PITTSBURGH (KDKA) — Experts say spending too much time on social media can be damaging to your mental health, especially when consuming too much negative news.Are you finding yourself wasting too many hours online? We have all been there.
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Monteleone said the reason people are incessantly scrolling for negative news is because “we’re hard-wired for it on an evolutionary level because if we learn about the big scary thing or we get the answers, then we can control our environment.”
According to experts, doomscrolling can lead to anxiety, depression and fatigue.
Source: Mental Health Experts Warn About Dangers Of ‘Doomscrolling’ – CBS Pittsburgh
Last spring, I shared hopeful items on Twitter – links to new studies finding possible treatment improvements, news of new start up vaccine programs, declining case epicurves in some areas – and received push back that was basically “How dare you say anything good!”.
Perplexed, I learned this is a real psychological problem where people in anxiety seek out scary news in order to validate their fears – reassuring themselves it is okay to be scared. The do not want good news – they want bad news that affirms their anxiety.
This path of course becomes a spiral of ever deepening anxiety.
After that experience, I deleted all of my Twitter tweets and largely walked away from Twitter.
