Doomscrolling: Why You Can't Put the Phone Down

One more scroll. Then one more. An hour later you couldn't name a single thing you actually learned, just a heavier, vaguer kind of dread.

It's not really about the news, and it's not a willpower problem. The scroll offers a strange kind of relief, the illusion of control over things that are actually completely outside it.

The more powerless something makes you feel, the more the scroll promises to help, and the less it actually delivers, which is exactly why it's so hard to stop mid-loop.

What helps isn't a screen time limit alone. It's naming the specific feeling that sends you reaching for the phone in the first place. That's the part actually driving it.