By Press Release
Doomscrolling is the act of spending an excessive amount of time reading bad news online and, sadly, many of us do it. However, fascinated we are by the crazy world around us, there’s just too much to learn and too little time to take it all in. As we age, it becomes clear we can’t read every book, view every film and even if we have the money, there are far too many places to visit.
When we’re young, time seems almost irrelevant; there seems to be an infinite amount of it stretched out before us. I remember getting my first mortgage. I had 25 years to repay it and that seemed almost unimaginable.
Naturally I didn’t stick with that first house, I borrowed more and, after 40 years of debt, will probably now die owing the Halifax. One minute our lives seem full of infinite possibility and choice, the next we’re wondering if this could be our last Christmas. I’m addicted to YouTube, and that’s in addition to my sugar, ice-cream and Facebook compulsions. Whole evenings now slip away as I view instantly forgettable videos where, thanks to algorithms, one thing viewed leads to another (similar) thing. For example, the bots knew I liked sailing, so they suggest lots of sailing videos. I’ve watched so many now, I’m bored to tears with boats, and will probably never sail again!
Away with friends last week, over a beer, one confessed a Twitter addiction, another his TikTok obsession, and if you don’t know what that is, please don’t bother finding out! Chinese-owned TikTok is the social media of choice for young people, who naturally haven’t yet realised that their time is precious and limited. TikTok addicts choose from millions and millions of short video clips, the content of which is only very rarely memorable. An unexpected whale encounter, a spectacular plane crash, a politician caught telling the truth, it’s a like a modernised ‘You’ve been framed’ TV show that never ends.
Experts say TikTok reduces your attention span – because most of its content is quickfire rubbish, cool-looking guys or pretty half-dressed women doing very little for attention.
One of our young employees spends considerable amounts of what should be work-time viewing it, so in the interest of research, I thought I’d best take a look. Arguably the ‘best’ clip I saw featured a guy with a camera stopping two girlfriends out shopping, he asked if they had boyfriends? One of them said yes, the other no, so he then asks the single girl if she secretly fancies her friend’s fella. The woman insists, ‘definitely not,’ so he then asks the girlfriend if her bestie called her guy up right there and then, offering to come over and ‘hook up’ what his reaction would be. The girlfriend confidently asserts that ‘he loves me, so no way would he cheat’ and the scene is set. The call is made, and we await the response. The boyfriend answers the phone and immediately accepts the offer of a casual encounter. Unsurprisingly, the girlfriend – who of course he didn’t know was listening in – grabs the phone and rages at her boy for his willingness to hit the hay with her chum. The clip lasts around two minutes and may or may not be genuine, but tens of millions of people have watched it.
Online rubbish like this fascinates us, but whatever happened to flicking through a magazine to pass the time?
Like all social media, TikTok proves beyond doubt that humans have an infinite appetite for distraction. It’s time we abandoned the whole thing, and found something more productive to do, particularly those of us who don’t have time to waste!
