“Doomscroning”, or obsessive monitoring of negative news among adolescents

The article discusses the phenomenon of obsessive monitoring of negative news also known as doomscrolling. The study aims to analyze its impact on adolescents. It is noted that the uncontrolled consumption of information is closely related to the passive pastime of young people on the Internet. The reason for the spread of the doomscrolling phenomenon among adolescents is the adherence of users in this age group to alternative, but unreliable sources of information and uncritical thinking. Teenagers mostly read news on social networks, which are virtual communities that unite users on the basis of informal communication, which determines the nature of the information they disseminate. The phenomenon of emphasizing negativity in the news may be explained by adolescents' age-specific tendency to be over-emotional or may be a manifestation of some kind of social protest against generally accepted norms. It is noted that the article may be useful for further research on adolescent digital subculture.