You've been on this page for
seconds
In that time, you could have:
The timer starts the moment you open this page and keeps counting for as long as you leave it open. As it runs, it shows what you could have done with the same time: walked to the fridge and back, made a cup of chai, called a friend, gone for a ten minute walk. The colour shifts from green to red the longer it goes.
Try it the next time you pick up your phone "just for a minute". Open the timer in another tab, scroll as you normally would, and check it when you stop. Most people are surprised by how far the real number is from the minute they meant to spend.
Doomscrolling is the habit of scrolling through feeds long after it stopped being useful or enjoyable, often while feeling worse with every swipe. The word took off in 2020, but the pattern is as old as infinite feeds. It can be news, short videos, reels or anything with no natural end.
Feeds are built around variable rewards. Most posts are dull, but every so often one is funny, shocking or personal, and you never know which swipe will deliver it. That unpredictability is the same hook that keeps people at slot machines. Infinite scroll and autoplay remove the natural stopping points, so the decision to stop has to come from you, usually when you are tired and least able to make it.
Doomscrolling is compulsively scrolling through news, social media or video feeds long after it stops being useful, often while feeling worse. The term became widespread in 2020, but the behaviour comes from feeds designed with no natural end.
Feeds use variable rewards: most posts are forgettable, but an occasional one is gripping, and you can't predict which. Combined with infinite scroll and autoplay, that removes natural stopping points, so stopping depends on willpower at the moment you have the least of it.
Charge your phone outside the bedroom and use a normal alarm clock, so the phone isn't within reach when you're tired. If that isn't possible, block your most scrolled apps from an hour before bed with a blocker you can't dismiss in one tap.
Change your environment instead of relying on willpower. Turn off notifications, remove the worst apps from your home screen and add physical friction. bloc keeps chosen apps locked until you walk to your fridge and tap your phone on it, so the urge has time to pass.