What it means
Doomscrolling is when you keep scrolling through grim news and bleak posts long after it stops doing you any good, telling yourself you'll stop after just one more. It usually happens late at night, thumb on autopilot, brain marinating in worst case scenarios, and you end up more wired and more miserable than when you started.
Usage examples
"I told myself I'd sleep at eleven and then I was doomscrolling till two, reading about three different crises I can do nothing about."
"Put the phone down and stop doomscrolling, mate, you've been scrolling the same bad headlines for an hour and your tea's gone cold."
Where it comes from
It bolts together doom and scrolling, and took off around 2020 when there was an endless supply of bad news and a phone in everyone's hand to deliver it. The word named a habit loads of people suddenly recognised in themselves, thumb flicking, dread rising, sleep nowhere in sight.
Editors of this term
Your vote counts
Is this real street talk or have we lost the plot? Cast your vote.