As a high school student, I’ve seen many friends fall victim to doomscrolling on social media—myself included. If you’ve ever opened TikTok for “just a minute” and somehow resurfaced three hours later, you know exactly what I mean. Cooking videos, pointless drama, brainrot memes—with addictive short-form videos readily available on almost every social media platform, it becomes so easy to fall down an endless rabbit hole of scrolling. Sure, it can give you a hearty laugh, a practical tip or a break between assignments, but the benefits rarely outweigh the costs.
So, what should you do?
No, you don’t have to throw your phone away or delete any apps. Or even set a 10-minute screentime limit. Those methods will inevitably fail. You should, however, develop good habits that prevent you from being susceptible to convenient dopamine and procrastination.
List out all the work you have to get done by the end of the day. Seeing your tasks in writing helps you clearly visualize your workload. My philosophy is that I will finish this work either way, but I would rather finish it early and avoid unnecessary stress. Completing this initial step lays the groundwork for keeping yourself busy. It also ends a negative feedback loop—if you doomscroll, you don’t get to check off items from your list, and you feel more stressed. The only way to alleviate that stress is to stop scrolling and get working.
Another tip is to start small. Gradually lower your screentime 10 minutes at a time until you reach the desired level. By working in increments, the doomscroll detox won’t be as painful, and you’ll realize that you’re not actually missing a whole lot. The key is consistency.
Most importantly, determine the root cause of your desire to doomscroll. Scrolling through social media is not the best way to achieve certain benefits, but we do it because it’s easy and accessible. If you want social connection, schedule a video call or hangout. If you need a brain break, take a walk, listen to music or sleep. If you want to hear some drama, call a friend; don’t fall victim to the barrage of content creators dissecting a scandal.
On the note of spilling tea, it might actually be good to embrace the discomfort of being in the dark. According to the 2024 Morning Consult survey, 31% of American adults doomscroll regularly—in other words, we’ve created a culture addicted to the illusion of knowing. But true peace comes from sitting with yourself rather than frantically consuming data points about scattered topics.
This is all to say that social media is not a monster—as long as you know how to use it. Aristotle preached that virtue lies in the mean between extremes. We don’t need digital abstinence or uncritical consumption, two extreme ends of a spectrum. Instead, we need to know when, and how, to engage with the vast amount of information at our fingertips.
We must sometimes resist the desire to stay constantly informed, which masquerades as purpose.
