The antidote to doomscrolling

Stop scrolling. Seriously, stop scrolling.

What’s worse than being stuck in a bubble of your own version of reality is being stuck in a whirlpool of despair. In eight months, our idea of hopecore has gone from a Charli XCX song and political convention roll call to wishing an inevitable news headline would come sooner than later.

Doomscrolling is just another form of propaganda. It’s intended to make you give up and stop resisting. By giving us a sense of powerlessness, it gives us a warped sense of purpose. We can build community with others who feel hopeless. And like all addictions, it makes us crave higher and higher doses of resignation until we wind up surrendering to the regime or checking out of life completely.

I had an experience with a pre-social media version of doomscrolling nearly 40 years ago. I worked at a software company that was on a downward spiral. Since we didn’t have TikTok, I’d gather with my friends from work for golf and beers, and we talked about how terrible things were at our job. We’d spend hours complaining about how badly management was running the company, speculating when and how it would meet its demise, and wondering if we’d get our final paycheck. I finally had enough of all the negative talk. I realized the only way I could avoid going down with the company was to find another job. That’s how I got the…