Doomscrolling

Way back in the 1970s media critic George Gerbner coined the term mean-world syndrome. In his research, Gerbner was finding that viewers who were exposed to a growing amount of violent television content were more apt to experience an increased level of anxiety, stress, fear, and pessimism in response to perceived threats.  In other words, what they were watching on tv, both fictional content and news reports, created a sense that the world was far more dangerous than it actually was, thus leading those viewers to live in fear. Since then, developmental experts have voiced concerns about how mean-world syndrome is effecting kids. In today’s world, 24/7 access to online content has created a phenomenon known as doomscrolling or doomsurfing. Smartphone addicted kids and adults scroll through an almost endless stream of negative perspective shaping online content. The antidote? Lets get our kids to shut down and spend more time in the good news of God’s word.