What Is Doomscrolling?

Doomscrolling is the act of continuously scrolling through negative or upsetting news or content, especially on social media.

The psychology behind doomscrolling involves our brain's natural negativity bias—we're hardwired to pay more attention to potential threats than positive information. Social media algorithms amplify this tendency by promoting emotionally charged content that keeps users engaged. The endless scroll feature on most platforms makes it easy to fall into a rabbit hole of increasingly distressing information.