from Hacker News

Is doom scrolling rotting our brains?

by ceronman on 12/9/24, 5:16 PM with 2 comments

• by jfengel on 12/10/24, 4:42 PM

  Other way around. A lot of things are rotting our brains, and doom scrolling is one of the results. There's a positive feedback loop, probably, but we were rotting our brains long before doomscrolling.

  Neil Postman's 1985 book "Amusing Ourselves To Death" describes a similar phenomenon with TV and radio. And that was before cable news brought us "doom-viewing" with the first Iraq War and 9/11, where people felt compelled to tune in continuously for updates. Even between crises, people watch news for enjoyment, usually to be told about all the terrible things happening.

• by blackeyeblitzar on 12/9/24, 5:39 PM

  In my opinion, yes. I think it desensitizes us to new information, content, and experiences. Humans didn’t evolve side by side with the current way of life. However I don’t know how these researchers could prove it. You can’t feasibly conduct a decades long A/B test of people who use and don’t use smartphones or social media, right? At best you could rely on self reported habits maybe? But that doesn’t seem like enough.