Chloe Cabutuan | Writer & Emma Llamas | Writer
September 14, 2025
Do you know how many hours you spend on your phone? Harmony Healthcare IT reports that “on average our generation spends six hours and 27 minutes on our phone a day.” If you’re a part of that average, added up, you lose about a week each month to your phone.
Teenagers and young adults are the most prone to doomscrolling, which is described by Medical News Today as “when someone spends an excessive amount of time consuming large quantities of news or other content, particularly negative news, on social media and other websites.”
Addictive apps like Instagram and TikTok use instant gratification to reel people in. However, not only does this affect attention span, but constantly consuming negative media overall declines mental health; resulting in anxiety, depression, and poor sleep. Because of the instant gratification that social media provides, people “tend to use social networks to generate positive emotions that they’re missing in their everyday working lives, especially when they are feeling overworked”(Phys.org). Feeling overworked and overwhelmed is common among teenagers and young adults who feel pressured to balance work, school, and other commitments. As a result, adolescents often use their phones as an escape from the stress, which can lead to an endless cycle of scrolling in order to seek validation, happiness or fulfillment.
Senior Carter Marinos reported that he “only has 2.4 hours on his phone daily.” Marinos’s opinion of his average daily hours is that it was “bad,” and felt that he had “too many hours to spend on his phone.” Even with that being a third of Gen Z’s average time on cellular devices, he finds that the time spent on his phone still negatively affects him. This finding is also significant because without Instagram or TikTok, he spends none of his time doomscrolling.
In contrast to Marinos, Ava Ellis, a SCHS Senior, claimed she has a 6 hour per day average, which is about the mean for our generation. She reflected that her phone has had a “negative impact” on her, and makes her “more prone to procrastination.”
Doomscrolling can have greater negative impacts outside of mental health, and due to its convenient nature people often get their information from social media instead of credible news outlets, which means misinformation can spread easily without being fact-checked. This is especially prevalent today because of how common the use of AI has become, despite its biased views and often incorrect information.
Additionally, the dependency people have for their phones has led them to connect with online communities instead of real world ones. These online connections tend to cause people to feel lonelier offline, which only brings them back online which causes isolation as well as a dependency for their devices.
With social media so easily accessible, it’s easy to be caught up in the digital worlds, however there are other ways to spend your time than on your phone. Instead of going to technology to relax, you can talk about your day with friends or family, play with your pets, or find hobbies that you are truly passionate about, but might not have previously had the time to partake in because of being online. Harvard Health Publishing, in a 2024 study, found that “hobbies … are linked to good mental health and well-being” and can help form a stronger sense of self and identity.
After a stressful day, practices like meditation, writing, yoga, drawing, cooking, photography or other mindful practices, can help relax much more efficiently and wholly than being on a phone. These practices also build more fulfilling and long term forms of gratification that force you to slow down and be in the moment. Other pursuits such as employment and community service can be a good way to spend your time in a fulfilling manner. It can build character and help you find like-minded individuals to form real bonds with.
Doomscrolling has led people to use their time inefficiently, posing a disadvantage to their well-being and tending to cause more harm than good, especially because social media’s goal is to keep you on as long as possible. It is good to be mindful of what we spend our free time doing and to make sure we enjoy it. The practice of putting down your phone can allow you to put an emphasis on being present with others and even engage in your own life more completely.
Leave a Reply