Doomscrolling is a recent word that describes the bad habit of continuing to scroll through negative news or social media even if it is making you anxious and depressed. It’s something that everyone falls into from time to time. But if you can recognize, stop, and avoid the fatal breakthrough, you can keep up with the news and improve your mental health at the same time. Here are 3 Android apps to stop Doomscrolling .
1. Mood Patterns
The first step in breaking a bad habit is recognizing when you are doing it. You can use journaling apps to improve your mental health, but for this particular habit, we recommend an app that communicates with you throughout the day. Mood Patterns is a great Android app that does this, with randomly scheduled monitoring surveys to help you track trends between your mood and activities.
This app has a lot of features, but the surveys are simple and quick to complete, they just ask you to rate your current mood on sliding scales, select the 1-2 activities you are doing, and optionally add a note with more details. You can also customize the app’s activity periods so it doesn’t interfere with work or school. Optionally, you can change the survey sliders or add additional data such as people or events.
To get the most out of this app, add your most common activities and keep them general (like, for example , social media instead of Facebook). Remember, you can always be more specific in the notes section. Then adjust the schedule to include the times you most often get stuck on your phone. Lastly, make sure your surveys are random and not fixed, to ensure that your data is both honest and accurate.
Download on Google Play
2 . Flipboard
We have recommended Flipboard as one of the best apps to stop Doomscrolling earlier. It’s an ideal tool to keep track of all your interests and get content from around the world. But this doesn’t have to result in a newsfeed full of fatalities. Did you also know that you can optimize it for local news?
During setup, you will be asked to select three topics from a list of popular topics. Once you have done this, search for the name of your city. This will show you topics, magazines, and other sources that you can follow.
Finally, unfollow all of your initial topics except for a general news topic like World News. This will ensure that you keep getting news about world events, they just won’t be able to dominate your entire feed.
Download on Google Play
3. Good News
A big step you can take to slow down is Make sure you get enough positive news to keep your perspective correct. Be sure to follow a Good News Stories topic or good news blog if you’re using Flipboard, or consider downloading a news app dedicated exclusively to good news, like Good News.
Good news makes a big chill after you’ve caught up with the day’s events, and since it’s just good news, there’s no danger of falling back into a roll of paper. The application has a simple design and shows you one story at a time , making it easier to concentrate and absorb the information. If you want, you can find more stories using the categories or the search functions.
Download on Google Play
Leave Doomscrolling forever
Doomscrolling reinforces negative thoughts and robs you of your valuable time and energy, but it can be controlled with the right tools. By acknowledging the bad habit, focusing the information, and making sure to add positive news to your daily reading, you can conquer your fatal habit and improve your mental health.
And if that doesn’t work, your next step could be to start reducing the amount of time you spend on your phone completely.
🙂
