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doomscrolling

US/ˈdumˌskɹolɪŋ/
nounC1Very rare — outside the 30,000 commonest English words, so you will meet it in writing rather than in speechToo rare in one of the two pools to compare — fewer than 20 uses in speech or in writing

Doomscrolling is reading bad news online long after it helps. Stop doomscrolling, an evening of doomscrolling, doomscrolling until two.

The word spread in 2020 and named something everybody recognised at once. The feed is built to reward it, since alarming posts hold attention longest, and the reader keeps going in search of a resolution that never comes.

Japanexperterna.se · CC BY-SA 2.0

Definitions of doomscrolling

  1. 1noundoomscrollingReading bad news online long after it helps.C1

    “I spent half the night doomscrolling through news about the floods and couldn't sleep.”

doomscrolling is a habit.

Where it comes from

Doom plus scrolling, from scrolling through feeds of distressing news; the word spread widely in 2020.

From doom + scrolling, from the practice of scrolling through timelines and news feeds on a computer or mobile device; originally in a context of being dissatisfied with current socio-political conditions and headlines. Popularized and surged during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in Music, Art & Culture, News & Communication

Practise this word

doomscrolling in the wild

  • First released in 2009, it has been used to manage phone addiction, reduce doomscrolling, and sustain focus in professional and academic settings.

    Freedom (application)

  • Surveys and studies suggest doomscrolling is predominant among youth.

    Doomscrolling

  • More specifically, research indicates that doomscrolling tends to be more common among males, individuals in younger age groups and those who actively follow political events.

    Doomscrolling

From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.