5 strategies to help you stop doomscrolling

You’ve just woken up, bleary-eyed and still half asleep. What’s the first thing you do? 

If you reach for your phone, you’re one of the 81% of Brits (according to the Independent) who opt to scroll before their feet touch the floor.

Phones and social media have unlocked an entirely new way for us to access the news, one that is fast, convenient, and accessible.

However, it has also introduced us to the dangers of “doomscrolling”.

Doomscrolling emerged during the Covid-19 pandemic, as many stuck at home turned to their phones for constant crisis updates. Its widespread use led to it being included in the Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary, defined as: the action of constantly scrolling through depressing updates on a news site or social media, especially on a phone.

While doomscrolling has become normalised, it can pose a danger to your health and wellbeing. 

Keep reading to find out how, and discover five habits to help you break the doomscrolling cycle.

Doomscrolling presents significant mental and physical health risks

According to the Eastern Daily Press:

• Brits spend more than two hours a day scrolling on their phones.
• This is equivalent to more than 12km of thumb movement every month.
• 9 in 10 admit they doomscroll knowing they should stop.

The Guardian also reports that 36% of phone use is unintentional, and that Brits might spend up to five years of their life doomscrolling.

This extensive and often subconscious phone usage could be affecting your wellbeing.

According to the American Brain Foundation, when you doomscroll and consume negative media in high volumes, it can:

• Worsen mental wellbeing and life satisfaction 
• Increase existential anxiety
• Cause loss of focus (particularly at work).

In extreme cases, Harvard reports that doomscrolling can cause popcorn brain – a biological phenomenon where it can feel as if your brain is popping because you’re being overstimulated online.

Doomscrolling can also encourage a sedentary lifestyle, as well as headaches, neck and shoulder pain, low appetite, difficulty sleeping, and elevated blood pressure.

5 effective strategies to help you put down your phone

Extreme phone usage, also known as “problematic smartphone use”, can be described as an addiction. If you’re affected, you might experience nomophobia – the intense fear or anxiety you feel when you are without your phone or unable to use it.

This is why it can be so hard to break phone habits like doomscrolling even when you know it would be good for you.

Here are five strategies to help you stop.

1. Establish healthy phone boundaries 

The space you are in can have a major impact on how likely you are to doomscroll. 

The bedroom, for example, is one of the most common areas in the home for doomscrolling. It’s also one of the most harmful, as extreme phone usage can impact sleep patterns.

It’s therefore important that you designate certain areas (where you are more likely to doomscroll or where doomscrolling can have the most negative effect) as phone-free zones. This separates you from the habit and encourages you to restore your healthy, positive relationship with the space.

2. Clear out overwhelmingly negative sources from your feed

You see bad news more than good news because it is more engaging. Psychology Today (based on a Nature Human Behaviour study) reports that when editors include negative words like “hate” and “worst” in headlines, more people click on them compared to when headlines include “love” and “best”.

Sifting through your social media and removing overwhelmingly negative news sources can help you reduce the chance of falling into a doomscrolling hole.

While it’s difficult to remove all negative news stories from your feed, creating a healthy balance between good and bad news can help you ensure that the time you spend on your phone is more positive and rewarding.

3. Eliminate unnecessary notifications

Hundreds of notifications buzz from your phone each day. Some might be important work emails or must-answer calls, but many will be doom-and-gloom headlines encouraging you back to your screen for another doomscrolling session.

Turning off all unnecessary notifications reduces your exposure to doomscrolling triggers. 

You can pick and choose what notifications you do receive in your phone settings. This means you can stop notifications from doomscrolling apps but enable phone calls and messages from your loved ones.

4. Set a time limit

It’s easy for time to slip away when you’re doomscrolling. Five minutes can easily turn into 30, then an hour, then an afternoon.

You can limit your screen time in your phone settings. Alternatively, you could set a timer on your watch to remind you when to put your phone down or turn it off completely.

5. Swap scrolling for healthy phone habits

Your phone doesn’t need to be a source of grief. In fact, you can replace anxiety-inducing doomscrolling with mentally rewarding activities, like phone games.

In one study reported by the Guardian, researchers found that strategy, action, and open-world games could support problem-solving, coordination, and neuroplasticity – the brain’s ability to reorganise, change, and adapt its structures and function.

Whenever you feel the urge to reach for your phone, consider playing a brainteaser instead of opening social media, such as Sudoku, Duolingo, or Words with Friends.

Get in touch 

Your phone might make the world seem like a bottomless pit of bad news. But small, simple changes can help you break the doomscrolling cycle and restore your faith in the future.

The same can happen with your personal finances.

Learn more about how we can help you discover true financial peace of mind. Set up a meeting today.