Are you guilty of doomscrolling? Many of us have started reading a post or story about a tragedy or disaster and then, before we knew it, we’d spent hours scrolling and reading. Teens do it, too, and while doomscrolling often comes from a good place - our desire to feel safe while staying informed - an overload of bad news can negatively affect our mental and emotional health. And that’s especially true for teens.
So, how can we help our teens break this habit? Dr. Michael Rich, Director and Founder of the Digital Wellness Lab at Boston Children’s Hospital, and other experts share how to help teenagers spot the difference between healthy screen time and doomscrolling.
- Do they know the difference between doomscrolling and just scrolling? - Ask how they feel after scrolling for a long time, like how it affects their sleep, eating or friendships. This is important because while doomscrolling is often referred to as a symptom of media “addiction,” it’s not like we can just have our kids quit using media. Dr. Rich explains that with addiction, the goal is to get people to quit using, if it’s drugs or alcohol, but with overconsuming media, the goal is self-regulation.
- What’s in their news feed? - Knowing that kind of content your teen consumes is essential here. If they’re getting a lot of negative stuff in their feed, help them balance that by unfollowing or muting those accounts and find more positive, uplifting or even neutral ones.
- Can they spot clickbait? - Teach teens to spot scandalous or misleading headlines designed to get them to click in. Being able to recognize these will also help them deal with harmful content, like misinformation or deepfakes, and to be able to talk to you about it when they need to.
- Why are they scrolling? - Encourage them to stop before scrolling and ask themselves, “Why am I opening this app?” Have them set a timer for 10 minutes and check in to see if it boosted their mood or if it’s time to log off.
Source: Verizon