Short videos from the war zone on TikTok, pictures of flood victims on Instagram, the latest incidence figures in the newsfeed – does this flood of negative news and information on the net sound familiar? And do you feel like you want to know more and more about it and can’t get away from it? This phenomenon has a name: Doomscrolling.
The word doomscrolling is composed of the English words doom and scrolling. Doom translates as “doom” or “doom”, scrolling means something like “scrolling” and describes the shifting of the screen. Doomscrolling refers to the excessive consumption of bad news on the web.
In times of Corona, the Ukraine war and climate change, it is difficult for children and young people, but also for us adults, to keep track of current developments. Especially in social media, we are confronted with the latest photos, videos and information every day. This is stressful, can quickly become overwhelming, and can lead to negative thoughts and anxiety. To deal with this fear, we gather even more information to better assess current situations. This starts the search history, which seems to lead to infinity, and the doomscrolling effect begins.
In the process, we forget how much time we spend in front of the smartphone, tablet or laptop and remain for hours in a never-ending vortex of negative messages. In addition, the algorithms of social networks adapt to our interest in negative news and constantly provide us with new horror stories without us being aware of it.
The most important thing is to become aware of the constant consumption of negative messages. Because only when you and your child develop an awareness of your own media actions in terms of doomscrolling can you rethink your behavior.
When it comes to doomscrolling, it helps not to lose sight of positive news and experiences and to take care of yourself. Stay engaged in conversation with your child about negative messages they read and strengthen their media and information literacy. This also includes dealing with fake news.