Doomscrolling
Etymology
A compound of "doom" and "scrolling," the word emerged on social media in the late 2010s and surged into wide use in 2020 during the pandemic and a dense news cycle. It reflects the design of infinite-scroll feeds, which remove the natural stopping points a newspaper or bulletin once had. It is a native internet coinage rather than a borrowing from older usage.
noun · /DOOM-skroh-ling/
The compulsive habit of scrolling through a stream of bad news even though it makes you feel worse.
What it names
A specific modern trap: reaching for your phone for relief and instead feeding an anxiety loop that keeps promising a resolution that never comes.
Example
I meant to check the weather and surfaced an hour later, doomscrolling through disasters I could do nothing about.
Related idea
Doomscrolling is the compulsive behavior; the negativity bias is the underlying psychology that makes it possible, our tendency to attend to threats far more than to good news.
See also