DOOM SCROLLING MAKES BOREDOM WORSE AND HOW TO STOP IT

Listen, we’ve all been there - we feel a little bored or we are avoiding doing something, so we take out our phones and start scrolling on social media. So, this week in INSIGHTS for Healing by Design, I want to discuss some cool research on this topic and give you 3 ways to interrupt the frequent loss of time and pull on your vital energy when you get lost in doom scrolling.

RESEARCH

At first glance, diverting your attention from a challenging moment may seem like it helps, but research published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: General suggests this strategy ultimately backfires, largely because we don’t just scroll for a couple of minutes, but tend to get lost for long periods of time on our phones.

Through seven experiments involving over 1,200 participants, researchers at the University of Toronto found that "digital switching" – which is rapidly moving between videos or fast-forwarding videos - actually increased boredom and decreased engagement compared to watching videos in their entirety.

In one of the experiments, participants reported feeling less bored and more satisfied when watching a single 10-minute video versus switching between multiple shorter videos in the same timespan.

I’m sure this is not surprising to you when you think about your own tendencies when scrolling.

Humans are not naturally hardwired for constant attention-switching, and some evidence (along with our own direct experience) suggests that fragmenting our focus in this way triggers stress and anxiety, especially if it’s repeated daily or even many times a day.

3 WAYS TO INTERRUPT & PIVOT the next time you find yourself doom scrolling

      1. Once you notice you’re doom scrolling, pause, take a long, deep breath, and focus your attention back to your heart centre.

      2. This breathing video could help relieve boredom, stress and anxiety that triggers your doom scrolling in the first place. It’s a 4-7-8 breathwork technique that triggers the parasympathetic nervous system to get you into a more rest, digest, repair response. You’ll feel more connection and peace within your body if you do this regularly for a while. Keep it on your phone for easy access as you retrain your nervous system.

      3. My personal favorite is to GROUND my whole body through my feet into the Earth as I take a long, deep breath in through my nose and long audible sigh on the exhale, at least once. Doing this just a few times a day can have a profound effect on the impacts of being on social media and may just decrease how long you end up entranced by the constant influx of information there. 

NEXT STEP

Once you’ve interrupted the scrolling, I encourage you to create the healthy habit of then putting down your phone and getting up to do something, no matter how you feel. You might even consider a PHONE DETOX every evening where the phone is put on airplane mode and is left charging somewhere you won’t readily go before the next day, or perhaps a full day detox on a weekend each week! A habitual phone detox could free up huge amounts of your time to rest and/or socialize and honestly, get more done that could make your life better!

I’d love to hear if the breathing exercises and phone detox work for you! They sure do for me!

Big hug,

Dr. Krista Coombs xx

DrAc, IFMCP

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