Let’s be honest: we’ve all been there. We open our phones to check one thing–maybe the weather, a text, or an email. Then 45 minutes pass, and you find yourself stuck on TikTok and endless Instagram reels. You’ve been doom scrolling. Not only is it a waste of time, but it is also messing with the ability to focus, stay motivated, and feel good about anything we’re trying to get done.
Doom scrolling is the habit of endlessly scrolling through news and content. Although it might cause stress and procrastination, it is a huge waste of time. Doom scrolling became a thing during the pandemic, but it seems to have become a bigger issue since then. The pandemic caused everyone to be glued to technology, and no one broke that habit.
According to an article from Exploding Topics, the average screen time for high school students is around 7 hours and 22 minutes. Since the average school day is around 6 hours, students are spending a lot more time on their devices than on their schoolwork.
Scrolling on social media or playing video games without realizing how much time has passed has become harmful to grades and mental health alike. During school hours, many people will ignore the assignments given and just say that they’ll do them later or at home. Instead of doing their work, they’ll scroll on TikTok or Instagram reels. I often see people hiding their phones behind their Chromebooks, or, if they have a MacBook, they’ll use screen mirroring to doom scroll behind their teacher’s back.
After asking some of my friends what their screen time was and telling them what the average screen time was, they started to worry about it. Sophia Alvaro, a Junior, was one of these people.
“I can’t believe my screen time is just under 11 hours. That is crazy. I’m setting a limit on TikTok,” Alvaro said.
She checks her phone every morning and doom scrolls to end her night. Even with a higher screen time, she still maintains good grades. This is because she is rarely on her phone during classes since she mostly takes AP and honors.
Teachers have also noticed a significant difference in grades due to cell phone usage.
When asked how often students were on their phones during class, math teacher Mr. Nascin said that in every class, “it is typically the same students. This has drastically affected their grades in classes, and it’s typically negative. I wish that parents would do more to control screen time throughout the school day for the success of their students.”
Teachers have also collected phones; however, throughout the school year, some students stop putting their phones in the pockets unless the teacher is the type to check it daily.
Additionally, I’ve also noticed a difference in my productivity. At the beginning of this school year I used to only allow myself to use my phone during school if all of my work was done, but as the year progressed I did not hold myself accountable and these “breaks” I was taking on my phone lasted almost the whole class period, especially in classes where I don’t understand the work. I will completely put the work off and just scroll on TikTok instead of asking for help or trying to figure out how to do the work.
Excessive doom scrolling can lead to more fatigue and mental exhaustion. Constantly taking in information that is a mix of brain rot and false information wears you down. You start feeling drained even if you haven’t done anything physical. The tiredness can leave people unprepared for their day, and it shows in their schoolwork and energy.
It also completely kills motivation. It’s hard to care about studying or doing homework when you keep telling yourself “five more minutes,” and those five minutes turn into an hour. Which also leads to doom scrolling stealing your time. One minute will turn into twenty minutes, and the homework you kept putting off and saying you’d “start in a minute” is still untouched.
Doom scrolling also affects your sleep. A lot of people scroll on TikTok to end their night. Watching meaningless TikToks that might seem funny can lead you to fall down a rabbit hole of other TikToks. It keeps your brain wired and makes it harder to fall or stay asleep. This leads to less rest and ruins your focus during the day.
I asked Olivia Beauregard, a Junior at LHS, how many hours she is on her phone per night, to which she said, “I often scroll on TikTok for hours or scroll on social media platforms for hours, and it leads me to be extremely exhausted the following morning. I’m constantly finding myself scrolling on some sort of social media platform at school, work, or even events. It is extremely draining knowing that I can’t fall asleep until I catch up with what’s new on social media for that day.”
How can we change our screen time habits? It seems simple, but even when the TikTok ban happened, everyone still found ways to doom scroll on one app or another. Setting app limits can decrease the amount of doom scrolling that would take place. Leaving your phone in another room when studying or trying to sleep might also be something that would help.
Doom scrolling might feel like staying informed or keeping busy, but in reality, it does the opposite–it drains our energy, raises our stress levels, and seriously damages our productivity. As high school students, we already have a lot on our plates: homework, extracurriculars, studying for tests–it’s a lot to manage. When we spend so much time scrolling through endless content, we’re not giving our minds a chance to rest. Instead, we’re overwhelming ourselves with information that often leaves us feeling anxious, helpless, or distracted. That makes it harder to concentrate, stay motivated, and get things done. We should be putting our phones down more to protect our time, energy, mental health, and especially our productivity.