This story was published in Volume 1, Issue 2
By: Jencee Thompson
Like most people her age, Juliana Krigsman could feel the constant scrolling on her phone taking over her life.
“I was also addicted to it as everyone is. I would feel a lot of anxiety until I would look at my phone … and it would be like a release,” she said.
The University of Colorado Boulder sophomore switched from an iPhone to a Nokia 2780 during her sophomore year of high school. Her final push to get rid of the device was when she felt entirely consumed by it.
Living in a world where people can access limitless information can be a blessing and a curse. With the rapid evolution of the internet, young adults have new ways to communicate, share and connect with others all through a screen — until they’re dependent on it.
A day without “doomscrolling,” or the seemingly endless consumption of online information, is practically unheard of for many social media users. With doomscrolling comes the disruptions of face-to-face connection and real-world communication skills.
Excessive doomscrolling evolves into a state of being “chronically online.” Micro and macro trends and memes around every corner are detrimental to Gen Z’s attention spans.
“Today, attention should be considered a limited resource. The Internet has become a chaotic marketplace, where the price of information is not paid with dollars and cents, but with attention,” Frederik Stjernfelt and Anne Mette Lauritzen wrote in their 2020 book, “Your Post has been Removed: Tech Giants and Freedom of Speech.”
The commodification of attention span explores how the internet feeds off of users’ behavior. Algorithms prey on the content you engage with and curate future content to keep you sucked into the scroll.
CU professor Annie Margaret researches the cognitive impacts of social media. She suggests asking yourself, when was the last moment your life felt meaningful?
Most of her students couldn’t answer.
Doomscrolling is caused by dopamine and how the hormone is released into your brain.
Margaret compared it to other habitual loops like smoking. Most dopamine is not released while smoking, but right before.
“You have the thought that you want one. Right before you light it, that’s when you get this spike,” she said. “This is important because our phones and short-form media with notifications, social feedback, all of that, have hijacked that same circuitry.”
She also noted doomscrolling is disruptive to our brain functions.
“As we take in all this media, our perception is narrowed, our filter is tight,” Margaret said. “We cannot perceive reality clearly. We cannot feel our emotions, and, worst of all, we have gunked up an important instrument [our brains].”
An instinctual need for social acceptance and community also encourages doomscrolling. Social media reflects this: We can laugh over the latest meme or what celebrity just got arrested. No matter the topic, being in the know helps connect us to others.
Krigsman disagrees. She has had a flip phone for four years and has no regrets switching from the scroll. She feels like she doesn’t miss out on what her friends are seeing on the internet and feels like she has more time to present in her life.
“I haven’t had social media since I was in the tenth grade, and it’s made the biggest difference in my self-esteem,” Krigsman said.
