So, I was rewatching The Night Agent—a show full of intrigue, danger, and lots of techy lingo—when I first heard the term “doomscrolling.” It hit me like a light bulb moment. There it was, a word that perfectly encapsulates what many of us have been doing these last few years: obsessively scrolling through bad news as if we’re prepping for an apocalypse. And today, for some odd reason, I randomly remembered it and… laughed.

But here’s the question: is doomscrolling actually a good coping mechanism? Stay with me here—before you start eye-rolling at the idea. At first glance, it feels like a disaster, right? You’re clicking, scrolling, reading, refreshing, as if your thumb is on autopilot, dragging you down into a pit of despair with every news headline. But think about it: everyone needs coping strategies, even if they’re a little… unorthodox.

Sure, doomscrolling sounds like the emotional equivalent of swimming in a pool of piranhas, but in a weird, twisted way, it can offer a sense of control. When life is spinning out of hand, and the world feels like it’s on fire, finding that fixed point of attention—even if it’s bad news—gives your brain something concrete to latch onto. You know where you stand. It’s like saying, “OK, everything’s awful. I got that. But I can at least read about it and know exactly what level of awful I’m dealing with.” It’s anxiety management via immersion—like diving into the panic rather than tiptoeing around it.

Of course, I’m not advocating turning into a professional doomscroller (are there medals for that?), but it does make you wonder: is this modern fixation on bad news simply a misguided attempt at processing our deepest fears? Maybe, just maybe, scrolling through catastrophe after catastrophe is like a warped form of self-soothing. You click on the chaos, and it gives you a familiar emotional response—fear, frustration, maybe a dash of “I-told-you-so”—but at least you know what to expect.

So, is doomscrolling really a “bad” coping mechanism? Probably. But is it all that different from doom-watching Dateline marathons or reading dystopian novels? I think we’re all just looking for a way to feel something when everything feels uncertain, even if that something is, well, doom.

Next time you catch yourself stuck in a doomscrolling vortex, just remind yourself: at least you’re keeping track of the world falling apart, right? There’s comfort in predictability—even when it’s a predictable mess.