The Root of Doomscrolling
Doomscrolling is a behavior associated with people surfing or scrolling “through bad news, even though that news is saddening, disheartening or depressing.”
According to researchers, binging on negative news is a practice that has been booming since 2020. The Oxford English Dictionary named it a word of the year in 2020 and added it to the dictionary. Some believe doomscrolling first showed up on Twitter in 2018 to describe social media users staying up-to-date with the latest news.
A University of Florida study found that doomscrolling “turns into compulsive online scrolling for negative information.” It also found that men and young people were more likely to engage in this behavior than women and older adults. Underlying this phenomenon is a fear of missing out and a need to constantly be connected online through smart devices.
But who is in control? Are we able to turn off the never-ending replays of all the crises and reports of doom and gloom? What if we are not missing out on anything except angst and more fear? What if instead, we actually have foundational work to do in the world?
FOTU
Right now, there is huge intensity of things falling apart around the world. And when systems begin to collapse, we can simply expect a lack of stability that can no longer be controlled. We stop expecting a delusional state of safety.
What if there is no safety in external knowledge, even during difficult times? Why do we feel a need to get answers when we’re fearful or feel threatened? Why do we need to know and are so fearful of the unknown? And do you even know that someone created the acronym FOTU; fear of the unknown??
FOTU, according to academic scientists is defined as “an individual’s propensity to experience fear caused by the perceived absence of information at any level of consciousness or point of processing.”
What if the unknown actually lets us out of our cave to experiment until we tap into what’s calling us?
What We Choose (Doomscrolling), We Become, or Not
Opportunity creators are all about hope, joy and even euphoria. What if we give no attention to the doomsayers (both people and media)? And instead, create a flow of relationships and information that sparks and ignites us at the core.
When we consciously choose to see things as they are, and not how we were told they are supposed to be, everything changes. When we have healthy people supporting us instead of people who constantly want to fix us, we can breath and flow. And there is no need to scroll as we get the information we need from the people around us by creating conversations. And it also starts with making sure our intentions are pure and true.
This is our time to become aware that healthy connections birth opportunities and synchronicities in our lives. And that the stories we have been fed about the successful good life are not coming with us. We are more the same than different and it’s time unleash our dreams and see with healthy eyes what is truly possible; with limited fear.
When we stop doomscrolling, we choose what information we bring into our lives. And instead of using our fingers to get the latest and greatest information, we tap into our whole body to have conversations with ourselves and people who ignite our curiosity. We no longer need to be someone’s audience when we choose to participate fully in our lives.