doomscrolling

SayDOOM-skroh-lingUS/ˈdumˌskɹoʊlɪŋ/UK/ˈduːmˌskɹəʊlɪŋ/

3 meanings of doomscrolling

1
nouncolloquialneologismuncountable
The practice of continually reading online news about disasters and other catastrophic events.
Like compulsively picking at a wound: each fresh piece of bad news hurts, yet you keep going back.
Constant doomscrolling during the pandemic worsened many people's mental health.
She blamed her low mood on weeks of late-night doomscrolling about the war.
Similardoomsurfing
Note
A compound built in plain sight: doom plus scrolling, from scrolling through timelines and news feeds. It first named dwelling on dispiriting political headlines, then surged during the COVID-19 pandemic. Brian X. Chen was already telling readers how to snap out of it in July 2020. Even as a noun it often takes what is read straight after it (a respite from doomscrolling daily news), and doomsurfing means the same thing.
2
noununcountable
Endless, aimless consumption of any social media content, especially on scroll-based platforms like Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter.
Like wandering the aisles of a store with no list and no intention to buy: just moving for the sake of moving.
Her weekend disappeared into mindless doomscrolling across three different apps.
He admitted that doomscrolling had replaced reading before bed.
Note
Here the doom has drained out of the word: the feed no longer needs to carry bad news, only to be endless. The broadening keeps the compulsive, aimless quality of the news-reading sense and its tie to scroll-based platforms. That is why it fits an evening lost to Instagram or TikTok as naturally as one lost to headlines. When the difference matters, name what is being scrolled.
3
verb
Present participle of doomscroll.
He was doomscrolling through news feeds well past midnight.
They kept doomscrolling even as the headlines grew grimmer.
Note
The form that carries the verb's progressive tenses: he was doomscrolling past midnight. Doomscroll works both ways. Used intransitively, it often takes through or about (doomscrolling through feeds). Used transitively, the thing read becomes its object (doomscrolling the headlines). The same spelling also serves as the noun for the habit, which is far more common.
She spent the whole evening doomscrolling the election results.
He lay awake doomscrolling until three in the morning.

doomscrolling is a form of doomscroll

doomscroll, verb: To keep scrolling through negative or distressing news online, often compulsively and to one's own detriment. Full entry

Forms: doomscrolldoomscrolls he/she/itdoomscrolling -ing formdoomscrolled past tense, past participle
Spelling: doomscroll → doomscrolling: add -ing

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Origin

A blend of doom and scrolling, from the habit of scrolling through timelines and news feeds on a computer or mobile device, originally tied to unhappiness with current socio-political conditions and headlines. The term surged in popularity during the COVID-19 pandemic.