What clicks in your mind when you hear about ‘An Addiction’? I mean, a lot of people are addicted to something in one way or another. The growth of technology has been noticeable for the last ten years. The growth of digital social media platforms and digital information communication systems have advanced immensely. Well, there are huge merits associated with all this innovation and growth you name it; Information Sharing and so forth. There are negative effects of these great information technology innovations as well.
What are the negative effects of technology? Doomscrolling is one of the trending effects of technology. It affects individuals invisibly but this article will enlighten you on what necessarily is Doomscrolling, how it happens, and even how to mitigate and curb this issue.
The Overview of Doomscrolling.
Doomscrolling or what is known as gloom and doom is a new adoption or rather a hazardous way of life that is negatively affecting the technological audience in modern society. Doomscrolling can be well explained if one understands the meaning of anxiety. What is Anxiety? It’s an overwhelming thought caused by uncertainty, fear, and too much worry. Stress is a word that can be used to explain anxiety because it elaborates on a persistent worry in daily situations.
Further, Doomscrolling is a recent slang that is being used to explain the aspect of consuming news and negative information on the internet through doom and gloom fatal aspects without limit. If you endlessly consume doom-and-gloom news, Doomscrolling is the syndrome that will affect you.
Three types Doomscrolling
Doomscrolling can be further categorized into three chronic types. To begin with, there are definite consequences that result from Doomscrolling anxiety. And when you understand the consequences and these context results, one can be able to classify the type of Doomscrolling one is having. Below are the three major context anxiety types.
a) Social Doomscrolling. Quite a huge number of individuals are victims of social discrimination and humiliation. Also known as a social phobia, this is one of the anxiety types that can be grouped in the category of Doomscrolling. Well, the victims isolate him or herself in the image of society. Since technological amenities are readily available, the victim will stroll deep into the news and all online junk and consume them. In this situation, the victim will be addicted to this practice and an addiction will result.
The excessive consumption of hurting and news will ruin her emotions and life resulting in this form of stress and anxiety. Some examples can explain this form of anxiety breed. Look at it this way, many countries across the globe have imposed measures against social gatherings and so forth. Any socially phobic individual is happy because there is a limited avenue for social amenities such as schools and so forth. If there is news of resuming, it will be stressful for a socially phobic individual to accept the resume of normal vibes.
b) Panic attack Doomscrolling. Earlier on, the word addiction is used and it’s appropriate in this form of anxiety. The digital age has made information readily available. You can retrieve past information and past events. The retrieval can be positive or negative at the same time. From a positive point of view, one can get solutions based on past digital documentation. The worst can only happen when you realize the worst in your life through the basis of digital repositories.
After strolling for more information or rather doom and glooming on this news, the results will be a fatal panic attack anytime you get involved in similar online documented scenarios. Some information in the online context may be unreliable. If this addiction persists, one can damage himself/herself further. An example that is real and that has resulted in this syndrome is the coronavirus pandemic which has affected people negatively in terms of movement and social gathering. Many people are financially unstable and any news associated with the pandemic torments a lot of people.
c) Obsessive Doomscrolling. This is a breed of anxiety that is more self-induced. Most people know their weak points in terms of perceiving news and reading certain media. Obsession is one of the breed majors in this paradigm that is significant or rather alarming. Scrolling web pages on your social media platforms becomes addictive and often affects people differently. So many things on the internet can be causes of anxiety and stress. Graphical images and videos affect people differently. The consumption of pornographic content is often fatal and there are so many factors that are endless on these platforms.
Reasons as to why Doomscrolling anxiety happens.
There are so many reasons as to why people sentence themselves to this pool of despair. Some of the reasons are associated with professions and others are associated with lifestyles that people adopt. In the view of professions, journalists are largely affected by this practice or rather behavior. The mental structure of every human is developed differently to handle certain amounts of information and knowledge in both the negative state and the positive state. If one is not trained to handle certain information, anxiety may happen and further extend into a health problem.
In the technological world, doom and gloom news often affects the mental state if you are not oriented to the world of digital content. It can be addictive and at some point, impact the mental state of a tech-user. The mental state of humans is wired to respond rapidly to threats. Every time one keeps on Doomscrolling, the more danger one is exposed to. Doomscrolling behavior can be stopped and mitigated. Below are some of the ways to stop this effect.
Ways of curbing Doomscrolling anxiety.
a. Therapies (Self-monitoring therapies or Guided Therapies)
Guided therapies are where you involve a therapist to help you monitor your progress in terms of eliminating a certain behavior. In this particular concept, the therapist can come up with control procedures and standards to govern your presence on the internet. The solutions are not abstaining from the online world but creating a limitation and narrowing online activities to those of importance. On the self-therapy aspect, make logical setups of how you will handle your online routines.
b. Self-periodic checkups.
The self-periodic check-up is where you monitor yourself in the following aspect; if you are seeking a solution in the online world, ensure that the sole objective. The only way to fact-check that is to know if you have gotten the solution. Make yourself understand what you are doing in the online world.
Doomscrolling is often dangerous even to your normal activities such as studying or your job. Live straight by learning more about Doomscrolling.
Pura Vida
Rashad
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