Doomscrolling and Advertising: Why Social Media Wants You Scared

If someone came up to you in the street, told you World War III was right around the corner, and then tried to sell you a new phone plan, you wouldn’t hang around for the sales pitch would you? Of course you wouldn’t – that sounds nuts, and you’re probably wondering what the heck we’re going on about. But social media, newsfeed sites and all the local news outlets online are doing exactly that all day every day, and somehow the poor bewildered folk left staring at the screen are the ones getting the blame.

Doomscrolling, the endless consumption of negative media online, is the result of a psychological quirk common to people and animals, which boils down to this: risk is always way more interesting than reward. It makes sense, because if you imagine your hunter-gather ancestors living in the dangerous wilds of pre-history, of course it’s more important to spot the lion that’s about to eat your people than it is to notice that Fred the flint-knapper has got a great sale on obsidian knives. If the lion gets you, it will kill you, whereas Fred can probably be talked around to giving you a better deal on your new knife, especially if he’s feeling grateful because you warned him about that lion you saw.

This is a really useful survival trait for situations where you need to be wary of physical dangers in the world around you. It is however a bit rubbish in the year of our Meta 2026, because instead of being aware of important, immediate things that you can point at and warn people about, you’re confronted with a never-ending supply of danger, misery and despair that you never need to look up from. You can sit in the comfort of your own home, cup of tea in hand, and read all about the many, many ways in which everything around you is about to come apart at the seams.

Why do these media companies perpetuate endless bad news? Because every pair of eyeballs that clicks through to see their article on their page is a view to an advert that they’re charging some company for. They’re getting paid to make us all miserable, and frankly, we need to do something about that.

So what can we do to help fight back this continuous tide of awful rubbish on our screens? Just being cheerful won’t cut it – you can’t beat the natural human tendency to focus on the negative just by posting pictures of puppies (we know – we’ve tried). What we can do is the one thing that they can’t compete with. That quintessentially British thing that we can all be proud of, that we’re known for throughout the world – our sense of humour. Take the Mick. Share satire. Show us the things that make you laugh. Have a go at making other people laugh. And if you’re a fellow small business trying to get seen in a world of huge corporations, a suggestion that might help you: don’t get mad – get funny. That’s our plan, and if you want to join in, drop us a line.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m about to investigate how to build an air-raid shelter out of modular sofa sections.

P.S. This post 100% written by my own opinionated self, no AI text used - Isabelle