To stop doomscrolling, put back the stopping points that endless feeds remove. Start by naming your two or three trap sites, then add a little friction before each feed, such as a short wait or a typed reason, so the urge has time to fade. Make an if-then plan for the moment the urge hits, for example "If I want to check the news, then I will refill my water." Give the news a set time and a source that ends, like a daily newsletter, and keep the first and last half hour of your day away from feeds. On a computer, Redirect, the Chrome extension, can send a trap site to your goals, require a pause task before access, and end each pause on time, even mid scroll. It works in Chrome and Chromium browsers only, keeps data local and is free for one site; it has no phone app.
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Last updated September 2026.
You meant to check one headline. Now it is 40 minutes later, your shoulders are up near your ears, and you feel worse than when you started. You are not sure what you read, only that you could not stop. That is doomscrolling, and nearly everyone who uses a feed has done it. The good news is that it follows a predictable loop, and loops can be broken.
What does doomscrolling mean?#
Merriam-Webster defines doomscrolling as spending excessive time scrolling through online content, especially news, that makes you feel sad, anxious or angry. The word took off in 2020, when a lot of people found themselves refreshing bad news for hours.
Researchers have started to study it directly. A 2022 paper in Technology, Mind, and Behavior by Sharma, Lee and Johnson built a scale to measure doomscrolling and describes it as persistently attending to negative news about crises, disasters and tragedies in your feed. They found it was closely related to things like online vigilance, fear of missing out, habitual media use, anxiety and lower self-control.
In everyday use, people also say doomscrolling for any long, joyless scroll that they cannot seem to stop, bad news or not. The mechanics are the same.
Why can't I stop scrolling?#
It is not a character flaw. A few features of modern feeds work together to keep you going.
Variable rewards
Most of what you scroll past is forgettable. Every so often, something is interesting, funny or alarming. You cannot predict which swipe will deliver, so you keep swiping. Unpredictable rewards are one of the most powerful ways to keep a behavior going, which is why slot machines work the same way.
No stopping points
Old websites had pages. You reached the bottom, and you had to decide whether to click next. Infinite scroll removed that decision. There is always more below, so the feed never gives you a natural moment to ask "am I done?"
A 2023 field study by Rixen and colleagues looked at exactly this. People described infinite scrolling as feeling caught in a loop that stretched their sessions longer than they wanted. The interesting finding was how people broke out: most of the reasons for ending a session had nothing to do with the app. Something in their life interrupted them. In other words, the feed rarely lets you go. Something outside it has to step in.
Threat and vigilance
Bad news grabs attention because it feels important. When the world feels uncertain, scrolling can feel like staying informed or staying safe, even when you are reading the same story for the tenth time. That sense of vigilance is one reason doomscrolling is so hard to put down, and why it tends to spike during a crisis.
It starts on autopilot
Most scrolling sessions are not decisions. They are habits. You open a new tab, your fingers type the first letters of a site, and you are in before you have thought about it. That is why "I will just use more willpower" rarely works: by the time willpower shows up, you are already three screens deep.
Signs doomscrolling is a problem for you#
- You open a feed without deciding to, often the moment you feel bored or stuck.
- You finish a session feeling more anxious, angry or flat than when you started.
- You keep scrolling past the point of enjoying it.
- You cannot remember most of what you just read.
- It is eating into sleep, work or time with people, and you have tried to cut back without much luck.
If this sounds like you, the steps below help. If your scrolling is tied to anxiety or low mood that is affecting your life, it is also worth talking to a doctor or therapist.
How to stop doomscrolling: practical steps#
1. Name your trap sites
Be specific. It is rarely "the internet." It is usually one or two feeds: a news site, Reddit, X, YouTube Shorts, TikTok. Write them down. You cannot put a stopping point in front of something you have not named. If Reddit is on your list, how to quit Reddit shows how to block just its front page and keep the threads you find through search.
2. Put a stopping point back in
Since the feed will not give you a natural end, add one yourself. That can be as simple as a timer, but the stronger version is a redirect: when you open a trap site, you land on your goals or your task list instead of the feed. That breaks the autopilot at the exact moment it starts.
3. Add a little friction before the feed
Make getting in take a few seconds of effort. In a 2023 PNAS study of the one sec app, a short delay and a moment of reflection before opening chosen apps led people to close the app 36% of the time, and attempts to open those apps dropped 37% over six weeks. You do not need a wall. You need a pause long enough for the urge to fade.
4. Decide what you will do instead
Make a simple if-then plan: "If I feel the urge to check the news, then I will stand up and refill my water." Psychologists call these implementation intentions, and they work better than general resolutions because the choice is already made before the urge hits.
5. Choose a time and place for the news
You do not have to go dark. Pick a window, like 15 minutes after lunch, and use a source that ends, like a daily newsletter or a single front page, instead of a feed that never does. Outside that window, the news can wait.
6. Protect the edges of your day
Doomscrolling is often worst first thing in the morning and last thing at night. Keep your first and last half hour away from feeds. If you scroll on your laptop in the evening, a schedule that only blocks after 9pm can do a lot.
7. Notice how you feel after
For a week, when you close a feed, ask one question: do I feel better or worse than before? Most people know the answer already, but saying it out loud each time makes the next urge a little weaker.
How to set up Redirect to stop doomscrolling#
If your scrolling happens on a computer, Redirect puts steps 2, 3 and 4 into your browser. It is a Chrome extension, and it works in other Chromium browsers like Arc, Brave and Edge.
1. Add your trap sites
Open the dashboard and add a rule for each site from step 1. Recommended sites let you add YouTube, Instagram, Reddit, X, TikTok, Facebook, Netflix and Twitch in one click. For news, see how to block news sites. If only part of a site is the problem, block that path, like YouTube Shorts, and leave the rest.
2. Send yourself to your goals
When you open a blocked site, Redirect takes you to your Focus dashboard with up to three goals, or to any page you choose. Put your if-then plan in as one of your goals, so you see it every time the urge wins the first round.
3. Pick a pause task with some effort
For your worst feed, choose a task like typing a paragraph or writing a reason. Your past reasons are shown back to you, which is a fast way to notice that "checking the news" has happened six times today. The 4-7-8 breathing option is a good fit if scrolling is tied to anxiety.
4. Keep pauses short
Choose a pause length, from 1 to 60 minutes, and an optional daily limit. When the pause ends, Redirect sends you back to your goals right away, even mid scroll. That is the stopping point the feed would never give you.
5. Add a schedule
Run the rule during your hardest hours, like evenings, or around work. Overnight windows work, so you can cover 10pm to 7am in one rule. See blocking websites during work hours for more setups.
For the full walkthrough of rules, exceptions and schedules, see how to block websites on Chrome.
Why a wall alone is not enough#
It is tempting to block every feed completely and call it done. That usually lasts a few days. A hard wall tends to make you want the site more, and if the off switch is easy, you will use it. We go into the research in why website blockers don't work. What lasts is a setup that gives the urge somewhere better to go and makes getting back in take a little effort.
The bottom line#
Doomscrolling is what happens when a feed with unpredictable rewards and no end meets a brain on autopilot. You cannot out-willpower that every time. What works is putting stopping points back in: name your trap sites, add a little friction, send the urge somewhere useful, and decide in advance what you will do instead.
Sources
- Merriam-Webster: doomscroll (definition) (checked September 2026)
- Sharma, Lee and Johnson (2022), The dark at the end of the tunnel: Doomscrolling on social media newsfeeds, Technology, Mind, and Behavior (checked September 2026)
- Rixen et al. (2023), The Loop and Reasons to Break It: Investigating Infinite Scrolling Behaviour in Social Media Applications and Reasons to Stop, Proc. ACM HCI (checked September 2026)
- Grüning, Riedel and Lorenz-Spreen (2023), Directing smartphone use through the self-nudge app one sec, PNAS (checked September 2026)
- Gollwitzer (1999), Implementation intentions: Strong effects of simple plans, American Psychologist (checked September 2026)
Close the tab. Open your goals.
Redirect sends distracting sites to the goals you wrote down, and makes every pause a choice.
Questions, answered
What is the meaning of doomscrolling?
Doomscrolling means spending too much time scrolling through online content, especially news, that leaves you feeling sad, anxious or angry. People also use it for any long scroll they cannot seem to stop.
Why can't I stop scrolling even when I want to?
Feeds combine unpredictable rewards with infinite scroll, so there is never a natural place to stop. Most scrolling also starts as a habit, before you have consciously decided anything, which is why adding stopping points works better than willpower.
Is doomscrolling bad for your mental health?
Research links doomscrolling with anxiety, fear of missing out and lower self-control, though that does not prove scrolling causes them. If you regularly feel worse after scrolling, that is a good reason to cut back, and a doctor or therapist can help if it is affecting your life.
How do I stop doomscrolling at night?
Keep feeds out of your last half hour before bed, and use a schedule that redirects news and social sites in the evening. On a computer, a Redirect rule with an overnight window can cover the whole night in one rule.
Should I quit the news completely?
You do not have to. Pick one short window a day and a source that ends, like a newsletter or a single front page, instead of a feed that keeps going.