Why doomscrolling bad news feels impossible to stop

HostI was lying in bed late last night, just staring at my phone with my thumb moving on its own. I was reading one awful thing after another, stories about fires and wars and things going wrong, and even though my chest felt tight and I knew I should sleep, I just couldn't stop. Why do we do this to ourselves? Why does it feel like I have to keep looking even when the news is making me feel miserable?

GuestIt's a strange loop we get stuck in, isn't it? You would think our brains would want to steer clear of things that make us feel bad, but it's actually the opposite. The part of your brain that handles fear is very old. Back when we lived in the wild, knowing about a threat was the only way to stay alive. If there was a tiger in the tall grass or a storm coming, you needed to know about it right then. Bad news was life-saving news. So, your brain is built to pay way more attention to scary things than to happy things. A story about a nice park is fine, but a story about a fire is a signal that your brain thinks it has to track.

HostBut I'm not in the woods, and the bad thing I'm reading about is usually happening thousands of miles away. My brain should be smart enough to know that a tweet about a storm in another country isn't a tiger in my room.

GuestYou would think so, but that deep part of the brain isn't very logical. It doesn't really understand the difference between a threat right in front of you and a threat on a screen. When you see a scary headline, your body reacts. Your heart beats a bit faster and your breath gets shallow. Once that system kicks in, it wants more facts to feel safe. It thinks that if it can just find out everything about the danger, it can figure out how to hide or fight. The problem is that on the internet, the news never ends. You keep scrolling to find the "end" of the threat so you can finally relax, but you never find it. You just find more things to worry about, which keeps the alarm bells ringing.

HostSo it's like I'm trying to solve a puzzle that has no ending. But there's also this weird feeling of being hooked, like I'm at a slot machine. I don't see how bad news can be a reward.

GuestWell, the reward isn't the bad news itself. The reward is the tiny bit of relief you get when you find a new piece of facts. Think about how it feels when you see a headline that says something big happened, but you don't know the details yet. That "not knowing" feels itchy and tense. When you click and read the story, even if the story is sad, that itch goes away for a second. You feel like you're "in the loop." Your brain gives you a little hit of a feel-good chemical because it thinks you did something smart by finding out about a threat. Then, a few seconds later, you see another headline, the itch comes back, and you swipe again. It's the same way a slot machine works. You don't win every time, but the hope that the next swipe will make you feel "sure" or "safe" keeps you moving your thumb.

HostI don't know if I buy that it's all just about feeling safe. Sometimes it feels like I'm looking because I'm angry, or because I feel like I have to know what's going on to be a good person. If I put the phone down, I feel like I'm sticking my head in the sand.

GuestThat's another huge part of the trap. We have this idea that being well-informed is a duty. We feel like if we stop looking, we're failing or being lazy. But there's a big difference between knowing what's happening in the world and just drowning in it. When you're scrolling at two in the morning, you're not really learning. Your brain can only take in so much before it just starts to feel overwhelmed. At that point, you're not being a better citizen, you're just hurting your own ability to think clearly. But the apps are designed to use that feeling against you. They know that anger and fear keep people looking longer than joy does. The stuff that makes you want to shout or cry is the stuff that stays at the top of your feed.

HostIt feels a bit hopeless when you put it that way. If my brain is hard-wired to look for tigers and the apps are built to show me tigers, how am I supposed to ever put the phone down?

GuestIt helps to realize that your brain is being tricked. You can tell yourself that looking at one more sad story isn't actually making you safer or more helpful. One big thing is that the "itch" to know usually fades if you can step away for just ten minutes. The fear center in your brain is fast, but it tires out. If you can break the chain of swipes, your logical brain can start to take the wheel again. The goal is to move from being a person who's just reacting to every loud noise to someone who chooses when to check the news and when to shut the door.

HostThat phone screen is basically a fire alarm that never stops ringing, and we keep checking it to see if the fire has gone out.

GuestThat glowing phone in your hand is a trap for a brain trying to stay safe in a world that doesn't work like the one we were built for.