How To Stop Doomscrolling - 3 Phone Changes That Work

How to stop doomscrolling comes down to changing what your phone shows and does, so the feed loses its pull. Switch to your Following feed, add a pause before your go-to scrolling app opens, and mute the words that keep dragging you back into bad news. You do not have to delete your apps or lock your phone in a drawer.

You open an app to check one thing, and 40 minutes later you are still reading bad news you cannot do anything about. That loop is doomscrolling. Your phone settings can break it better than willpower can.

If you are new here, I organize life into five areas that feed each other. I call them the 5 Core Areas of Life.

• Mindset - getting your mind to work for you instead of against you.

• Career and Finances - earning a living doing what you love and are great at, and growing your wealth along the way.

• Relationships - building deep connections and allies who help you reach your goals.

• Physical Health - caring for your body so you look good, feel good, and have the energy to keep going.

• Emotional and Mental Health - managing stress, making room for your passions, and making the world better for having you in it.

Doomscrolling falls under your Emotional and Mental Health Core, because it shapes how much worry and stress you carry through the day. But it is just one of the five Cores that run your life. If you want to see which other areas need work, take this 60-second quiz.

Below you will find what doomscrolling is, why it is so hard to stop, and three phone changes that break the habit, one at a time.

What Is Doomscrolling?

Doomscrolling is the habit of scrolling through social media or news feeds for bad news, long after it stops being useful. A University of Florida team led by Bhakti Sharma and Benjamin Johnson built a scale to measure it. In their 2022 study in Technology, Mind, and Behavior, they describe doomscrolling as "habitual, immersive scanning for timely negative information on social media newsfeeds."

There is good news too. Across 502 adults from 27 countries, Sharma's team found doomscrolling was less common than they expected, and less common than some media reports suggest. You have a habit, not a life sentence, and habits can change.

Doomscrolling Vs Mindless Scrolling

Mindless scrolling on social media is the broader version of doomscrolling. You scroll with no goal at all, through memes, videos, or friends' photos. Doomscrolling is mindless scrolling with a darker feed. The fixes in this article work for both, so they double as a guide to how to stop scrolling in general.

Why Do You Doomscroll So Much?

Two things work against you. 

The first is the news itself. A research team that included Jay Van Bavel of New York University and Stefan Feuerriegel of LMU Munich studied about 105,000 headline variations from a US news site, seen more than 370 million times. In their 2023 Nature Human Behaviour study, each extra negative word in an average-length headline raised the click-through rate, the share of people who clicked, by 2.3%. Each extra positive word lowered it by 1.0%. Bad news pulls clicks, which is one reason it is so hard to look away.

The second is the design of the feed. A book has a last page, so it gives you a natural moment to stop. A feed never ends, so that moment never comes.

That endless feed plugs straight into a habit loop. Every habit, good or bad, runs on the same four parts. A cue sets it off, a craving makes you want something, a response is what you do, and a reward makes you want to do it again. 

Here is how that plays out with doomscrolling. It is 11 p.m., you are in bed, and you feel bored. That boredom is the cue. You want something new to look at, which is the craving. You open the app and start scrolling, which is the response. A fresh headline grabs your attention, and that is the reward. Repeat that night after night, and reaching for the feed in bed starts to happen on autopilot. Here is a deeper look at the cue, craving, response and reward loop if you want the full breakdown.

I have always believed the same game mechanics that make apps so addictive can be turned around to help you level up, instead of just getting you to the next board with nothing to show for it. So the fix is not less phone. It is a smarter setup.

That smarter setup comes from the 3 Momentum Boosting Methods, the heart of the Moore Momentum System. Each one breaks a different part of the doomscrolling loop. Making the feed unattractive weakens the cue and the craving. Making it hard to open slows down your response. Making it unrewarding takes away the payoff. The three steps below show how to stop doomscrolling with one method each.

How To Stop Doomscrolling In 3 Steps

The 3 Momentum Boosting Methods are the heart of the Moore Momentum System. To break a habit, you run the same three methods in reverse, using the phone you already carry.

Do one step at a time, in order, and only move on when the step tells you to.

1. Make It Unattractive By Switching To Your Following Feed

Most apps open to a feed picked by an algorithm. Your Following feed only shows accounts you chose, in time order, so the app has less room to push bait at you.

The biggest test of this idea comes from a team led by Andrew Guess of Princeton University, working with Meta. During the 2020 US election, they switched people on Facebook and Instagram who agreed to take part from the default feed to a chronological one for three months. In their 2023 study in Science, the switch "substantially decreased the time they spent on the platforms and their activity." One honest catch. In that study, people in the chronological feed also saw more political posts and more posts from untrustworthy sources. Step 3 helps you filter some of it out.

On Instagram, use the feed menu at the top of your home feed and choose Following. On X, tap the Following tab at the top of your timeline. Some apps flip you back to the main feed when you reopen them, so check which feed you are on each time.

For example, if Instagram is where your nights disappear, switch to Following before you scroll. You catch up on the people you follow, without a stream of strangers' bad news.

Move on when you have opened your Following feed first for three days in a row.

2. Make It Hard By Adding A Pause Before The App Opens

Often you open the app without really deciding to. A pause fixes that.

Researchers from Heidelberg University and the Max Planck Institute for Human Development tested this in a 2023 PNAS study. The study was led by David Grüning, who was at Heidelberg University when it came out. For six weeks, 280 people used an app that stepped in every time they tried to open an app they wanted to use less. A pop-up appeared before that app opened. It showed a short message asking them to think about what they were doing, made them wait a few seconds, and gave them a button to back out instead of opening the app. In 36% of those attempts, people backed out and closed the app. After six weeks, they were actually opening those apps 57% less. In a second experiment with 500 people, the option to back out had the strongest effect. A short wait also helped, but a reminder message on its own did not. One of the authors founded the company behind the app, so keep that in mind. And yes, you can always tap past a pause. The point is not to lock you out. It is to make you choose. 

You can build a simple version on an iPhone with the free Shortcuts app. Tap Automation, then the plus sign, and choose App. Pick the app where you doomscroll, select Is Opened and Run Immediately, and start a new blank automation. Add a Choose From Menu action with two options, Keep Scrolling and Close. Under Close, add Go To Home Screen. On Android, a pause app from your app store can do the same job.

For example, you open X in bed out of habit. A menu pops up with two buttons, Keep Scrolling and Close. That one tap is all it takes to choose sleep instead.

Move on when you have tapped Close at least five times.

3. Make It Unrewarding By Muting The Words That Hook You

Doomscrolling is a hunt for the next piece of bad news, and negative words pull more clicks. So take those words out of your feed.

Many apps let you mute words and phrases. On X, go to Settings and Privacy, then Privacy and Safety, then Mute and Block, then Muted Words. On TikTok, go to Settings and Privacy, then Content Preferences, then Filter Keywords. Add the words that pull you into a spiral, such as "breaking" or the name of the crisis you keep reading about.

No study has tested muted words on doomscrolling yet, so treat this step as an experiment, not a proven fix. Muting words inside an app does not affect the emergency alerts your phone gets from authorities, so leave those switched on.

For example, if one ongoing story keeps you up at night, mute its name for a week. You can still look it up on purpose. You just stop tripping over it every few seconds.

You are done when you have muted at least five words and your feed feels calmer.

What To Do After A Night Of Doomscrolling

You will slip. Everyone does. A slip is not proof that you have no self-control. In the Moore Momentum System, I call that the Fixed-Victim view. The Growth-Owner view is simpler. Your setup slipped, so you fix the setup.

The next morning, ask which change broke down. Maybe you skipped your Following feed, or tapped Keep Scrolling three times. Fix that one thing before tonight. If you keep tapping Keep Scrolling, add a Wait action of a few seconds before your menu, since a short wait also helped in the PNAS study.

If you want more ways to make your phone work for you, here is how to reduce your screen time with simple changes to your settings.

And if you keep reaching for your phone for quick hits of novelty, learn the difference between good dopamine and cheap dopamine.

TAKE YOUR NIGHTS BACK

Every hour the feed takes is an hour you could spend sleeping, laughing with friends, or doing something that actually makes you feel good. New settings win back some of that time, but they do not show you why the scroll keeps calling. Is it stress you have not dealt with, a lonely evening, or a day that left you drained? The Core Values Quiz shows you which part of your life is quietly pulling you back to the feed, in under 60 seconds. The steps in this article come from the Moore Momentum System, which uses AI to build habits around your life, cut the friction out of starting them, and spot the obstacles before they pull you back in. 

Ready Player One?

Conclusion

Learning how to stop doomscrolling is not about quitting your phone. It is about changing what your phone does, one setting at a time.

Your only job today is Step 1. Open the app where you doomscroll most and switch to your Following feed. Do it again tomorrow and the day after. Then, when your three days are up, add the pause menu. For ideas on what to do with the time you win back, browse these healthy habits examples.

If your scrolling leaves you anxious most days, you use it to escape stress you cannot shake, or you cannot cut back even with these changes, please talk to a doctor or a licensed therapist. These steps work best alongside the right support, not instead of it.

Frequently Asked Questions

What To Do Instead Of Doomscrolling

Instead of doomscrolling, scroll something that lifts you up. In a 2021 PLOS ONE study from the University of Essex, a few minutes of COVID-19 news lowered people's mood, but watching acts of kindness did not have the same effect. So follow a few accounts that share good news or kind acts. They will show up in your Following feed from Step 1, which gives your thumb somewhere better to go.

Is Doomscrolling A Symptom Of ADHD?

No. Doomscrolling is not one of the symptoms used to diagnose ADHD. The National Institute of Mental Health describes ADHD as a persistent pattern of inattention, hyperactivity, or impulsivity that starts in childhood and gets in the way of daily life. A primary care provider or mental health professional can diagnose it. If you have ADHD and struggle to stop scrolling, the phone changes in this article do not rely on willpower, and a clinician can help you build a plan.

How To Stop Doomscrolling At Night

To stop doomscrolling at night, set your phone up during the day, when you are not tired. Add a pause menu to the app you scroll in bed, so you get an easy Close button the moment the app opens. In a 2023 PNAS study of 280 people, a similar pop-up led people to close the app in 36% of attempts. At night, that one tap gives you a real choice between sleep and another hour of bad news.

How Unhealthy Is Doom Scrolling?

Doomscrolling is linked to more anxiety, and even a few minutes of bad news can dent your mood. In a 2021 PLOS ONE study led by Kathryn Buchanan at the University of Essex, just 2 to 4 minutes of COVID-19 news led to an immediate drop in positive mood. A 2022 study of 502 adults found that people with more anxiety scored higher on doomscrolling, though that link cannot show which came first. If scrolling leaves you anxious, cut back and talk to a doctor.

How Long Does It Take To Quit Doomscrolling?

No study has timed how long it takes to quit doomscrolling, so expect weeks, not days. Research on other habits gives a rough guide. In a 2015 study of 111 new gym members run at the University of Victoria in Canada, Navin Kaushal and Ryan Rhodes found that exercising at least four times a week for six weeks was the minimum needed to build an exercise habit. Give your new phone settings at least that long.

How Long Does The Average Person Doomscroll?

I have not found a reliable, peer-reviewed average for how long people doomscroll. The best research so far suggests it is less common than headlines claim. A 2022 University of Florida study found doomscrolling was less prevalent than the researchers expected, and that it varied a lot from person to person. To see your own number, check the screen time report on your phone.

Medical And Mental Health Disclaimer

This article is for informational and educational purposes only and should not be considered medical or mental health advice. The author is a habit formation and personal development expert, not a licensed medical doctor, psychiatrist or healthcare provider.

Health and behavioral claims discussed here are based on published and emerging research and should not replace professional medical or psychological consultation. Some claims remain preliminary and require further scientific validation. Individual results may vary.

Before making any significant changes to your health, wellness or daily routines based on this article, consult a qualified healthcare professional, especially if you have existing injuries, cardiovascular conditions, an implanted device, are pregnant, are recovering from surgery, or are managing a diagnosed mental health condition.

If you are experiencing a mental health crisis or having thoughts of self-harm, contact your local emergency services or a crisis line immediately. In the United States you can call or text 988 to reach the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline. This website is not equipped to handle medical or psychiatric emergencies.

Commercial Disclosure

Moore Momentum offers the habit-building systems, productivity tools and subscriptions discussed in this article. The author and the company have a commercial interest in these products.

Our tools are consumer wellness and productivity tools. They are not medical devices and are not cleared to diagnose, treat or prevent any condition. Product mentions describe only features that are live today. Content is written to be as accurate, balanced and transparent as possible, and our medical review process operates independently of our commercial operations.