Just say no to doomscrolling

[FSogol]

Authoritarians and tech CEOs now share the same goal: to keep us locked in an eternal doomscroll instead of organizing against them, Janus Rose writes.

If there’s one thing I’d hoped people had learned going into the next four years of Donald Trump as president, it’s that spending lots of time online posting about what people in power are saying and doing is not going to accomplish anything. If anything, it’s exactly what they want.

Trump’s second presidential term has arrived amidst a new golden age for internet grifters, propagandists, and bad-faith hucksters of all stripes. The contours of this era of untruth have been flashing like neon signs for the past decade, constantly enticing us to engage with its impenetrable nonsense. Whether it’s gaslighting everyone who saw Elon Musk give two Nazi salutes during the inauguration or blaming the Los Angeles wildfires on the racist dog whistle of “DEI,” lies and absurdities now regularly flood our senses, having long outpaced the media’s capacity to filter them.

Many of my journalist colleagues have attempted to beat back the tide under banners like “fighting disinformation” and “accountability.” While these efforts are admirable, the past few years have changed my own internal calculus. Thinkers like Jean-Paul Sartre and Hannah Arendt warned us that the point of this deluge is not to persuade, but to overwhelm and paralyze our capacity to act. More recently, researchers have found that the viral outrage disseminated on social media in response to these ridiculous claims actually reduces the effectiveness of collective action. The result is a media environment that keeps us in a state of debilitating fear and anger, endlessly reacting to our oppressors instead of organizing against them.

more by Janus Rose at 404media

https://www.404media.co/you-cant-post-your-way-out-of-fascism/

[MineralMan]

1. My wife has been doomscrolling, I'm afraid.

When I figured that was the reason she was in a blue funk, I brought it up. Once she realized that reading or watching negative things so much was the cause of her mood, she stopped doing it and went back to a more varied online viewing strategy. The mood went away.

It is so easy to fall into a mode where you are following the same track online. Recognizing that is the first step to browsing more sensibly, I think.

[FSogol]

2. Very true. Lots here at DU are falling into that too.

[MineralMan]

8. It's so easy to get caught up in it.

Whatever major outlet you're using, it will notice what you're looking at and present you with more of that to keep your engagement high. The presentation algorithms on all of the major social media systems focuses on that to a fault.

On Facebook, for example, there is a user option you can set to turn that off. If you turn off Facebook's use of your viewing history, the site won't keep as close a track on what you're viewing and you'll see a wider range of stuff in your feed. Getting to that setting, though, isn't easy. It's different on different apps, too.

YouTube has similar methods for feeding you videos that are similar to the ones you have recently watched. It's uncanny just how well the algorithms presentation algorithms work.

[Ocelot II]

12. A friend told me yesterday that her husband has been doomscrolling

during almost all of his spare time and it's not helping his state of mind at all. I think it's how we have at least the illusion of control over a chaotic situation if we know what's going on, but at some point you just have to walk away and do something else. This morning I will be painting, then I'll go for a walk, work on a writing project and go to a choir rehearsal. I'll just visit the internet for updates.

[MineralMan]

15. It can be difficult to avoid. My strategy is to just read news stories,

but to avoid doom-saying posts. I'm only on DU when it comes to politics, so that's not too difficult, really.

I'm looking at news outlets and DU when I'm browsing. Most of the doom-saying DUers are screen names I recognize, so I just avoid their posts and keep scrolling for new information.

I don't like getting into loops that involve my emotional state, so I work hard to avoid them.

[gab13by13]

3. Just say no to ignoring what is happening.

Stop assuming that people who report what Musk is doing have given up, lost hope.

What Musk is doing pisses me off, I am angry and the answer is not singing kumbaya, the answer is for Dems to hold town halls and lay it out for them what Project 2025 will do to them.

It is we the people who are needed to save our democracy. I am sorry to report that the 3 legged stool of democracy is broken so get mad, get organized, fight back.

Do not assume the courts will save us, fight.

[FSogol]

4. Fighting is daily agonizing on a tiny web forum?

Also, your first line is incorrect, I didn't assume anything. Just posting advice for people stuck in endless doomscrolling and agonizing. It isn't healthy and isn't leading to productive change.

[gab13by13]

7. Posting what is happening is not doomscrolling

The best way to lose our democracy is for the people to be apathetic like they were in Nazi Germany.

I get my news from a handful of reliable sources and they are telling me that Musk has gotten access to the funds for Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid, and that pisses me off. We the people need to act now. The best action IMO is to hold town halls to inform and organize the people.
I am ready to fight, are you? Call your Reps every day. Now is the time to fight.

[Ocelot II]

9. What are *you* doing, besides posting on DU?

The point of the article isn't that we should ignore what's going on, or that we should not post on social media. The point was that it's not enough. If all we're doing is adding to the echo chamber we're not accomplishing anything. I know I can do more and have been looking for an organization I can volunteer for that would do the most good. I know that social media is useful as an information source but doing what I'm doing right this minute isn't helping much.

[Ocelot II]

5. Excellent article,

she said, while doomscrolling and posting on social media...

Yup, we gotta get out more.

[Prairie_Seagull]

6. At what point do we call it 'doomscrolling'

I agree, there is some point when what I do could be called doomscrolling but just prior to that it is just being informed. I am always looking for creative answers mostly on DU. If what I do could be called doomscrolling hoping to find answers to huge questions. Then so be it. But that is just me and maybe a few others. I don't believe this hamstrings me one bit.

I will say my tolerance for reading this shit without tossing anything about has gotten apparently better.

[GusBob]

10. Tried to point this out last night in another thread

Journalists spent the last DT term writing about the horrible things he did, listed week after week
The stories actually write themselves

And we are seeing it again

[LeftInTX]

11. I was watching the new season 2 of the comedy series "Mo". (Short for Mohammed)

In real life and in the series, he's a Palestinian refugee. (In real life he's a former refugee) The series is kinda like Seinfeld in that it is based on his real life to some extent.

Oct 7 happens and you can "feel it" in the second season's writing. (First season was from 2022)

Mo's aunts and uncles live on the West Bank. His mom is constantly doom scrolling, for obvious reasons. He finally says to his mom, "Put that down, it's making you crazy".

But if Mo can tell his mom to stop doom scrolling, I think a lesson can be learned here.

I also think doom scrolling riled up many of the pro-Palestinian protesters. (However, feeds were pushed like that on purpose by Hamas. Hamas was on telegram and then their stuff would get pushed on other SM. Also AJ and other Arabic media in Gaza were good at repeating gore)

[hlthe2b]

13. Trying my best... My only salvation is my 5AM 3mile hike with my pup and friends each morning.

'Trying to keep our collective achy joints lubricated and some pounds off but even more--tamp down on the stress.

So, get outdoors, turn the podcasts, radio, and non-soothing music off and just be there for a little while.

And yeah, limit the doom-scrolling to whatever keeps you accurately informed without resultant paralysis.

[Lars39]

14. I've started jumping on, get caught up, then jump off again.

If I wake in the night I'll read my book instead of trying to catch up again. I've tried to approach this whole mess as an historian...bookmarking and saving relevant articles. It's not been easy.

[flamingdem]

16. NOTHING wrong with doomscrolling in dire circumstances

It's usually those who don't care all that much who propose
ignoring information. In my experience.

Most adults without ADD know when to stop.

We need to know what's going on.

It takes time to keep up.

When things calm down I'll focus elsewhere but

THIS IS AN EMERGENCY!!

And it's time to call and email your reps

[Alice B.]

17. I keep telling myself that I'm looking for one bright spot or piece of good news to stop on, that I can take with me ...

... throughout the rest of the day, or to bed so I can sleep.

I have some personal interests where I can completely forget current affairs for three to four hours out of a day, putting myself in good enough of a mood to listen to music on the way home instead of Progress or MSNBC.

But it's hard. I'm working with one eye on DU and Bluesky and the other on my work-work.

[BannonsLiver]

18. Some of the responses are absolutely kooky

[Ocelot II]

19. Which ones, and in what way?

[BannonsLiver]

20. The ones telling people that if they're not doomscrolling they don't care about what is happening.

. Some of these folks are going to be totally washed by spring at this pace.

[jeffreyi]

21. Guilty.

I am sifting through all the information looking for context and ways to fight back. I shouldn't have to do this. Ways to fight back ought to be a unified and evolving set of recommendations, pinned, shared with others outside DU, so we quit shouting and move on to acting. Otherwise, yes, it's yelling to each other from inside the empty, sealed grain silo.
So, let's get our act together and agree on and create a pinned picklist of effective actions.