Doomscrolling at work hurts more than productivity—it lingers in your mind
Doomscrolling at work wastes time, but the real cost is what happens after
New research from Texas A&M University finds that employees who doomscroll at work are less engaged, not just because of lost time, but because they ruminate on negative news. Across two studies in the U.S. and U.K., Dr. Ian Hughes and colleagues showed that this rumination reduces work engagement, especially among those high in neuroticism. Hughes advises against strict bans, suggesting instead to confine doomscrolling to one physical location, like a comfy chair at home.
Doomscrolling is a sort of double-edged sword in that it is, at its core, an information-seeking behavior, but it's an information-seeking behavior that exposes people repeatedly to distressing or otherwise negative information.