Scrolling media is not a recent phenomenon, as many would think. Scrolling behavior appeared when remote controls for TVs were invented. Before that, people had to get up and physically change the TV channel.
I remember when my dad used to scroll channels on the TV, constantly pressing the button on his remote control, and how angry it made my mom. “Why don’t you stop at some channel and let us watch anything properly?” she said. Like many people today, my dad was probably unaware of what he was doing. He was probably stuck in the same hypnotic, zombie state that many people find themselves today when they’re on their social media apps.1Sinha, S., Sharma, M. K., Tadpatrikar, A., Anand, N., & Kumar, R. (2023). Scrolling Mindlessly: Emerging Mental Health Implications of Social Networking Sites. Journal of Public Health and Primary Care, 4(3), 179-181.
What causes scrolling behavior?
Our brains are wired to pay attention to shifts in our environment. In ancestral times, often, these shifts meant opportunities for enhancing survival and/or reproduction or threats to the same. We can’t help but notice novelty. Our brains are constantly asking:
“What’s new? What’s shiny?”
Information about opportunities and threats in our ancestral environments was mainly socially relevant.2Lim, A. J., & Tan, E. (2024). Social media ills and evolutionary mismatches: a conceptual framework. Evolutionary Psychological Science, 10(3), 212-235. Opportunities to form alliances with others and pursue potential mates. Threats to survival and resources from neighbors or neighboring tribes. As a social species, humans strongly emphasize seeking socially relevant information.
Given that we’re wired to seek and monitor social information, what do you expect would happen when we’re bombarded with unprecedented levels of such information? Of course, we’d get addicted to it. We’d spend a lot of time taking in that information because that’s what we’re designed to do. We focus on the benefits of such behavior and ignore the costs because evolution wants us to survive and reproduce at all costs.
Any app that constantly throws novel, socially relevant information at you has the potential to be addictive. The infinite scroll feature of the various social media apps makes the addiction worse. It traps you in a state of mindless scrolling. It’s mindless because how much mind can you apply to a 30-second reel?
Social media algorithms are designed to increase engagement by showing you more of the content you’re engaging with. More often than not, they exploit your current emotional state. For instance, if you’ve been through a breakup and watched some sad content, you’ll be shown more similar sad content.
The upsides and downsides of social media
Social media apps have upsides, or people wouldn’t use them. That’s precisely why social media addiction is a tricky topic. If you’re addicted, you have to decide for yourself how you’re going to manage your use—how you can maximize the upsides and minimize the downsides. I argue that there are more downsides to social media use than upsides, providing lists for both.
Upsides
- You stay informed
- You feel connected
- ‘Likes’ and ‘comments’ on your posts can boost your self-esteem
- Sharing your honest thoughts can increase well-being3Chu, T. H., Sun, M., & Crystal Jiang, L. (2023). Self-disclosure in social media and psychological well-being: A meta-analysis. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 40(2), 576-599.
- Perceived social support can reduce stress4Marciano, L., Driver, C. C., Schulz, P. J., & Camerini, A. L. (2022). Dynamics of adolescents’ smartphone use and well-being are positive but ephemeral. Scientific reports, 12(1), 1316.
These upsides are enjoyable when you spend limited time on social media. These days, thanks to the algorithms hell-bent on making you spend more time on the platforms, doing that has become nearly impossible. This is why many can’t seem to adhere to the time limits they set on these apps and press ’10 more minutes’.
Downsides
- Addiction
- Anxiety, stress, and trauma from doom-scrolling (i.e., scrolling negative news)5Hughes, I. M., Keith, M. G., Lee, J., & Gray, C. E. (2024). Working, scrolling, and worrying: Doomscrolling at work and its implications for work engagement. Computers in Human Behavior, 153, 108130.
- Depression (e.g., from not getting enough ‘likes’)6Bányai, F., Zsila, Á., Király, O., Maraz, A., Elekes, Z., Griffiths, M. D., … & Demetrovics, Z. (2017). Problematic social media use: Results from a large-scale nationally representative adolescent sample. PloS one, 12(1), e0169839.
- Caring too much about what others think of you
- Getting caught in the drama you may not care about
- Used up attentional bandwidth (can’t focus on other tasks)
- Loss of productivity
- Decreased quality of relationships (shallow connections)
- Lack of privacy and oversharing (content gets more and more ridiculous to get reactions)
- Haters and trolls put you in a negative mood
- Increased social comparison decreases your self-esteem and well-being7Gori, A., Topino, E., & Griffiths, M. D. (2023). The associations between attachment, self-esteem, fear of missing out, daily time expenditure, and problematic social media use: A path analysis model. Addictive Behaviors, 141, 107633.
- Disturbed sleep patterns if you scroll late at night8George, A. S., George, A. H., Baskar, T., & Karthikeyan, M. M. (2024). Reclaiming our minds: mitigating the negative impacts of excessive doomscrolling. Partners Universal Multidisciplinary Research Journal, 1(3), 17-39.
- Jealousy from monitoring threats to your friendships9Vaillancourt, T., Brittain, H., Eriksson, M., Krygsman, A., Farrell, A. H., Davis, A. C., … & Arnocky, S. (2024). Social Media Friendship Jealousy. Evolutionary Psychology, 22(1), 14747049231225738.
Vulnerable groups
While some people are more vulnerable to social media addiction, social media is generally addictive because it taps into how humans are wired to seek and stay on top of socially relevant information.
Narcissists love social media because it allows them to present themselves in the best light to gain admiration.10Jin, S. V., & Ryu, E. (2018). “The Paradox of Narcissus and Echo in the Instagram Pond” in light of the selfie culture from Freudian evolutionary psychology: self-loving and confident but lonely. Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, 62(4), 554-577. The anxiously attached get hooked to social media because they have high love and connection needs.11Liu, C., & Ma, J. L. (2019). Adult attachment style, emotion regulation, and social networking sites addiction. Frontiers in psychology, 10, 2352. Those with an addictive personality may rush to social media when they’re unable to cope with their negative emotions.
How to stop scrolling
You know whether or not you’re addicted to scrolling social media. You don’t even have to look at your screen time. You don’t have to take any assessment. If your social media use feels chaotic, out of control, puts you in a bad mood, and fills you with regret for wasting your time, you are addicted.
1. Delete your apps and accounts
I know this is not an option for many. You might use social media for business or have made good friends there. But if it is an option, go for it. It’s the best way to remove the apps from your mind permanently. Of course, your mind will want to relapse. Because you were once addicted, you’ve taught your mind that scrolling these apps is rewarding. Therefore, social media companies always provide an option to come back. They know you’ll be tempted to come back. Resist that temptation.
2. Use them only from your computer
Ease of access is a huge factor that makes social media apps addictive. The brain wants the rewards of socially-relevant information as easily and quickly as possible. When you introduce friction in your access to these apps, you can significantly decrease the addiction. If you only use social media from your computer, you have to open your computer, wait for the screen to load, open your browser, find the app icon, and then click it—too much work.
Also, thanks to ease of access, having social media apps on your phone is having them on the front of your mind. When you have something on the front of your mind, you’re preoccupied with it. When you only use social media sites from your computer, they get moved from the front of your mind to the back of your mind. You find you don’t think about using them so much. The difference is huge.
You can still get addicted to scrolling on your computer. Scrolling is scrolling, no matter what device it's done on. You can hide newsfeeds from your social media sites when browsing them on your computer to create more friction. News Feed Eradicator, a Chrome extension, is perfect for this.
3. Systematize your social media use
You may have noticed that your social media use tends to be random and chaotic. A notification here and a comment there, bouncing from one app to another. There is no order, no process or system to follow. When you have no system to follow, you’re likely to get addicted because you don’t know when you’ll get the next notification or comment. Random and variable rewards are known to be addictive.
To make your social media use more intentional and systematic, use a timer that rings loudly to avoid exceeding the time limit. List the social media tasks you need to do in order from start to finish. When you finish the last task, close all the apps and don’t open them again until the next session.
4. Identify your core values
When you’ve identified your top 3-5 core values, see how your social media use contributes to those values. If it doesn’t, you should drastically cut your social media use. You can’t go wrong in making decisions that align with your core values. Most of your time, energy, and resources should be spent on activities that align with your core values.
Final words
Once you see what it’s like getting off social media, it’ll be hard to get back on it. You’ll see how idiotic it is to be caught in the endless scrolling trap. What’s happened has happened. Forgive yourself for your past mistakes and move on. It’s time to evolve. Ditch the herd mentality. You don’t have to do what everyone else is doing. What you have to do is maximize your subjective well-being.
