Like reading the news about the end of the world affects health?

And you, too, before you sleep read about how climate change, coronavirus, plague, swine flu – underline – will kill us?

The clock 00:11. Thumb down, thumb up. Facebook, Instagram, Twitter – every day the same. Moreover, regardless of the time of year, pandemics and other pleasures of life – millions of people before you sleep do the same ritual: infinitely scroll the tape in social networks. However, we all know, two hours scrolling the news feed will not stop the Apocalypse, but… can prevent you psychologically prepare for it. But to prepare we really have to anything, because 2020 is so dispersed, from the latest news I want to sit on a Crew Dragon to fly to Mars and build a civilization there.

news never ends

As Wired, the habit of endlessly checking your phone before bed has received the name of doomsurfing, or «to fall into a deep rabbit hole of information, filled with news about the coronavirus and climate change, during which you bring yourself to physical discomfort, erasing any hope of a good night's sleep.» For those who prefer that their despair was portable, coined the term doomscrolling. But the main – stream news will never end.

But more recently, we watched «the Witcher» and fell asleep to the song of the Buttercup on a hammered coin. Now the only thing worth paying attention is the beginning of the global crisis. See for yourself: deaths from coronavirus, the unemployment rate, the removal of restrictions — the flow of data works non-stop. We expect tons of information, one will follow the other, and almost all of them are bad.

This trend is apparent now – the results of recent studies COVID-19 suggests that the virus may , in the future may cause a secondary pandemic of neurological diseases. The scientists also experts of the world health organization (who) to recognize that SARS-CoV-2 airborne. If you remember about the threat of several pandemics and add to that the news about climate change, the melting of permafrost and Arctic ice, it becomes clear only one thing – good news in the near future are unlikely. About how the world will be in 2050 .

Mindless scrolling news feeds has a devastating impact on the health

Social network and the world crisis

For many years people questioned the benefits of such platforms as Twitter and Facebook, and although some studies have shown that social media, if used responsibly, can have positive effects on mental health, but can also lead to anxiety and depression. Think about it – such a serious disease as depression can be the result of an overabundance of negative information. Add to that pandemic, civil unrest and the likelihood that social networks are more and more promoted trending topics in the news — and the problem escalates.

«In such a situation, we resort to a more narrow, immediate behavior focused on survival. We are located in the mode, fight or flight«, — says Allison. Add to this the fact that many of us work remotely and you will see that a huge number of people around the world in one degree or another are in isolation.»

Instagram is one of the most depressed social networks

However, the doom and gloom was not only the fault of the media. Mesfin Bekalo, researcher, Center for health and happiness Lee Kum Sheung (Lee Kum Sheung Center for Health and Happiness) Harvard school of public health named after T. H. Chan (T. H. Chan School of Public Health), noted that although many of the news is bad, people have «natural» tendency to pay more attention to negative news. This, along with the algorithms of social networks, makes doomscrolling and its consequences are almost inevitable.

Since 1970—ies the researchers know about the «the syndrome of middle world» — the belief that the world is a more dangerous place than it actually is – which is the result of prolonged exposure to violent content on TV. Thus, doomscrolling can lead to the same long-term consequences for mental health. If you do not intervene and do not correct the situation, for example, by setting the direction of the design of social networking platforms and users thus to improve their mental health and well-being.

Some words appeared during a pandemic?

The Origins of the term doomscrolling somewhat vague, but many point to October 2018 as a possible ancestor. Recently Dictionary.com it one of the new words that we have created due to the coronavirus.

social networking can help us, and not Vice versa

But the etymology is something else. Especially in the word doom. Originally it was connected with judgment day and the end of the world, but now a term with suchsame probability associated with the destruction. Thus, scrolling news feeds, leads us to depression.

But it's not in words. Doomscrolling ever actually won't stop the Apocalypse. A sense of mindfulness can be a healing balm, but to experience depression because of the tragedy makes no sense. The current year is none other than the marathon; trying to run to the end will only lead to fading and deterioration of mental health among the people, especially vulnerable psyche. But despite all the pain, isolation and destruction of the past six months, it is not necessary to add another two hours excessive and destructive scrolling Twitter feed every night. However, I still not very good, and you? The answer and in the comments to this article.