ‘doomscrolling’ in teens, and has become a common problem faced by many students.

By Emmett Abar

Social platforms provide streams of information in the form of stories, videos and pictures. The content can be stress-inducing, causing people to eventually spiral into a rabbit hole of negative information that becomes detrimental to viewers’ mental health. This neverending loop is commonly known as “doomscrolling,” and is a phenomenon that has become a more frequent issue among those actively online.

Doomscrolling started to become a more prevalent issue during COVID-19, when students were forced to have free time while also experiencing general anxiety about global issues. Senior Leah Helfer-Ross noticed a spike in anxiety correlating with her intake of news during her sophomore year in quarantine.

“It probably contributed pretty heavily to my anxiety levels because I wasn’t just anxious about my personal circumstances, it was also about larger global issues,” Helfer-Ross said.

Helfer-Ross found herself following the same routine of getting interested in a topic at the beginning of her day, and becoming re-interested at night. When going deeper into the subject at night, she’d scroll for hours at a time.

“[Doomscrolling] was really bad late at night because I would hear about something early in the day, and I would come back thinking about the things,” Helfer-Ross said. “I’d just be trying to learn to be educated and informed, but I’d be up for hours.”

This cycle affected HelferRoss’s energy levels, which also had a negative impact on her friendships.

“I had a really hard time just having the energy to do other things that weren’t worrying about things because I’d spend all my energy,” Helfer-Ross said. “I was too anxious to ask my friends to hang out or do things that were fun.”

Helfer-Ross has created boundaries to help keep her from following past tendencies and hopefully, avoid the subsequent anxiety.

Caroline

“One of the things I try to do is not be on my phone or computer super late at night because that was removing my access. That was a pretty big step for me,” Helfer-Ross said. “I don’t really watch the news anymore. It just feels like terrible thing after terrible thing, and I can’t anymore.”

Social media has such easy access to both negative and positive information, that Helfer-Ross has created strategies on how to specifically stop herself if she finds social media to be stressful.

“If you catch yourself in that loop of negative Tik Toks … then just close it