Managing Doomscrolling and Screen Time

Question: How long should I use my phone? I’m not very active on it, but I doomscroll a lot. I can’t help myself. What do I do? 

Answer: Thank you for this important question! The term doomscrolling refers to habitually scrolling through social media while scanning for negative information or news. Think wars, disasters, or whatever’s dominating the news cycle.  

Unintentional doomscrolling is a really common problem, so you’re definitely not alone in this. Part of why it’s so hard to stop is because headlines and posts are designed to grab your attention, and bad news grabs it best. 

Many young people wonder about how much time they should spend scrolling on social media but as explained in this previous portal response, there is no exact amount of recommended screen time per day. However, if you are noticing that you spend more time than you mean to scrolling through social media or that you are viewing content that you wish you saw less of, it might be time to make some changes.  

Research on Doomscrolling  

Research on doomscrolling is still pretty limited, especially when specifically looking at teens. One study of Turkish adolescents found that problematic social media use, that is, social media patterns that feel hard to control or get in the way of well-being, school, sleep, relationships or daily life, may be related to increased doomscrolling.  

A study of older teens and young adult college students in Canada found that doomscrolling was linked with feeling less happy with life and less connected to other people. This study also found that people from marginalized groups reported more doomscrolling. This may be connected to hypervigilance, which means feeling like you always need to watch out for things that could hurt your safety or well-being. The researchers suggested that some older teens and young adults may doomscroll more because they are looking for signs of discrimination or harm.  

Staying Informed Without the Doom 

This previous portal question explains how you can stay up-to-date on news and current events while limiting exposure to negative news or distressing content. One suggestion is to go directly to news websites to search for news on current events, and to build your social media algorithm to suggest more positive content that you like to see using like, follow, and “I’m interested” features. Similarly, you can use block, unfollow, and “not interested” features to reduce the amount of negative news content you see in your feeds.  

Tips and Resources for Teens 

• The 5 Cs of Media Use is one approach to thinking about healthy media use and includes 5 concepts: Child, Content, Calm, Crowding Out, and Communication. Two of the 5 Cs are especially useful here: Content and Crowding Out. 
  • Content: One way to improve your experience on social media is to consider the content you are viewing. Viewing a high volume of negative news may be stressful. If your feed regularly suggests upsetting or scary content, consider resetting the algorithm or using content filters to limit what you see.  
  • Crowding Out: If you notice that scrolling on social media is getting in the way of other important activities like homework, sleep, or spending time with friends, consider ways to crowd these activities back in. You could determine phone-free times, such as the hour right before bed, or phone-free zones, such as during your walk home from school with your friends. You can also consider setting within-app time limits on social media apps to limit your time spent on certain social media activities like scrolling through the recommended or For You page. 

The Glossary of Digital Media Platforms and this previous portal response provide information on how to adjust content and time settings within social media apps. 

• The AAP Center of Excellence on Social Media and Youth Mental Health has resources specifically designed for teens to support balanced media use. You can find many of those resources in the Navigating Social Media: A Teen Wellness Toolkit, including:  
  • The Calm Toolbox, which includes tools and strategies to manage stress both online and offline. 
  • Quick Tips for Managing Your Feed, which outlines tips for adjusting your social media feed. 
  • Teen Q&A Portal featuring questions asked by other teens. 

References  

• Akat, M., & Hamarta, E. (2025). Doomscrolling and social media addiction in adolescents: a two-wave longitudinal study. Journal of addictive diseases, 43(4), 377-385.   
• Blacha, S., Anderson, I. A., & Mar, R. A. (2025). Tension in attention: Hypervigilance helps explain why marginalization leads to doomscrolling. Psychology of Popular Media, 14(4), 550.   
• Satici, S. A., Gocet Tekin, E., Deniz, M. E., & Satici, B. (2023).  Doomscrolling Scale: Its Association with Personality Traits, Psychological Distress, Social Media Use, and Wellbeing. Applied research in quality of life, 18(2), 833-847.  

Age: 10-17 

Topics: Doomscrolling, Addiction, Screen time 

Role: Youth