Scientists reveal the intriguing effect of doomscrolling on your brain

We all know that hours of doom scrolling on social media can put you in a bad mood.

But scientists have now discovered why, and claim it ‘locks’ you into a cycle of poor mental health.

Doomscrolling refers to the digital habit of seeking out negative information, even if it evokes negative emotions.

Scientists from University College London (UCL) found that people with poor mental health are not only more likely to seek out and read negative content online, but they also feel more depressed as a result.

The researchThe study, published in the journal Nature Human Behavior, involved more than 1,000 people who first underwent psychological tests to check their mental health status.

They then had to surf the Internet for 30 minutes before taking another mental health test and disclosing their search history to the researchers.

The findings showed that those with the worst mental health scores searched the highest number of websites with negative themes.

A follow-up experiment then aimed to determine whether the trend was cause and effect – in other words, whether the websites were responsible for the participants’ increased consumption of depressing material, or for their mental state.

Researchers administered mental health tests again before dividing participants into groups: one group browsed more positive content, while others were specifically given “doomscrolling” websites.

They found that people who were exposed to more negative content found even more depressing content online.

Although the study looked at participants’ browsing history, they did not have access to the history of password-protected websites, making it impossible to look at their social media history.

But study authors hope to find a way around this for future research.

Tali Sharot, professor of cognitive neuroscience at UCL, said the findings contributed to a long-running debate.

“Many people say there is a link between poor mental health and internet use,” she told The Times.

‘We spend many hours online, and as humans we have only started doing that in recent years. Does it cause problems?’ she added.

Another British study earlier this year found that smartphone obsession could be harmful to adolescents’ health.

Experts found that teens who report a problematic relationship with their smartphones are up to three times more likely to become anxious, depressed or suffer from insomnia.

Around one in five older teenagers exhibit ‘problematic smartphone use’ and many are crying out for help to reduce their use, experts from the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience at King’s College London claim.

Nearly half of teens who said they spent unhealthy amounts of time on their smartphones also reported having symptoms of anxiety, and even more said they had symptoms of depression.