Doom-scrolling. It’s a term that carries very apocalyptic connotations — the notion that scrolling on your favourite social media will doom you to endless time spent trapped to the tech giant’s content algorithms. As a student, scrolling definitely feels dangerous for time wasting. It sometimes feels like i click on an Instagram notification, and then in a blur it’s been two hours on my phone. I tend to do this a lot at the library, and end up halving my study time.
However, social media usage doesn’t have to be negative, it doesn’t have to melt your brain and make you feel less intelligent. Recently, academia has flourished on media sites like Instagram, YouTube and Substack. These new academic discussions now take the form of easily digestible reels, video essays and Substack posts. As university students studying at archaic institutions, we are often wrongly impressed upon that the only learning worth doing is the learning found in hefty novels (written by white men three hundred years ago). Yet, it would be criminal to ignore the new wealth of academic potential that has flourished on social media, an increasingly accessible place for all ages and abilities.
If you’re like me and constantly at risk of doomscrolling your university days away, then worry not! This article has compiled lots of useful resources and information to help you break this cycle, and back away from useless social media usage. The point here is not to bash social media. Rather, I would like to point out some of my favourite tips for avoiding doomscrolling, whilst emphasising some useful alternatives. This is the time to be socialising and attending lectures, not watching five second reels of ai generated cats dancing.
Helpful tips on managing social media scrolling
Allocate time for phone checking
Firstly, don’t set yourself goals that are impossible and will be doomed to fail. For example, no time on social media. This is simply unrealistic, and let’s be honest, for most students social media is our main form of communication. Whether it’s texting on the course group chat, or making sure that you’re maintaining friendships by liking their notes and stories, being active on social media is important to your life. What’s not important, what can be cut away, is the amount of time doomscrolling. Something I do when I want to study is check my phone for twenty minutes at the end of every hour I spent studying. If you’re earlier in your social media detox journey, why not try checking every thirty minutes of studying? It doesn’t have to be a massive amount at the beginning, just enough that you can gradually build up over time
Firmly avoid going down negative paths
It certainly feels like the world is getting crazier and spinning off its axis with all the insane political and economic upheaval we’re experiencing, and social media absolutely loves to promote these feelings of crisis. These algorithims are inherently malicious : they want to generate profit and keep you on the app for longer, and they’ll do this be feeding you overtly negative and harmful content.
As mental health Uk report, doomscrolling can lead to an overload of negative information, causing us to become trapped in a cycle of feeling anxious and low. We may try to continue scrolling to feel better and accidentally chase more negativity. Therefore, whilst it’s hard to stop immediately, if you feel yourself falling down a rabbit hole of dark posts, put that phone down straight away. It’s for your own good.
Finding something more productive to do
This is where we’ll get into the new and juicy forms of learning you can do through alternative sites. Often I find myself doomscrolling to mindlessly pass the time. But what if you were engaging with critical thinking and thought provoking topics instead? As mentioned before, new accessible academia now exists in easily consumable digital formats like YouTube videos and reels — often with bright and fun visual formats (perfect for students who may have a shorter attention span). It’s documented that Doomscrolling gives individuals the negative impression that they are becoming less intelligent, that they’re attention spans are shortening and they aren’t as academically focused anymore. A perfect antidote to this would be persuing unconventional academia —the opportunity to learn outside of the rigid and sometimes horribly written journal articles we are required to read for university.
Doing so instead of doomscrolling definitely made me feel more secure about myself and my ability to engage with new themes and ideas, having a positive effect on my mental health.
Reality Television plays a big role in keeping Britain entertained, but can we trust its depictions of love ? Another banging video essay by ThoughtBug, who unpacks how Married at first sight normalised some pretty abusive behaviours within marriage.
It’s been a pretty shocking couple of days for the international community. Whilst Instagram reels may already be covering the crisis in dark humour terms, it might be better actually reading up on what’s going on. BBC news has an excellent updates page about the current crisis in the Middle East, rolling 24/7 news. Considering how unpredictable the world is right now, it’s good to get the latest info from a fairly reliable source.
It’s been a pretty disastrous week for Labour in the Gorton and Denton by-election, with the Green Party coming out on top ( with Reform not far behind). This article explores how this victory will shape the political future of our country, at a time when left leaning voters have become fractured between parties.
particularly relevant considering how doomscrolling negatively or ‘rots’ your learning potential, this Substack post similarly highlights how to learn new topics daily.
A reminder to curb those tendancies that self sabotage your ambitions and friendships — something that is never in your best interest.
