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Doomed by scrolling

My thoughts after I spent a night doomscrolling Reddit

I stayed up till 2am last night. Not working, not studying, but scrolling Reddit. And after I was done, I knew I must never doomscroll again. I was reflecting on the event afterwards since I couldn’t fall asleep right away and thinking about why I keep falling into such a dumb trap (This has happened before).

Platforms like Reddit exploit the extreme emotions and physical states the human body and mind are capable of experiencing. They feed off of the dopamine and cortisol spikes, the adrenaline rushes. Gossip, memes, dashcam videos of people getting into accidents, sexual imagery, ragebaits, posts on societal norms and culture- Reddit has something for everyone, and not really in a good way. Anything and everything that they can use to cling to you, they have and believe me, it doesn’t want to let go.

But before I start talking about on what made me keep on scrolling, I’d like to list out some good things about Reddit:

That’s it really. It should be a tool, not a social media platform.

Now, on what made me keep on scrolling Reddit till 2am:

Political Paranoia

Reddit is full of political videso, news updates and memes spilling out both propaganda and truth (which are hard to distinguish), and you automatically feel a growing concern about your future, your country’s future. You feel like there are millions of things that could be fixed, but you can’t, so you better scroll Reddit and get more information. It’s somewhat of a positive feedback loop.

You like seeing people who think the same as you, who confirms your biases and even show you another perspective of some scenario (which you deject vehemently if you’re feeling too righteous at that time). It’s a textual version of “here’s some political/social drama and here’s how people react to it” reality show if it actually existed. And man, how the brain likes it. The dreadful concern, the paranoia, sometimes small hopes of people actually doing good things, all of it combined keeps you hooked.

Sexual Innuendo

Every once in a while a post with someone showing off their half-naked outfit, their god/goddess like body pops up in your feed. Even though you try to scroll away from it, it still lingers on. You like it. The brain likes it. Millions of years of evolution, but you’re still an ape. That cannot be changed. Instead, it is exploited.

Platforms flood your vision with sexual imagery, because sex really sells! That’s the whole point for them, to earn revenue. They don’t really care if your brain will rewire itself to chase more such mild pornography. Like getting addicted to drugs. It’s real, and it really affects how the brain functions.

For people with a long term pornography usage and addiction, and it’s not a silly, small thing. If they’re trying to quit porn, the probability of them slipping back increases after each such soft-porn post in their feed. That’s what happened to me, but my “experiences” on this topic deserves a post of its own. If you’re someone who’s struggling with quitting internet pornography, please check out Your Brain on Porn. Believe me, it’s doing you more harm than good.

The brain likes to chase that feeling, that thrill of “reaching but not quite yet”. It wants to indulge, the primitive ol’ noggin. And the bad thing is literally anyone can get addicted to it. And not only Reddit, but every major social media platform is adopting this mechanism.

Validation

Then you have subreddits like r/kidsarestupid and r/whatcouldgowrong, where you feed off of stupidity. Sure, you get some laughs, but my theory is that you subconsciously glorify the feeling of superiority that you get after seeing someone behave as poorly as in the videos.

The brain likes knowing that you’re not that stupid. But actually you’re comparing yourself to a subset of people who have a very different lifestyle and do completely different things. The validation isn’t real. It’s the brain playing games.

Better download a few stand-up comedy specials instead, for laughs, I mean.

Is there no end?

I usually sleep before 11:30pm. Does that mean I spent almost 2.5 hours last night, scrolling through seemingly futile shitposts, ragebaits and gossipmongering? Yes.

No matter how I rationalise it or blame myself, it’s the reality. It’s how these platforms are engineered- to maximise the time you spend on their platform, watch their ads and increase traffic.

From a game theory perspective, it’s a win-win situation: you (your brain; mostly the Id) wants entertainment, the companies want revenue. You get entertainment, the companies get revenue. Nash equilibrium, isn’t it? No! You and I are playing a completely wrong game. This is not what we want! This is nothing but self-sabotage.

It doesn’t help that I have undiagnosed ADHD, which makes things even hard. The constant dopamine surge is impossible to ignore.

But the good thing is that you and I can end it, if we choose to. Not during the doomscrolling session- at that moment your consciousness is completely hijacked, but before.

They say “Prevention is better than cure.” So instead of buying condoms, I blocked Reddit, YouTube and whatever website I think I might get addicted to using NextDNS (subject to testing) on my tablet. I have my laptop in case I need to use the internet for good things. And I am switching to higher quality media for consumption. Like graphic novels, books and podcasts. At least they are slower than whatever you get from a feed.

One thing is for sure, you can’t let your self get doomed by scrolling. Rather, let the scrolling experience doom.

Further Reading

Edited: adding further reading references, hyperlinks.