“Here is my mini-theory of doomscrolling. For me, it is an attempt to access something vast, unexpected, sublime, the sort of thing that can shake me out of my body and replace the tesseracting, constellating, refracting, recurring nature of grief.”
I feel this very deeply. My own scrolling has made my life markedly worse and it’s only until just now, reading your newsletter, that I realized it. Thank you for that.
wow, lovely (lovely that reading my newsletter helped you name a bad scrolling habit, not lovely that scrolling sucks for you too). i've been finding that not everyone has a bad relationship with it—i'm curious what yours feels like and where you think it comes from
I have learned that I highly value being surprised. In love, art, humor, everything — I love having my expectations subverted. Scrolling provides a kind of artificial version of a surprise, but it isn’t nourishing like those other things are. Every thumb-length I scroll reveals a mini story or little bit of surprise that pings in my brain. I scroll and scroll and scroll getting those little surprises in a comfortable, unchallenging, easy cadence. But it’s like a zero calorie artificial sweetener when what I really want is cane sugar. It does me no good. I might get a little laugh at a joke on twitter or vicariously have a rocky romance that I read about on Reddit, but it’s a pale imitation of the stuff that really helps me. I scroll in lieu of living, loving, reading, writing.
I think it started getting really bad during the pandemic when all I had to do was scroll scroll scroll.
Glad the lockbox is working for you! Most people I know are trying to change their relationship to social media/scrolling dramatically right now. One of my besties just got a flip phone. I think in a year most of my circle will be weaned off Instagram and tiktok. I love that you’re accessing the wonder of the internet again- it’s been a while since I actually felt excited to log on! But I guess you have to actually log off in order to be excited to log on.
i've been hearing about people getting flip phones again! this might be before your time, but in high school all the cool kids on the subway had sidekicks, and they'd flip it open to make this really distinctive sound. there was something so stylish about the act
Loved the writing! I fully concur with the immersive experiences in nature which if often filled with real awe and a sense of our smallness. However, I wonder if doomscrolling isn't a new phenomenon but just an extension of our need to look at things that scare, revolt, annoy or anger us from a distance. It's not quite the same but the category of true crime TV, murder mystery books, disaster news reporting all serve a similar purpose but with social media the endless scroll takes it to a new level.
hi tyagarajan! i agree that the phenomenon has existed for a long time, to lesser degrees. i wonder if i'd need a lockbox for a good murder mystery novel (i'd probably put it away when i was done). people do seem to have been saying the same thing about television for decades: https://www.nytimes.com/1971/06/27/archives/are-you-hooked-by-tv-are-you-hooked-by-television.html — but, as you've said, the portability and infinite scroll of phones really take it to a new level.
“Here is my mini-theory of doomscrolling. For me, it is an attempt to access something vast, unexpected, sublime, the sort of thing that can shake me out of my body and replace the tesseracting, constellating, refracting, recurring nature of grief.”
I feel this very deeply. My own scrolling has made my life markedly worse and it’s only until just now, reading your newsletter, that I realized it. Thank you for that.
wow, lovely (lovely that reading my newsletter helped you name a bad scrolling habit, not lovely that scrolling sucks for you too). i've been finding that not everyone has a bad relationship with it—i'm curious what yours feels like and where you think it comes from
I have learned that I highly value being surprised. In love, art, humor, everything — I love having my expectations subverted. Scrolling provides a kind of artificial version of a surprise, but it isn’t nourishing like those other things are. Every thumb-length I scroll reveals a mini story or little bit of surprise that pings in my brain. I scroll and scroll and scroll getting those little surprises in a comfortable, unchallenging, easy cadence. But it’s like a zero calorie artificial sweetener when what I really want is cane sugar. It does me no good. I might get a little laugh at a joke on twitter or vicariously have a rocky romance that I read about on Reddit, but it’s a pale imitation of the stuff that really helps me. I scroll in lieu of living, loving, reading, writing.
I think it started getting really bad during the pandemic when all I had to do was scroll scroll scroll.
I think I’m going to try one of those boxes.
!!! well put. hoping the lockbox does you well
Glad the lockbox is working for you! Most people I know are trying to change their relationship to social media/scrolling dramatically right now. One of my besties just got a flip phone. I think in a year most of my circle will be weaned off Instagram and tiktok. I love that you’re accessing the wonder of the internet again- it’s been a while since I actually felt excited to log on! But I guess you have to actually log off in order to be excited to log on.
i've been hearing about people getting flip phones again! this might be before your time, but in high school all the cool kids on the subway had sidekicks, and they'd flip it open to make this really distinctive sound. there was something so stylish about the act
Loved the writing! I fully concur with the immersive experiences in nature which if often filled with real awe and a sense of our smallness. However, I wonder if doomscrolling isn't a new phenomenon but just an extension of our need to look at things that scare, revolt, annoy or anger us from a distance. It's not quite the same but the category of true crime TV, murder mystery books, disaster news reporting all serve a similar purpose but with social media the endless scroll takes it to a new level.
hi tyagarajan! i agree that the phenomenon has existed for a long time, to lesser degrees. i wonder if i'd need a lockbox for a good murder mystery novel (i'd probably put it away when i was done). people do seem to have been saying the same thing about television for decades: https://www.nytimes.com/1971/06/27/archives/are-you-hooked-by-tv-are-you-hooked-by-television.html — but, as you've said, the portability and infinite scroll of phones really take it to a new level.