Surfing the Web and social media sites for negative news and opinions. Also called "doomsurfing," there is a rise of doomscrolling when calamities occur such as hurricanes, riots and wars. Very addictive, there is a huge amount of doomscrolling over politics.
A certain amount of doomscrolling is a protective mechanism so that people can be prepared for looming catastrophes. During COVID, doomscrolling rose significantly because people spent much more time online. See
egosurfing and
Internet addiction.