Meaning
The habit of continuously scrolling through bad news on a phone or computer even though it is distressing, because the content is alarming or addictive. The behaviour it names is generally seen as harmful to mental wellbeing. Informal, self-deprecating register, common in wellness and media commentary; almost always negative. Regional use: General English; strongest in online contexts.
Origin
The exact origin is unclear: the first documented appearance is a tweet posted in 2018, and Ashik Siddique is often credited with an early tweet using the term that same year. The word spread in the early 2020s against a run of major events - the COVID-19 pandemic, the George Floyd protests, the 2020 US election, the January 2021 Capitol attack and later the war in Ukraine - which gave people endless bleak feeds to scroll. Recognition followed quickly: Dictionary.com named it a top trend in August 2020, the Macquarie Dictionary made it the Committee's Choice Word of the Year in December 2020, and Merriam-Webster officially added it in September 2023 after several years on its 'watching' list. Commentators also linked the behaviour to infinite scroll design, whose inventor Aza Raskin later expressed regret.
Research Sources
References used to check this entry’s meaning, history, or documented forms.
Variants
- doomscroll
- doomscrolled
- doomscrolling session
- doomsurfing
Usage Examples
- I caught myself doomscrolling war coverage until two in the morning.
- Doomscrolling before bed makes her anxiety noticeably worse, so she charges the phone in the kitchen.
- He quit doomscrolling by deleting every news app from his phone.