Discover why our brains are wired for negative news consumption and how social media exploits this tendency. Learn practical strategies to overcome the addictive pull of endless scrolling and reclaim your digital wellbeing.

From Columbia University alumni built in San Francisco
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From Columbia University alumni built in San Francisco

Lena: Hey there, welcome to today's episode! I was scrolling through Twitter last night—well, I guess it's X now—and before I knew it, two hours had disappeared. I was just going to check one thing and somehow ended up in this spiral of terrible news.
Miles: Oh, I know that feeling all too well. There's actually a term for that—doomscrolling. It's this habit we've developed where we just endlessly consume negative news and content, even though it's making us feel awful.
Lena: Exactly! And the weird thing is, I knew I was feeling worse with every swipe, but I couldn't stop. Why do we do this to ourselves?
Miles: It's fascinating how our brains are literally wired for this. We have this built-in negativity bias—it's an ancient survival mechanism that makes us hyper-aware of threats. Thousands of years ago, this kept our ancestors alive, but today it just keeps us glued to breaking news alerts and worst-case scenarios.
Lena: And social media platforms know this about us, right? They're designed to exploit that tendency?
Miles: Absolutely. These apps are engineered to hold our attention with features like infinite scrolling and algorithms that seem to know exactly what will keep us engaged. Let's explore how this addiction forms and the practical steps we can take to break free from this cycle.