Doomscrolling, adicción a las malas noticas/Doomscrolling, bad news addiction (ESP/ENG)

The first cell phones were what we can call basic phone calls, then came into play the text messages, so now smartphones have become not only a necessity, as virtual offices that allow us to meet at a distance, also in an addiction because sometimes we simply can not be away from them, always looking for some content through them, but along with access to technology, which today can be 24/7, have developed a number of conditions such as doomscrolling syndrome, I dedicate this publication to make it known, as it is a growing mental health problem.

Now, it is not bad to be informed, but there is a fine line between wanting to know and masochism to find and read fatalistic and negative news, it is also important to remember that on the internet we can find very good and well-founded content and some with no basis and unreliable sources.

In English, 'doom' means something like 'doom' and 'disgrace'. 'Scrolling', on the other hand, is the English verb used to indicate the act of moving down a social network wall or an article.

On the other hand, there is a curious fact is that our brain is programmed or designed to pay attention to news that frighten or agitate us, this principle is called negative bias. In short, there is a predisposition to search for negative content. In a natural state, survival depends on finding rewards and avoiding harm, but avoiding harm has priority, in short, we are designed to point out threats, not avoid them, but the problem with this syndrome is that we become addicted to this search and this affects even our mood and even worse our perception of reality.

For example, people who, from the moment they wake up, spend hours looking at their phone or computer for this type of news, then repeat this unhealthy process at other times of the day or even worse, before going to bed.

However, some solution or measure must exist for this syndrome, they are simple actions and depend on the will of each of us, for example give us breaks from technology, ie, hours in which we stay away, or temporize its use, also disable notifications, block or mute certain accounts full of negative news and the most important to be aware of whether those pages and news that we read are the content we really want to have constantly in front of us, remember that networks and the internet in general uses algorithms to suggest content, pages and news. On the other hand, we can alternate reading news with other types of content that provide us with well-being and happiness.

In conclusion, the first thing is to be aware of the existence of this syndrome, second if we suffer from it accept it and third take action either alone or with support to move away from such a harmful practice. I say goodbye wishing to have shared with you valuable information that may be useful to you.