doomscrolling.
Continuing to scroll through distressing news or negative posts, often longer than you intended.
What does doomscrolling mean?
Doomscrolling is not just spending a long time online. Its central feature is repeatedly consuming alarming or upsetting material: bad news, arguments, disasters, or a feed that keeps surfacing reasons to worry. A person may feel compelled to check one more update even after deciding to stop.
In casual use, people sometimes stretch the term to any unproductive scrolling, but the doom element explains the original distinction. It describes a behavior, not a diagnosis. Saying you doomscrolled last night does not by itself tell anyone how much distress you experienced or what caused it.
See how it lands.
Original examples written for this entry, not quotations from the sources.
I opened the news for five minutes and ended up doomscrolling until midnight.
I am taking the app off my home screen to interrupt the doomscrolling habit.
The right word.
The right moment.
Use it to name a pattern of repeatedly following negative updates. It can help distinguish that experience from reading one necessary news report.
Avoid using it as a medical label or assuming everybody reading difficult news is doomscrolling. Duration, intention, and the repeated checking pattern matter.
Not quite the same as…
scroll fatigue
Scroll fatigue names a feeling of being worn out by scrolling. Doomscrolling names a behavior focused on negative material.
A little backstory.
The compound joins doom and scrolling. Its use became particularly visible during the COVID-19 pandemic, though visibility is not proof of first coinage.
Supported by Wiktionary contributors
Still wondering?
Is all scrolling doomscrolling?
No. The core sense involves distressing or negative content, usually consumed repetitively.
Is doomscrolling a diagnosis?
No. It is an informal term for a behavior, not a clinical conclusion about a person.
Sources & checks
Meaning and factual notes are informed by the references below. Examples and usage advice are original editorial writing. A source documents use; it does not measure current popularity.
- doomscrolling — English entry ↗Wiktionary contributors · checked 19 Oct 2026Supports: meaning; usage