Doomscrolling: what it is, and how to stop.

What researchers mean by it

The researchers who built the first doomscrolling questionnaire describe it as a habit: people keep reading negative information about crises, disasters and tragedies in their social feeds. A 2026 review adds what most people recognise: it is repetitive and hard to stop. The term is young, and studies still define and measure it in slightly different ways.

Lawmakers have noticed the design behind it: the EU’s proposed KIDS Act would ban endless scrolling without real breaks for minors. Where each country stands: social media age limits in Europe. The short-video side of the same worry has its own word: brain rot. The design that keeps a feed going: infinite scroll.

What studies find

• A link with how people feel. A 2026 meta-analysis pooled 21 studies: people who doomscroll more report more anxiety and depression, more psychological distress, and lower well-being and life satisfaction.
• But not a cause. The same analysis rated the certainty of that evidence as very low. Most studies were one-off surveys, many from one country, and people who already feel anxious may scroll more.
• A few minutes are enough to dent your mood. In online experiments, two to four minutes of pandemic news lowered people’s positive mood straight away; reading about kind acts did not. The experiment measured mood right after reading, not later.
• Who does it is unclear. One study found it more common in men, younger adults and politically engaged people; a later Polish study found no link with age, gender or education.

Why it is hard to stop

Feeds have no bottom, bad news feels urgent, and every refresh might bring something new. Most sessions do not start with a decision to read the news. They start with a small reason to pick up the phone: the time, a message, the weather. The feed is one swipe away.

How to break the loop

1. Notice the doorway. Next time, note why you picked up the phone. Often it was something small.
2. News at set times, from a source you trust, as a summary rather than a feed: once in the morning, once in the evening.
3. Mute the loudest accounts and turn off news alerts; let people, not apps, interrupt you. More in what one buzz costs.
4. Set a stopping point before you start: one article, five minutes, the end of the coffee.
5. Keep the phone out of the bedroom. Late-night scrolling is the hardest to stop: your phone before bed.

Get the one thing, skip the feed

Many scrolling sessions begin with a question you could answer in a sentence: what time is my next meeting, did that email come, will it rain at five. Lychnos Ring is being built to answer those on your finger, over its own eSIM, so there is no feed to fall into. It is in development and makes no health claims; see an assistant that works without your phone.

Sources, read 4 November 2026: Sharma, Lee and Johnson, “The dark at the end of the tunnel: Doomscrolling on social media newsfeeds”, Technology, Mind, and Behavior, 2022; Li and Yin, systematic review and meta-analysis of doomscrolling and mental health, Frontiers in Psychology, 2026; Buchanan, Aknin, Lotun and Sandstrom, PLoS One, 2021; Rogowska, Marengo and Chlebowska, Chronic Stress, 2026. General information, not medical advice.