A researcher has warned of the risks behind "doomscrolling" and called for action to tackle its impact.
Alexander Sharpe, an associate lecturer in psychology and PhD student at the University of Chichester, said people are being drawn into excessive consumption of negative online content by platforms designed to keep users engaged.
Mr Sharpe said: "All the current evidence shows that doomscrolling is very bad for you.
"It can drive negative thought patterns and increase feelings of anxiety and despair about the world."
Doomscrolling refers to the compulsive consumption of negative news or distressing content online, often fuelled by algorithm-driven feeds and infinite scrolling features.
Mr Sharpe has completed a comprehensive review of current research on doomscrolling and its effects on mental health.
He is now collecting data from people around the world as part of a larger project to develop an evidence-based intervention.
He said: "There’s not a great deal of current research on doomscrolling and its potential effects on mental health, but I wanted to understand what we know so far and the practical implications.
"I’m currently collecting data on the doomscrolling habits of a range of people from across the world with the eventual aim of developing an empirically tested intervention which could help tackle doomscrolling through behavioural change."
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To read the full scoping review, visit researchgate.net.
Mr Sharpe believes design choices by social media platforms play a central role.
He said: "Social media platforms and online apps deliberately encourage continuous engagement by using design features like infinite scrolling and personalised content algorithms.
"These engagement-driven design elements have been found to significantly increase compulsive use and undermine the user’s capacity to disengage and walk away."
He also addressed concerns about the impact of doomscrolling on younger users, adding: "It’s hard to definitively say if under 16s are more likely to be affected by doomscrolling because the research isn’t there yet.
"It could be seen as a risk to young minds as they are fed more and more negative content by the algorithms, whereas previously negative thoughts might be more easily challenged by friends and family."
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