Doomscrolling, the social media rabbit-hole, and their impact on our mental health

We live in a world where it feels impossible to go without a phone, and with most of us maintaining connections virtually, it often feels impossible to go without social media. 

Most of us are plugged in. According to Civic Science, 88% of millennials and 90% of Gen Z adults use social media, with screen time varying widely. While this has its benefits—as it democratizes knowledge, perspective, and entertainment—it can also lead to harm. 

For years we’ve known that excessive social media use leads to poor mental health. People have suffered from body image issues, feelings of inadequacy, and acute loneliness due to ideals promoted on social media. That is clear and well-documented within the scientific community. Still, what really leads people down these paths can be difficult to pinpoint in the context of a scrolling session.

Posts on social media exist within mechanisms and social structures, like doomscrolling and parasocial relationships, and they often create unrealistic expectations for users. These unrealistic expectations are fueled by how much we see into everyone else’s lives. Social media works as a tool to platform life highlights just as much as it works to connect people. This often leaves users comparing the ins-and-outs of their lives to the highlights of others’, making them feel bad about themselves. As a result, they can be taken down rabbit-holes that promote increasingly extreme beliefs. 

This can partially be attributed to the fact that social media rewards elevated, dramatized and extreme lifestyles. While it is a vast expanse of knowledge, humor, and authentic viewpoints, social media is also a sort of dopamine slot machine, as the algorithms are designed to maximize user engagement and retention. As a result, a lot of us have habits built around these platforms that don’t do much good. They keep us from talking to our loved ones, glue us to our beds and couches, and begin to warp our ideas about the world.

Notice the rabbit-hole?

Do you ever notice how when you search a topic on TikTok your For You Page is transformed? Or how when you like a post on Reels your feed shows a lot of similar posts within that scrolling session? Out of context, this seems like a great way to learn about new interests in a fast way. But with the reward of off-the-wall content and the lack of effective safeguards, there are heaping potential risks. This is evident with things like redpill culture, incel culture and increasingly thinning body standards. Trends can very quickly become lifestyles, which can have far-reaching implications for one’s mental health. 

For example, social media often perpetuates the trend of users looking through a lens of romantic judgment. Like assuming a man is posting music he is into for the female gaze (think “for the huzz”). Or that a woman who has lots of guy friends is promiscuous (think of “bops” on TikTok). These posts can create issues out of assumption—which can lead to relationship problems, mistrust of colleagues, or baseless judgment of those around you—all because of the desire to maximize engagement.

Let me break down the formula like this. Once a trend starts to catch some buzz and pop off, people often try to create content that aligns with it so they can get engagement ( likes, comments, and followers). As people engage with this content, they are suggested similar posts. This makes it easier for them to explore any given topic, but it also makes it easier to fall down rabbit-holes of content. It’s how we get people who are obsessed with true crime, or chasing a bag, or exceptionally well-versed in astrology. It’s why meme culture is a thing. It’s why there are trends that transcend particular moments and become intertwined with our culture. 

Millions of posts are made daily, many of which can end up taking you down the rabbit-hole. With so much content to choose from, you can learn about practically any topic with the click of a button. The content landscape is basically endless, which makes it easy to be lured into “doomscrolling” as a continual search for affirmation and fulfillment. 

The Lure of Doomscrolling

Doomscrolling is the act of continuing to scroll through an endless page. The endless part makes it harder to get off the app, as users are continuously looking for posts that pique their interest. This endless drift through the social media feed often increases the possibility of exposure to harmful content.

As you continue to scroll, you may come across posts that resonate with you despite existing on the fringes of your moral compass. Since the page doesn’t end, the possibility of encountering that content is always there. As you engage with the fringe content, your feed will suggest more and more extreme posts, as your algorithm wants to keep you on the app and it sees that’s the content you’re engaging with. Doomscrolling can continuously feed you that content, shifting your perspective ever-so-slightly. Not only can this evoke certain thoughts and mindsets, but it can also lead to increased feelings of depression, anxiety, fear and stress, according to the suggestions of recent research. 

The affirmation and fulfillment comes when you find content that humors, intrigues, or simply drives you to engage with it. On the surface, this is great! You’re learning new things quickly and staying in the loop. Or you’re having a gut-busting laugh after work. But doomscrolling can become something that you can’t detach from, making it so you’re tethered and looking for an appeasement to your content appetite, rather than searching for fulfillment elsewhere.  

Like an addiction.

Where Doomscrolling Can Take You

I spoke to a few friends about doomscrolling and they all echoed a similar sentiment—it takes away too much time from the real world. 

For Arianna Langton, it takes away time that would have otherwise been used for something else. “The instant dopamine hit of each short will stop me from watching a movie or show or anything else ‘cause I know it’s easier to sit on my phone and scroll,” Langton said. It sometimes leaves her feeling worse about herself, as “it has you constantly comparing yourself to everyone else in the world. From physical fitness to money and careers, then [you’re] just sad all the time for no real reason.” 

This can be attributed to the fact that doomscrolling produces a feed that is hyper-curated to you. At the cost of your time and mental health, the algorithm takes the content you engage with and blasts you with similar content, using past interactions to create a better profile of what you may like for the purpose of driving engagement, which creates the sort of Catch 22 effect Langton was alluding to.

While being blasted with things that you’re interested in, you are simultaneously made to feel as though obtaining a certain lifestyle, physique, or mindset should be as instant as the content itself. This may not occur in shorter scroll situations, but doomscrolling is a different story. Since these sessions can range anywhere from 10 minutes to 10 hours, doomscrolling can very quickly become a practice that distorts your self image, dysregulates you emotionally, and lowers your self esteem, as you’re constantly being bombarded by perspectives that aren’t your own. 

You can look at the rise of gym culture and the effect it has had on young people. Since the pandemic, more people go to the gym as a way to remain active and healthy. With this comes more and more “gymfluencers”: people who have built online platforms by encouraging people to get in the gym. The success incentive this role perpetuates means that sometimes influencers may cut corners in order to create engaging content. 

In a 2023 study of Instagram fitness accounts, researchers found that almost two-thirds of the popular gymfluencer accounts were not credible. Many of them promoted out-of-reach body standards and featured high levels of sexualization and objectification, especially among women. The study found that men were also sexualized, but not as much as women. 

This sexualization seems to happen beneath the surface, with the content often being packaged as motivational. It uses messaging that encourages users to work hard towards their goals and aspirations, stave off laziness, and build a life that they can be proud of. But through the lens of sexualized, unrealistic body standards, the motivational aspect is counterintuitive. And this isn’t all gymfluencers. There are plenty of people who have created inclusive online platforms by encouraging others to get in the gym, but there are just as many who have built their platforms through covert sexualization and unrealistic body standards packaged as realistic, motivational gym content.

In the context of a scrolling session, especially, the delivery of these messages can make one feel worse about themselves, depending on their mood. For example, as I was scrolling through the ‘gym motivation’ search on TikTok, I was first met with content that made me want to get out of bed and hit the gym. But, as I continued to scroll, I was met with content that encouraged relying on rage and anger to finish workouts. Content where spotters motivated the person working out by means of insults and aggression. 

One TikTok by user @214.pedro._ depicted a pair in the gym using photos of what seems to be an ex-partner as motivation, with one bursting into tears before telling his spotter to stop. While this may serve as motivation, it does so at the cost of one’s emotional well-being, putting them through something they might not be ready to deal with. And this was encouraged in the comments, with users saying things like “If my brother never do this to me he not my brother,” “need a gym bro like this,” and “Ay homie real for that.” I could only imagine what an entire for-you page of this would do to my mental health.

Now, it’s already known that social media can distort your personal image, but it does so in a way that is deceptive. Something packaged as health-oriented can very quickly be the thing interfering with your mental health, as the bombardment of unhealthy standards via content can drive one to want to achieve those standards by any means. 

This looks like wanting to use tough emotional moments as fuel rather than unpacking them. 

This looks like increasingly reckless use of steroids and other performance enhancers in order to achieve one’s dream physique. This looks like looking up to problematic figures because they promote oppressive ideals without room for discussion. 

This looks like the constant subjugation to ideals that seem so close in reach but are nearly impossible to achieve without self-contusion. 

We’re all encouraged to go down the rabbit hole by these ideals. Due to the lack of safeguards, it’s easy for those rabbit holes to be filled with misinformation and disinformation. 

This misinformation tends to come in the forms of rumors, like Chipotle closing all of its restaurants, men not having Adam’s apples anymore, and seed oils being the driving cause of many diseases. The disinformation tends to come in the form of blatant falsehoods disguised as truth, like dogs being eaten by Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio or all women only being interested in one type of man. As you fall down the rabbit-hole, these falsehoods can become amplified, which puts you and your mental health at risk.

Falling down the rabbit-hole

Social media conveys the idea that significant lifestyle changes are just within arm’s length. This is a slippery slope, as doomscrolling’s allure coupled with how easy it is to identify with trends creates a sort of ‘rabbit-hole reinforcement’ formula. 

This formula can be applied to anything on the internet, making it so we’re all mini-experts in things we’re interested in. Like the person who knows everything about The Kardashians. Or the Barb who knows every bit of Nicki Minaj lore. Or that one guy who got way too deep into politics and thinks the only way to stop the sky from falling is through extreme action. The slippery slope comes when you start looking at ways people are pulled into echo chambers, or the incel pipeline. 

Incels are people (often men) who are involuntarily celibate. In moments of loneliness, these men search for relief online. In the realization that there are other men who are virgins not by choice—who often congregate in sparsely regulated chat rooms and servers—they find a filler for their loneliness. These fillers are often found in the corners of platforms like 4Chan and Reddit, with the latter having to ban the incel subreddit in 2017  because it “became a repository of misogynistic abuse, rape threats and febrile discussion of "Chads" - men apparently not afflicted by incels' sexual insufficiency,” according to the BBC. 

Since these coalitions are built on shared loneliness over being involuntary virgins, these men often take their frustrations out on women. Often through derogatory, degrading remarks about women and their sexuality. In more extreme cases, these men joke about harming them, and in the most extreme, some of them do. 

Perhaps the most infamous case of this is that of Elliot Rodger. Rodger, a child of divorce, struggled with feelings of inadequacy and social ineptitude. 

As he grew older, he sought comfort in online chatrooms, where he was exposed to sexual content and ideals. With increased IRL struggles and a sort of solace found online, Rodger began to grow resentful of those who were able to build relationships with others. This would result in public outbursts, multiple school transfers, and a downward spiral of Rodger’s mental health. He had tried therapy and medication, but ended up stopping treatment, which further fueled his spiral. 

As he got deeper into the online world, he began to frequent incel forums and consuming manosphere content. This would drive him to invest in designer clothing in the belief that it would finally help him escape the clutches of virginity. 

With his declining mental health and growing disdain for women and couples, he would begin to act on some of his darker urges. He threw coffee at couples on multiple occasions, envisioned himself stabbing happy couples, hurled sexually-charged insults and women, and became increasingly socially isolated. He would start uploading videos to YouTube complaining about his struggles with women, which were increasingly chilling. 

“I’ll be a god, exacting my retribution on all those who deserve it,” Rodger proclaimed in one video. “Girls gave their affection and sex and love to other men but never to me. I’m 22 years old and I’m still a virgin,” he said in another, his voice bathed with disdain. 

He would eventually enact a plan to murder as many people as he could in the Isla Vista area, determined to take his anger out on the world. He started with his roommates, moved onto a sorority house, and continued into his BMW, where he plowed through residents of the town. At the end of his rampage, he killed himself, leaving 6 murder victims and 14 injury victims in his wake in an incident that became known as the 2014 Isla Vista killings. 

From Rodger’s social media presence, one would have guessed that he was just another egotistical rich guy trying to compensate for something. Behind his facade, though, was a deep disdain for women and couples sparked by his own struggles and fueled by a lack of online checks-and-balances. 

Although his case isn’t the same for all incels, it gives an insight into the impact social media can have on mental health. What was created as a tool to connect people spiraled into something that brought lonely minds together on a dark accord, churning out incels who would rather hate women than actually get to know them. This is partially because of the lack of effective mental health safety nets online, partially because of the rabbit-hole reinforcement formula. As someone gets further into a pipeline, they are inundated with more and more indoctrinating content, making it increasingly difficult to escape. 

The role of social media companies

This difficulty is by design. While it is easy to come down on yourself for your social media habit, social media companies hold a chunk of the blame. These apps are designed to hold your attention for as long as possible. Those who built them have said so themselves. This is primarily due to funding, as more time spent on these platforms means more advertising dollars for their parent companies. 

In the BBC article, “Social media apps are ‘deliberately’ addictive to users,” Aza Raskin, co-founder of the Center for Humane Technology & the designer of the ‘infinite scroll’ technology responsible for doomscrolling, spoke on this financial incentive. “In order to get the next round of funding, in order to get your stock price up, the amount of time that people spend on your app has to go up.” This profit incentive, coupled with the dangers of the infinite scroll and the content that is promoted on social media, have huge implicative risks on one’s mental health. 

And these companies are fully aware of this. 

In an investigation of the leaked ‘Facebook Files’ by The Wall Street Journal, the outlet found that “Time and again, the documents show, Facebook’s researchers have identified the platform’s ill effects. Time and again, despite congressional hearings, its own pledges and numerous media exposés, the company didn’t fix them.” The investigation highlights Facebook’s repeated lack of accountability when it comes to the mental health of their platforms’ users. It particularly focuses on the disconnect between what the company says and what employees actually do, referring to a pattern of employees reporting areas of concern to higher-ups only to be met with responses that were “in many instances inadequate or nothing at all.”

It is clear that these companies are hesitant to take accountability, despite being given multiple opportunities to do so. There are many pitfalls in social media that we are only beginning to understand. It is important to remember that our falling down these rabbit-holes is by-design, with social media companies actively working to keep us inundated with content. With this in mind, it is important to take hold of how we use these apps for the sake of our mental health. 

Climbing out of the rabbit-hole

If we want to avoid these pitfalls, we have to honestly reevaluate our individual and collective relationships with social media. Personally, I have found that social media serves as a filler for when I’m bored or in awkward situations, and I’ve seen that trend among those around me, too. Collectively, I believe that we are becoming increasingly segmented into our own online sectors, and we are barely beginning to see the mental health effects of that segmentation. 

Not to be a doomer.

In fact, we are still able to take responsibility for how much we are active in those sectors. But, developing a healthy relationship with social media takes time, patience, failure and perseverance. You will have to reassess your daily habits and explore what fulfills you outside of social media if you want to reduce some of its mental burden. 

Personally, I’ve implemented screen time limits for different apps and have started becoming more mindful of why I am on social media in any given session. I find that this gives me more time to explore the things that actually fulfill me. Whatever the case may be, there are steps you can take to brighten your social media experience. 

The National Alliance on Mental Health suggests unfollowing “accounts that don’t bring positivity, motivation or inspiration into your life.” They also suggest watching what you share, searching for healthy digital communities that you share commonalities with, and reducing your screen time. This can look like a certain day out of the week where you don’t use your phone or it can look like clearing out your following list

If you’ve already started lowering your screen time but are struggling with filling up time that you’d otherwise spend on your phone, try finding hobbies or activities that keep your attention and evoke fulfillment. Practice a favorite activity from childhood, like sports or painting, or explore something you’ve never tried before, like pilates or zip lining. It doesn’t have to be anything crazy, but search for something that’s able to fill your time.

If you have access to a mental health specialist, I highly encourage you to work with them to figure out an individualized plan that works for you. A plan that accounts for your personal obligations, habits, goals, and values.

Conclusion

Now, this doesn’t mean you have to quit social media altogether. It is a technological marvel that has radically changed our world to the point where it’s hard to stay in the loop without it. It provides us with ways to stay connected with people we would have otherwise lost to the sands of time. We have a vast amount of information at our fingertips and our global connection is nothing short of historic. It is precisely because of this that we have to be responsible with our use. If we aren’t, then we are subject to the infinite void that is doomscrolling and at risk of slipping down dangerous pipelines thanks to the rabbit-hole. 

If we do slip down this rabbit-hole, we may continue to see more extreme ideals become the norm. Or, we may see a continued increase in rates of depression, anxiety, body dysmorphia, and a decrease in offline satisfaction.

Whatever the case may be, unless we reevaluate the role social media plays in our lives and take steps to put our mental health first, our online and offline relationships will become increasingly toxic. 

Sources (Any Linked Material in the Essay)

Sarah Shriber’s “3 Key Social Media Trends Among Gen Z and Millennials. Published in Civic Science on 6/14/2023

Hasan Beyari’s “The Relationship between Social Media and the Increase in Mental Health Problems.” Published in the National Library of Medicine on 1/29/2023

“Doomscrolling Scale: its Association with Personality Traits, Psychological Distress, Social Media Use, and Wellbeing.” Published in the National Library of Medicine on 10/19/2022

Rachel G Curtis, Ivanka Prichard, Georgia Gosse, Anne Stankevicius, and Carol A Maher’s “Hashtag fitspiration: credibility screening and content analysis of Instagram fitness accounts.” Published in BMC Public Health on 3/2/2023

@214.pedro’s TikTok, https://www.tiktok.com/@214.pedro._/video/7357888666498436398. Posted on 4/14/2024

“Why is steroid use rising among male bodybuilders.” Published in the BBC on 4/10/2022

“Reddit bans ‘involuntarily celibate’ community.” Published in the BBC on 11/9/2017

Harriet Sokmensuer’s “Remembering the 6 Student Victims of the Isla Vista Killings.” Published in People, updated on 6/13/2023

“Social media apps are ‘deliberately’ addictive to users.” Published in the BBC on 7/3/2018

“The Facebook Files.” Published by The Wall Street Journal in 2021.

“How to Have a Healthy Relationship with Social Media.” Published by the National Alliance on Mental Illness on 2/25/2019

“The Year in Hate & Extremism in 2023.” Published by the Southern Poverty Law Center.