Russia. Ukraine. Coronavirus. Floods.
It's good to be informed about what's going on in the world, but sometimes, our appetite for information goes into overdrive.
If you've found yourself endlessly scrolling the news lately, not quite sure whether you're taking in anything you're reading but not wanting to miss an update, you're not alone.
Doomscrolling — the practice of continuing to read news feeds online or on social media, despite the fact that the news is predominantly negative and often upsetting — is an easy pattern to fall into when the quest for information overrides everything else.
"It's that tricky tension between wanting to be informed — that idea of being the responsible citizen and understanding what's going on in the world — but then actually, knowing when to stop," Sora Park, Associate Dean of Research and Professor of Communication at the Faculty of Arts and Design at the University of Canberra says.
But why do we doomscroll in the first place? And what, if anything, can we do to stop?
Fight, flight or doomscroll
While people get drawn into doomscrolling because they desire information, it's also part of our biology — we're wired to be attuned to any threats in our environment.
Dr Andrew Hughes specialises in emotions research at the Australian National University's Research School of Management.
He says our response to bad news is related to evolution.
"And because we're so worried about [bad news] coming out of the blue, and we've probably had experiences in our lives where something big and traumatic happened, out of the blue, it's reinforced the need for us to be very aware of our environment and the context around it."
Dr Hughes says the COVID pandemic is an example of this.
"It really hit home hard through COVID because it came so quick. And it was so fluid and it still is — the lockdowns happen really quickly, people have no time to prepare," he says.
"All this stuff with Ukraine and Russia going on, even though it's thousands of miles away ... a lot of people are talking about it here because it's that same flight or fight response: How has this trigger affected my life."
How the landscape has changed
While evolution might play a role in our need for information, the way we consume our news can also lend itself to doomscrolling .
Dr Park and her team at the University of Canberra's News and Media Research Centre have been tracking news consumption for seven years with the Digital News Report Australia project.
"Obviously, there's been huge shifts over the past six or seven years. It's been fascinating to see how things are changing," Dr Park says.
"People are going online, going to social media, for their news.
One of the downfalls of these newer platforms is that you're surrounded by information, all the time.
The onus also lies more heavily with the user to fact-check what they're reading — which leads to yet more consumption.
"Young people do it much more than older people as a habit," Dr Park says.
"They're sceptical of anything they see online, and it's so easy now to go on Google and … search whether or not it's legitimate."
But amid this process of fact-checking, it can be really easy to get lost in all the noise.
"People start out with curiosity — they want to know and they discover things," Dr Park says.
"You read something, you question it, you critique it, and then you search for other sources to verify it.
The downsides of doomscrolling
The toll doomscrolling takes is real; it can lead to cognitive overload, stress, anxiety, and a loss of perspective and focus.
"You've got to be conscious of [capacity], because if you're seeing these early signs of overload happening, where you start to forget things, for example, that's a sign you've reached your capacity and you need to reduce it," Dr Hughes says.
"If you've got a predisposition to anxiety in any way … then it'll trigger [doomscrolling] probably at a higher rate and level of intensity than for other people, for a whole bunch of reasons. But the impact will be that those people will spend more time not just reading, but thinking about the content as well.
"If you … keep on reinforcing that anxiety all the time through your scrolling habits and media consumption habits, then you'll find you're always walking on eggshells, and you'll start to lose focus and perspective."
Too much doomscrolling can also lead to opting out of the news cycle altogether.
"In our study, we found that people get tired of news so they avoid news for a while. And then because they need to know about it — COVID is important, flooding is important, the war is important — you have to go back and consume it, and then you get the fatigue again," Dr Park says.
"It's very exhausting."
But while once upon a time the end of the TV news bulletin meant this information stream was regulated for us, it's now up to the individual to draw the line.
"If people are able to stop before reaching their capacity, then they can have a constant stream of news that is still entertaining and useful," Dr Park says.
So how can we do that?
Five things you can do to stop doomscrolling
There are some things you can do to curb doomscrolling.
First, Dr Park says you could consider being just a little less informed.
"It might sound contradictory … but being slightly less informed is better than being overloaded, because you can't process the information anyway. You get cognitive overload, and you won't be able to absorb new information," she says.
"So stopping before that overload begins is probably the best solution. If you feel like you're learning something, it seems fun, you're curious, then that's when you stop."
Second, introducing time limits to your scrolling habits can help you keep some healthy boundaries.
"Try and minimise the time you spend on scrolling," Dr Hughes says.
"Give yourself a time limit. A lot of people I talk to don't — because when you look at these apps, the clock's hidden.
"If you've got a digital assistant, you can actually set time limits pretty easily."
Third, don't scroll on all devices.
Dr Park says she creates a boundary by reading news on her laptop, and keeping her phone separate.
"If I want to see news, I prefer to do it on my laptop, because I'm not on my laptop all the time compared to my phone," she says.
"Or I turn on the TV, so I try not to use my phone for news."
Fourth, both Dr Park and Dr Hughes wholeheartedly agree that the best thing you can do to break the doomscrolling cycle, is to physically walk away from your screen.
"Step away from looking at stories, take a break, think about maybe what else you need to do that day, make a note of it, and then go back to looking at your screen," Dr Hughes says.
"You'll find that the stories will look different as well, but also you'll process the information differently."
Finally, you can't underestimate the power of talking to another person in real life.
"Go and talk to people and maintain perspective," Dr Hughes says.
"And don't be afraid to share your feelings and emotions because that's really powerful as well, it'll help you process that information.
"Ring up people like Lifeline if you have to, you'll get rid of a lot of stuff out of your mind, and you'll feel a different focus and perspective when you when you finish talking to them. Don't be ashamed or afraid of doing that."
