A Scroll into the Media Black hole

By Molly Richards (she/her)

You might have heard the term before, and in this technological age it is likely you have fallen victim to the ever-horrifying ‘doom scroll’. If you are unfamiliar, doom scrolling is where you find yourself in a vicious and often cyclical media wormhole. Today I’ll be speaking directly to social media and from personal experience. I’m no expert but I have found myself in the scrolling spiral more times than I’d care to admit.

Before I continue, I want to congratulate you and thank you for picking up this bit of paper. Unlike me, even during this writing, I am distracted by the void on my phone. It’s a nightmare and, unfortunately, a habit I’ve caught myself doing. I don’t know about you, but I go to check the time and whilst I’m at it I might as well flood by eyeballs with content. Flick through various apps, and then lock my phone, completely forgetting what I was meaning to check. I’m not one hundred percent sure why, but I’ll open an app and just scroll for five minutes, but suddenly my phones on 5% and it’s dark outside. Why? It’s crazy how you can just scroll and scroll though videos, posts, texts without thinking. You always have access to endless media in your hand – scary right? Honestly horrifying, I hadn’t heard of a name for this phenomenon until recently, and immediately I knew what it meant.

There is something so familiar about scrolling through the social media of your choosing and staying there for undefinable amounts of time. I have often wondered why, especially when I’m not really interested in the content anyway. I assume it’s because I’m bored or have nothing better to do. This is a half-truth, almost always there is something better to do but it’s difficult to pull away from that blue light. And once you’re sucked in, it is hard to get out of the media wormhole. From watching videos of cats doing funny little dances, movie clips, and influencers reviewing random crap to the endless amounts of capybara clips circulating my feed, it’s increasingly difficult to escape. Not to say scrolling is an inheritably bad thing, it can be a welcome time out. However, when it passes into distraction and then (occasionally) followed by guilt, it’s not so good. What

is also surprising is how exhausting it is to scroll.

Taking in so much information constantly can’t be all that good for your wellbeing, right? Now, I shouldn’t get started on this because the thought frustrates me, but it must be said. A part 2? I can understand you might have a lot to say and in that case three minutes isn’t a long time. BUT I have just told myself this is the last clip I’m watching however you have left me on a cliff-hanger, and I must continue. How else will I ever know what happened to that dude with the sunglasses on this obscure, overly specific, and mildly interesting first date? In these incidences, I will often spend upwards of two minutes scrolling through your page to find that dreaded part two. Which often leads to a part three and inevitable disappointment, after which I sit in the veil of darkness that has swallowed my room, frustrated with myself for wasting my own time.

So, I’ve had a think of ways to nip this scrolling in the metaphorical bud before I go completely insane. I once deleted all my social media apps for three months in high school. This wasn’t the worst idea but for a couple reasons, it didn’t work. On the positive side, I had three months of peace from the media rat-race and accompanying scroll into the black hole. On the flip side, my friends thought I’d disappeared. I was hard to reach in a world where social media is a major form of communication. Now, in the working world, social media is a tool that unfortunately I can no longer purge from my phone.

So, I suggest a time limit. Now you can set a limit on most social media apps to remind you of your location on the space-time continuum. Not a bad idea, I must say. Even if you snooze the time like me with my morning alarm, at least you know how long you’ve been there for. I tell you I dread the weekly screen report that pops up to mock me. Yet, I suppose that’s a good look in the mirror.

I must urge you not to be too hard on yourself, and I am in no position to judge your screen time. Media is designed to keep you watching, especially social media platforms like TikTok. It’s a tough predicament many of us find ourselves in daily. I only can say to keep moderation in mind, and if you find yourself doom scrolling like me, just remember that you’ll never reach the bottom of the explore page. Seriously, and mathematically, the odds are not in your favour.