<
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/article/2024/jul/19/doomscrolling-linked-to-existential-anxiety-distrust-suspicion-and-despair-study-finds>
"Does scrolling your phone give you an existential crisis? That’s the question
a team of international experts have sought to answer in a study published in
the
Journal of Computers in Human Behavior Reports.
Researchers surveyed 800 university students from the US and Iran and found
that doomscrolling – or spending excessive time consuming negative news – was
linked to feelings of existential anxiety, distrust and suspicion of others,
and despair.
The lead author, Reza Shabahang, a researcher at Flinders University’s college
of education, psychology and social work, said constantly being exposed to
negative news had become a “source of vicarious trauma”, where people are
detrimentally affected despite not experiencing the trauma first-hand.
“When we’re constantly exposed to negative news and information online, it can
threaten our beliefs when it comes to our own mortality and the control we have
over our own lives,” he said.
The researchers found that constant exposure to negative news was associated
with thoughts such as “life being fragile and limited, humans fundamentally
being alone, and individuals not having full control of their lives”.
For Iranian students, doomscrolling was also associated with misanthropy, or a
profound sense of hatred and distrust towards humankind.
The researchers hypothesised that constant exposure to negative news reinforced
the idea that “humankind is imperfect, and there is no justice in the world”.
They found that such reminders challenged people’s “fundamental assumptions
about the fairness and benevolence of the world”.
But they also noted that the students sampled were “convenient”, meaning they
were selected based on their accessibility to the research. They also wrote the
sample size was “not appropriate to draw clear conclusions regarding the nature
of this association”.
Scientia Prof Helen Christensen, a professor of mental health at the University
of New South Wales and board director of the Black Dog Institute, said the
research was an interesting preliminary study but the results may be biased
owing to the sample size.
She also added that doomscrolling may be associated with anxiety but this may
only be while participants were doomscrolling.
She said it was impossible to tell whether doomscrolling caused existential
anxiety or misanthropy, or whether “doomscrolling and anxiety are associated
with each other for [another reason]”."
Once again, be sure to actively seek out a balanced media diet including
positive news for your mental health.
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
