#doomscrolling

[papersoupz]

Im so sick of being dragged back into the doomscrolling CIRCLE OF DOOM I dont even think I would be mad if short form content was removed from like everything ever IM SO SICK OF SHORTS AND NOW IM WATCHING EDITS ON PINTEREST FOR MAJORITY OF THE DAYYYY the worst part is I did this to myself

[kingripredofthegnawers]

You all know that moment when

your sitting in bed on your computer (or phone) at like 9:30 and you look up ONE fandom thing and then suddenly is 3 AM your whole face hurts your back is sore your sweaty you just fell into the wormhole about the most random shit and now you spent roughly 7 hours in the same position and you have to wake up at 5 but you decide to post about in on here?

Just me?

[vespervex]

"instead of doom scrolling try learning a new language!" Oh yeah well I'm doing both, what are you gonna do about it

[worldofnihkol]

UGLY IS YOUR SUPERPOWER

[jakes-paws]

How did we all get addicted to the internet???

I'm currently writing my bachelors thesis on how primary teachers can teach their students critical social media literacy. I'm about halfway through with my paper, but the longer I research, the more I realize that we're sort of in this social-media-short-form-content-soup that we cant manage to get out of. The internet really did change drastically in the last 10 years alone. I don't just want to rant (although it feels good). I just want to ramble about how we could attempt, or how I will try (once again) to battle this.

I started researching, and trying out different methods of social media/ internet abstinence since probably 2023. Every time I fell back one way or another. Its always sort of this up and down all the time. I feel like I'm losing connection to myself and to my surroundings. I suspect- that personally my underlying problem is dopamine addiction: in the form of easy accessibility of pornographic content on every corner of the internet, short form content, being flooded by information and images constantly. Yesterday I watched an episode of King of Queens, a 90's/2000's sitcom. In the scene, the main couple sat on the couch, reading or watching TV when the phone rang. They did not jump up to get it, instead, they agreed with each other that they're busy and don't want to take the call right now. That sort of blew my mind. And that's another thing I fucking hate. I hate having to be available all the time. I'm trying to fight that by having a landline phone again and asking my boyfriend to hide my smartphone. The dumbphone route didnt work for me, because there are certain apps I need for work, or to get around the public transport system.

Sometimes I wish I could have some sort of person who controls my media use (like a fucking parent) because I cant seem to accomplish that myself.

Today I saw a video about the topic that introduced me to "rawdogging boredom". Its basically just meditating- where you do absolutely nothing for a given amount of time. People claim that it helped them to break out of this condition our brains have succumbed to. So maybe I should try that out. I also noticed that I currently dont have a hobby im really captured by, like rotating it in my head and stuff.

Okay so send post idk, I'll try that rawdogging boredom thing out lol.

[ioshk]

I got addicted to doomscrolling. Hours after hours on YouTube Shorts.

Gonna do a detox. No shorts for a day first. If I wanna watch something, it has to be a movie/tv show episode or a long form content.

Wish me luck. 🙏

[emiel-surreal]

I'm in a competition with nobody to have the lowest screen time. My phone makes me physically ill, holding it, looking at it. I've deleted all the apps I used to doomscroll. I find it a lot easier to resist doomscrolling on my laptop. I ordered a dumb phone. It should arrive soon. I'd been researching dumb phones for a long time and finally found one that seems to suit my needs and values. I might start a Month Offline cohort in my city. I'm reading more and journaling more. Hard to say right now, because I'm moving in a few weeks and who knows what life will look like after that, but I might actually have time to study my target languages after being on hiatus for... too long.

Maybe I'm the odd one out in that I need to fully unplug and dumb down to feel satisfied. Other people are content with their screentimes (My screentime used to be 8+ hours a day when I was in high school. Lately it's been 4 hours a day. Yesterday was less than 1 hour.) or simply turning their phone to grayscale for a month to detox. Other people may truly not be bothered by endless social media feeds or being bombarded with notifications from apps begging us to use them. I've put my phone in grayscale and monochrome, I've put my phone on Do Not Disturb, but these things aren't enough for me. I still stare at my phone waiting for something good to happen, for something to make me feel good even though the entire waiting period feels like shit. I still obsessively check my phone just in case I didn't feel it vibrate. Maybe this time I have a hundred messages to reply to, and I'll have a reason to stare at my phone for another hour. And then I do finally get a notification, and it's just the weather app telling me that it's due to start raining in 15 minutes. So, not the dopamine hit I was hoping for anyway.

I fully deleted my Instagram account last year, and I feel happier without that godforsaken app. I haven't used other apps like Tiktok and Snapchat and Twitter in years. Everyone has Instagram though. You have to follow your family, your friends, your friends' friends, celebrities, brands, local organizations. I realized I don't even like seeing the "lives" of people I don't talk to, don't truly know or care about. Being mutuals isn't being friends. And I don't care to post, either. I don't like views or likes or comments. I do things with people I care about, and we talk about the things we did together, with no compulsion to publish it for an audience that doesn't actually care.

Often, I do feel like other people are in denial about how malignant smartphones--and the relationships we have with them--are. It does also frustrate me to hear someone moralize angrily about how toxic social media are, but continue to use them. No one is holding a gun to your head while you waste hours on Facebook or Tiktok. Yeah, your life will look different if you choose to socialize with people in ways they aren't used to. But like, that's the point.

[potatolord-9000]

So I just deleted Instagram bc I kept doomscrolling on there and I'm trying to cut back on social media but tumblr's version of doomscrolling barely even qualifies sometimes. Like I'm just fandomscrolling, I'm hopescrolling, artistscrolling on here bro lmao