'Doomscrolling' and 'Subway Surfers': Why some Gen Zers are turning away from social media

SINGAPORE — When Sainithila Ravichandran received her first smartphone in 2013, she was thrown head first into the world of social media.

"I was unsupervised on places like Instagram, Twitter and especially Tumblr," she recalled.

"I was nine years old, and I was on Tumblr looking for content about the movie Frozen. Then I stumbled upon explicit content that fans were making about the movie." 

Although this was a shock at first, being a part of the "fandom internet" (internet spaces for fans to share and exchange content about their interests) meant that seeing explicit content at a young age became a norm.

Ms Sainithila, who is now 19, had been addicted to social media since 2013, but the addiction really peaked in 2020, during the Covid-19 circuit breaker period where there was nothing else to do but scroll all day.

“It really messed with me — I was on TikTok, Twitter and Instagram all day, I did not listen in class, I skipped lessons, and it really impacted my learning,” she said. 

“Like I would wake up at 7am, log on and get my attendance marked, and then never got back to doing anything.”

During this period of time, her screen time maxed out at 14 to 18 hours a day.

It would take her until January 2023 that she quit TikTok, severely limited her screen time on the other platforms and faced the world anew. 

For many older Gen Zers born from 1998 to 2004, their childhoods could be defined by close to a decade of social media use.

Exposure to the internet and social media at a young age could lead to “problematic internet use”, said Dr Natalie Pang, a senior lecturer in the Department of Communications and New Media at the National University of Singapore (NUS). 

The six Gen Zers whom TODAY spoke to indicated an effort to curb or limit their usage of social media today, after noticing a pattern of declining mental health and decreased attention spans that their habits seemed to have cultivated. 

THE 'DOOMSCROLLING' EFFECT ON SOCIAL MEDIA USERS

While the circuit breaker period exacerbated Ms Sainithila’s addiction, a major event that really affected several interviewees was the Black Lives Matter movement in June 2020, where many young people across the world were suddenly exposed to frequent content about police brutality and violence.

"Being online and seeing the news on TikTok really was too much. I didn't even have my life together, and then when I was caught up with the situation in the United States, I felt even more miserable," said Ms Sainithila.

This is a classic example of "doomscrolling", which is used to describe a vicious circle where a user spends an excessive amount of their time seeking out negative news.

For Dia, who wished to be known by a first name, Black Lives Matter was a learning experience on how to juggle civic consciousness and taking care of one's own mental health at the same time.

"When Black Lives Matter happened, I was trying to keep up with the news and connect with mutual aid groups across the globe to lend my support. But it turned out that some of these groups were impersonating charities," said the 21-year-old.

"It affected me and really made me change my own relationship with news. So, I kind of used the regulating technique suggested by therapists. It's like, pause when you read this, and think: Who published it?" said Dia.

Cutting back on social media use was the next step for Dia, who now only posts on Instagram a "photo dump" of every month's photographic memories.

For 19-year-old Chen Yuzhe, who was active on Twitter before deleting it in mid-2022, doomscrolling was a big problem for her.

"When something big or controversial happens, a lot of people will jump in with their "hot takes", and keep commenting on the issue until it's all over your home page," she said.

"And it's actually very stressful to experience this. You'd end up scrolling down and down and down and the takeaway would be like: 'The world is terrible right now'."

SUBWAY SURFERS AND A SHORTENED ATTENTION SPAN

The interviewees whom TODAY spoke to also indicated a shortened attention span, most likely due to their social media usage.

In particular, an absurd example is of a specific genre of TikToks where a robot voice reads out words from a Reddit post, and the screen is cut in half to show gameplay from Subway Surfers or a Minecraft parkour.

This is to stimulate audiences' visual and audio processing at the same time, so that they can watch the Subway Surfers gameplay while listening to a compilation of Reddit posts read out verbally. As if just listening to the robot's voice is not stimulating enough.

Ms Dini Qistina Ali expressed incredulity on how content creators have resorted to such methods to keep viewer's attentions.

"It can be tiring to have to sift through all of that stuff sometimes," the 18-year-old said. 

"The Subway Surfers stuff is ridiculous because these creators are reposting content onto TikTok that they didn't even make."

Even then, Ms Dini had struggled with her attention span on social media.

"When people feel bored, they switch from one app to another very quickly, because the content is boring or they're not stimulated enough," she said.

"Sometimes I do that. And then when I catch myself doing it, I'm like, 'Okay, you're just distracting yourself with another app'.

"So whenever I go onto Instagram, I kind of restrict myself from going further. It does take a lot of practice because (otherwise) you're just trying to give yourself the excuse, like, 'Oh, maybe this platform has something different'. Then you're trapped in this cycle for a good few hours."

BEATING THE ALGORITHM: EXPERTS 

Dr Pang, the lecturer from NUS, said that social media platforms are built to capture people’s attention.

"They are built on what we describe as the attention economy. What this means is that platforms and users become more valuable if they can capture people’s attention longer," she said. 

Hence, platforms will utilise technical features designed to keep people engaged by targeting psychological mechanisms.

Dr Jeremy Sng, a lecturer from the School of Social Sciences at Nanyang Technological University, said: "Mechanisms such as likes, comments and shares can provide the user with external validation from other users.

"This immediate gratification can be attractive to users, especially youths who are at a stage where they are finding their identity, finding their in-group and craving social acceptance. Youths may therefore want to generate content to obtain that validation."

If social media platforms are designed to hook you, how can users escape? Dr Pang recommended resetting one's algorithm recommendations.

"In other words, make the apps forget what they think they know about you, what they think you like," she said. 

"Setting boundaries is also important; for instance, users can be more intentional in curating and making choices about the sources they follow, disable notifications for some apps."

For Ms Miza Masturah, 18, who deleted her social media accounts and currently uses Reddit and YouTube only, consuming content in moderation and being mindful of the content that she consumes has been helpful in cultivating a healthy relationship with social media. 

"Social media is the best way for everyone to stay interconnected. But everything needs to be balanced, and I've learnt from being an active TikTok user that you can't have too much of a certain 'thing'," she said.

As for Ms Sainithila, now that she has deleted TikTok and severely limited her Twitter and Instagram usage, she feels much more at peace with her social media usage. 

"Nowadays, I don't get affected by things that I see online. When I see something cringe or something that enrages me, I can let it go more easily," she said

"My 'irl' (in real life) persona and my online persona are also basically the same, and I've evolved to become critical of my consumption on social media."