In the recently released teaser for Ari Aster’s upcoming film Eddington, we meet Joaquin Phoenix’s character in a disturbingly familiar state: endlessly scrolling through bad news during the early days of the pandemic. It’s a scene that doesn’t need explaining. We’ve all been there. Fingers twitching, eyes glazed, mind pulled in a thousand directions, hoping the next headline or post might offer clarity, relief, or at least something new. It’s not just relatable, it’s emblematic of one of the most deceptive digital states: a kind of flow, but in the wrong direction.
This is doomscrolling: a loop of information overload, driven by fear, confusion, and the unconscious desire to stay informed. It looks like engagement, but it is, in fact, stagnation dressed as movement.
When Flow Goes Wrong
Doomscrolling gained traction as a term during the pandemic, but its impact extends far beyond a few isolated months. It's an almost mechanical habit now, a reflex baked into our devices. Reach for your phone. Scroll. Absorb. Repeat. The behavior is so compulsive that we barely recognize it as a disruption, yet the effects are both psychological and physical: anxiety, fatigue, tension, and a warped sense of time and self.
At the heart of this is a design pattern called infinite scroll. Introduced to make browsing more seamless, it has become a trigger for this addictive behavior. Designed by Aza Raskin, the feature removes the natural “stop cues” that allow users to pause and make decisions about what to consume next. Like a bottomless bowl of soup, it keeps us filling up without noticing that we’re full—or worse, that we’re not consuming anything nourishing at all. Raskin has since expressed regret for this invention, calling it one of the first design decisions meant not to serve users but to capture them.
But that doesn’t have to be the end of the story. If we understand why we doomscroll and how platforms are engineered to exploit our attention, we can begin to change our habits. So let’s talk about concrete ways to prevent doomscrolling, or at least make it less reflexive and easier to escape.
How to Stop Doomscrolling: Practical Tips That Actually Help
Grayscale: Filter Your Phone
A grayscale filter on your phone is a simple yet unexpected solution to the issue.
By removing color, one of the most attention-grabbing and emotionally stimulating elements of interface design, you can reduce your time spent scrolling and lower your anxiety.
In studies conducted by Dr. Alex Holte, a psychologist who studies the relationship between technology and human behavior, participants who switched their phones to grayscale used social media significantly less and reported lower anxiety levels. Grayscale makes your feed feel less urgent, less emotionally charged, and, in turn, less addictive. It’s a subtle shift, but a powerful one.
Why does this work? Color adds emotional weight to images and text. When disturbing content appears in black and white, your brain is more likely to recognize it as distant or mediated, rather than something that could be happening to you in real time. This helps build an emotional boundary, giving you the space to respond calmly instead of reacting viscerally.
Setting Intentional Screen Boundaries
Setting intentional screen boundaries is a proactive and grounding way to reclaim your time and attention. Tools like app timers or scheduled screen-free periods—especially in the hour before bed—can significantly reduce overstimulation and improve mental clarity.
When you designate specific windows for phone use, you’re not just limiting screen time; you’re training your brain to expect rest and focus in equal measure. Studies in behavioral psychology have shown that consistent, time-based boundaries help reduce compulsive checking and foster a greater sense of control.
The goal isn’t to eliminate screens entirely but instead to reintroduce friction; turning an unconscious scroll into a conscious choice. Over time, this shift builds healthier habits, better sleep hygiene, and a more intentional relationship with your digital world.
Habit Formation
When the urge to reach for your phone hits, having an alternative like a book within arm’s reach or a mindfulness app on your home screen can gently redirect your behavior without relying on sheer willpower. his strategy works by leveraging the same cue-response loop that fuels doomscrolling, but swapping in an activity that nourishes rather than depletes.
Whether it’s a few pages of a novel, a short guided meditation, or a journaling prompt, these replacements offer your brain a moment of stillness and reflection. Over time, this creates a new feedback loop. One where moments of pause feel more satisfying than compulsively hunting for digital content.
The key here is to make the alternative easy, visible, and rewarding enough to reach for when the urge strikes.
Know Your Triggers
What is it that sends your hand to your phone, to check on social media? Take note of the moments when you’re most likely to fall into the trap. Is it late at night, after hearing bad news, or during periods of boredom or stress?
These vulnerable windows often come with a need for comfort or distraction, which scrolling seems to satisfy, but only temporarily. By identifying these patterns, you can plan ahead with healthier, more grounding alternatives. Maybe it’s a calming playlist, a quick walk, or a call to a friend. The goal isn’t to suppress the urge, but to meet the underlying need with intention.
Awareness turns reaction into response, helping you make choices that support your well-being instead of eroding it. Though this method requires the most conscious effort, it may arguably be the best long term solution there is.
Curate Your Feed
The goal of this is not to eliminate social media from your life, its to improve your relationship with it. Curating your feed is a powerful way to reshape your digital environment into something that supports rather than sabotages your mental health. Social media algorithms thrive on emotional intensity, which means stress-inducing or negative content often gets pushed to the top.
Unfollowing accounts that consistently leave you feeling anxious, angry, or drained is not avoidance it’s self-preservation. In their place, seek out creators and communities that educate, uplift, or bring a sense of lightness. Humor, inspiration, and thoughtful insight can all shift the emotional tone of your feed and, by extension, your day. Again, notice your triggers; does that influencer positively impact your psyche and your life? does an account's reactionary posting frustrate you?
Over time, this intentional pruning rewires your scrolling experience from reactive consumption to conscious engagement into one that aligns with your values and well-being.
Technology as a Catalyst for Flow
If doomscrolling is a distorted version of flow, then it stands to reason that technology can also guide us back to its more productive form. True flow is a state of presence, momentum, and immersion where time disappears because we are fully engaged with meaningful work or creativity.
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, the psychologist who coined the term "flow," described it as the optimal experience where skill meets challenge in just the right balance. You’re not overwhelmed. You’re not bored. You are exactly where you need to be. So how can technology help us reach that place?
In today’s hybrid and remote work environments, the ability to enter and sustain a flow state is more vital than ever. Ironically, the very tools that distract us can also become the enablers of deep focus if designed and used with intention.
Digital collaboration tools like Slack, Notion, or Miro are ubiquitous, but without thoughtful setup, they can pull us out of flow as much as they help us connect. IT teams are increasingly seen as architects of digital flow.
Their role isn’t just about maintaining uptime, it’s about creating digital environments where employees can focus, create, and collaborate effectively. That includes ensuring tools are up-to-date, integrating smoothly with one another, and are optimized for usability. When this digital scaffolding is solid, creative flow can flourish.
Repetitive tasks are the enemy of flow, fragmenting attention and draining mental energy. However, automation offers a way out. When we offload mundane tasks to machines—whether it’s scheduling, reporting, or data entry—we free ourselves for higher-level thinking.
This isn’t just about convenience, it’s about conserving cognitive resources for what matters most. The more space we create in our workdays, the more room there is for flow to take hold.
Designing for Flow
At EXP., our work sits at the intersection of technology, experience, and design. We see flow not just as a productivity goal, but as a design principle. Every interaction is an opportunity to support presence, ease, and transformation.
Take our collaboration with the startup business Thunder Massage. Our role is to bring the brand experience to life, from the design of the interior and storefront to the ambient lighting and UI of the booking system.
Beyond aesthetics, we’re working on smart automation and environment-responsive controls that respond to the user’s mood and needs. It’s more than relaxation, the journey is a flow from the moment you book your appointment to the moment you step back into the world.
Whether we’re designing software interfaces or physical spaces, our aim is the same: to create experiences that feel intuitive, uninterrupted, and alive. We want technology to disappear, not dominate. To serve, not steal our attention. To help you move with life, not against it.
In a world that constantly competes for our attention, the ability to focus, create, and connect meaningfully is a radical act. And technology, when guided by empathy and ethics, can help us get there.
Let’s remember that flow isn’t something we force, it’s something we allow. And sometimes, the first step is simply to stop scrolling.
