Doomscrolling and AI: Why You Can't Look Away
Doomscrolling is the habit of scrolling through bad news long after it has stopped telling you anything new. Researchers at the University of Florida, who built the first validated scale for it, describe a habit where people keep returning to negative news about crises, disasters and tragedies in their social media feeds, until the checking turns compulsive. (University of Florida)
There's plenty of worry to feed it. In the American Psychiatric Association's 2026 annual poll, 62% of U.S. adults said they were anxious about current events around the world, and 48% said they felt more anxious than a year earlier, up from 43% in 2025. (American Psychiatric Association, 2026 poll)
AI didn't invent doomscrolling. It does shape the feed you scroll. Ranking systems pick what shows up next, and AI tools have made posts, images and video cheap to produce in bulk. Both change how the habit works and how hard it is to interrupt.
What the research on doomscrolling actually shows
The University of Florida study, published in 2022 in the American Psychological Association journal Technology, Mind, and Behavior, set out to check whether doomscrolling was just a catchy new name for something already known. The answer was no. Doomscrolling stood apart as its own habit, closely tied to online vigilance, problematic internet and social media use, and fear of missing out. It was also linked to anxiety and poor self-control. Men, younger adults and politically engaged people were more likely to do it. (Sharma, Lee and Johnson, 2022)
The same work offers some perspective. Doomscrolling turned out to be less common than the authors expected, and it varied a lot between people. In interviews, people who did report the habit said they had been able to change it. (UF College of Journalism and Communications)
A 2023 paper in Applied Research in Quality of Life ran three studies with adults in Türkiye. In the wellbeing study, with 460 participants, higher doomscrolling scores went with lower life satisfaction and lower mental wellbeing. The authors' models pointed to psychological distress as the link between the two. (Satici and colleagues, 2023)
A close cousin is problematic news consumption. In a 2022 survey of 1,100 U.S. adults published in Health Communication, 16.5% showed signs of severely problematic news use: stories dominated their thoughts, cut into time with family and friends, and kept them from sleeping. Of that group, 61% reported physical symptoms such as fatigue or pain "quite a bit" or "very much," compared with 6.1% of everyone else. (Taylor & Francis summary of the study)
Most of these studies are surveys taken at one point in time. They show a link, not proof that scrolling causes the distress. The Florida researchers suspect anxiety and doomscrolling feed each other.
Why doomscrolling is so hard to stop
It runs like most habits. There's a cue (boredom, anxiety, or just picking up the phone), a routine (scrolling) and a reward. Here the reward is often relief more than pleasure. Checking bad news can feel like staying prepared or in control. The Florida team found the habit usually starts with wanting to keep up with news that could affect you and the people close to you, then slides into compulsive scrolling.
Negative headlines also win clicks. A 2023 study in Nature Human Behaviour analyzed 22,743 randomized headline tests run by the website Upworthy. For a headline of average length, each additional negative word raised the click-through rate by 2.3%. (Robertson and colleagues, 2023)
Put those together with a ranked feed. Machine learning systems that order your feed learn from what you click, watch and linger on. If bad news holds your attention, a system tuned for engagement will tend to show you more of it. Nobody has to plan that outcome. It follows from what the system is asked to maximize.
AI adds a second layer. Generative tools make it cheap to produce posts, images and video in bulk, and some of that material is made to grab attention more than to inform. So a feed can learn what worries you, and it has more content than ever to serve it.
Doomscrolling is a specific version of the habit loop covered in digital dependency. The broader question of which tools deserve a place in your day is the subject of digital minimalism.
What actually helps
Name the loop before you interrupt it. Doomscrolling usually starts from a specific trigger: boredom, anxiety, a lull in the day. Once you know which one is yours, it's easier to catch the reach for the phone before it turns into twenty minutes of scrolling.
Set a news window. Checking news at set times, instead of whenever anxiety spikes, can break the loop's structure: an unpredictable cue followed by an open-ended routine. The same approach works for other alerts, as our guide to notification overload explains.
Pick your sources yourself. Choose a few outlets you trust and go to them directly instead of letting an algorithmic feed decide what you see. That takes the engagement-ranked feed out of the decision.
Question the feeling of control. If part of the pull is a sense that scrolling keeps you prepared, test it. After a long session, ask what you now know that you can act on. Often the answer is nothing new.
Add friction. Turning off breaking-news notifications, logging out of apps between checks, or keeping news reading to one device or browser tab all put a few seconds between the impulse and the scroll. That pause gives you a moment to decide.
Separate staying informed from anxious monitoring. Following things you can act on, like elections, local decisions or your own community, is a different activity from checking again and again for updates on situations you can't influence. The researchers behind the Health Communication study made a similar point: the goal is a healthier relationship with news, since tuning out completely has its own costs.
Have something ready to replace the scroll. If the trigger is boredom, a specific low-effort alternative (a short walk, a call to a friend, a few pages of a book) is easier to reach for than willpower alone. If the trigger is worry about a specific event, one deliberate check at a set time can meet that need without the open-ended scroll.
If doomscrolling is tangled up with something heavier than everyday stress, take that seriously. This is general information, not medical advice. If your anxiety about the news comes with depression or thoughts of self-harm, talk to a doctor or mental health professional. In the US, you can call or text 988 to reach the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline any time.
Five days, one change per day
If your news scrolling and your AI use run on the same reflex, change one habit at a time. The free 5-Day AI Reset walks you through it in five short emails: measure where AI shows up, take one task back, name the urge, sort helpful use from skill-replacing use, and set rules that survive a bad week. You don't have to quit AI, and nobody is keeping score.
Frequently asked questions
How common is doomscrolling?
It's hard to pin down. The University of Florida team that built the first validated doomscrolling scale found it was less common than they expected and varied widely between people. Worry about world events is more widespread: in 2026, 62% of U.S. adults told the American Psychiatric Association they were anxious about current events.
Does doomscrolling actually affect mental health?
Studies link it to worse wellbeing. A 2023 study of 460 adults in Applied Research in Quality of Life found that higher doomscrolling went with lower life satisfaction and mental wellbeing, and a 2022 survey of 1,100 U.S. adults tied severely problematic news use to more frequent mental and physical symptoms. These are surveys, so they show a link rather than proof of cause.
Is doomscrolling just a form of social media addiction?
University of Florida researchers found it's a distinct habit. It overlaps with problematic internet and social media use and with fear of missing out, but its fixation on negative news sets it apart.
How does AI make doomscrolling worse?
Feeds ranked by machine learning learn what holds your attention, and negative headlines tend to draw clicks. One 2023 study found each extra negative word in a headline raised the click-through rate by 2.3%. Generative AI also makes attention-grabbing content cheap to produce in bulk.
What's an easy way to start cutting back on doomscrolling?
Set fixed times to check the news, pick a few trusted sources to visit directly instead of relying on an algorithmic feed, and turn off breaking-news alerts. Each step removes a cue or adds friction to the habit loop.
If doomscrolling is part of a bigger pattern of feed-driven or AI-driven habits shaping how you think, the Is AI Changing How You Think? assessment is free and anonymous, and it shows where your habits sit in about two minutes.