Doom-Scrolling

Doomscrolling describes compulsive, extended consumption of negative or alarming content, typically on feeds. It exploits negativity bias and variable rewards, which keep attention looping while mood and sleep suffer.

In productivity terms it erodes focus, raises baseline stress and crowds out high-value activities.

Useful counters include setting app limits and device-free zones, moving news to a single scheduled block, curating sources and adding friction (removing home-screen icons, disabling infinite scroll where possible).
Replace the loop with a prepared alternative (walk, read, checklist) to break the trigger–reward cycle.