> For reasons too personal to put here, I've been pretty depressed and dysfunctional lately and I've unintentionally discovered the experience of doomscrolling.
I never check the Instagram discover tab and I don’t feel like I’m missing anything. For me, Instagram has been a good tool for keeping in touch with friends as we all move around the country. If someone starts posting memes or content I don’t want to see, I use the Instagram mute function on their stories or posts. I can catch up on everything I want to see on Instagram in about 5-10 minutes per day and then I’m done.
Obviously, not everyone has the same experience with Instagram that I do. But by the same token, not everyone has the same experience with Instagram that you do.
If someone is unable to control their compulsion to “doom scroll” and setting limits on app usage isn’t working, I think deleting the app or the account is a good solution.
I had some friends go through similar problems with Netflix: They insisted Netflix was evil because they couldn’t control their usage and were staying up until 2AM every night watching shows. Meanwhile, they couldn’t understand how I managed to watch one episode and be done.
Same story with alcohol: I can have one drink and be done or decline to drink at all. Yet I have friends who find themselves drinking to excess every time they’re around alcohol. Interestingly, the demonization of alcohol is almost taboo despite arguably causing more damage than products like social media. No one has ever died from social media withdrawal, but alcohol has massive negative effects on addicts.
> I have to wonder if this type of media is similar to magazines on steroids, or other pulp media of the bygone era
Definitely. Even if we could make Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter disappear tomorrow, the people who struggle to control their compulsions would quickly find the next thing to fill their time. The only sustainable solution I see is more education about responsible consumption and taking accountability for time management. Not an easy thing to do, but it’s the only lasting solution I can see.
> For reasons too personal to put here, I've been pretty depressed and dysfunctional lately and I've unintentionally discovered the experience of doomscrolling.
I never check the Instagram discover tab and I don’t feel like I’m missing anything. For me, Instagram has been a good tool for keeping in touch with friends as we all move around the country. If someone starts posting memes or content I don’t want to see, I use the Instagram mute function on their stories or posts. I can catch up on everything I want to see on Instagram in about 5-10 minutes per day and then I’m done.
Obviously, not everyone has the same experience with Instagram that I do. But by the same token, not everyone has the same experience with Instagram that you do.
If someone is unable to control their compulsion to “doom scroll” and setting limits on app usage isn’t working, I think deleting the app or the account is a good solution.
I had some friends go through similar problems with Netflix: They insisted Netflix was evil because they couldn’t control their usage and were staying up until 2AM every night watching shows. Meanwhile, they couldn’t understand how I managed to watch one episode and be done.
Same story with alcohol: I can have one drink and be done or decline to drink at all. Yet I have friends who find themselves drinking to excess every time they’re around alcohol. Interestingly, the demonization of alcohol is almost taboo despite arguably causing more damage than products like social media. No one has ever died from social media withdrawal, but alcohol has massive negative effects on addicts.
> I have to wonder if this type of media is similar to magazines on steroids, or other pulp media of the bygone era
Definitely. Even if we could make Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter disappear tomorrow, the people who struggle to control their compulsions would quickly find the next thing to fill their time. The only sustainable solution I see is more education about responsible consumption and taking accountability for time management. Not an easy thing to do, but it’s the only lasting solution I can see.