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Your toast has been waiting for quite a while.
I was only going to check one headline. Then therewas another worrying story,
and another, and somehow 20 minutes disappeared.
Welcome to Viral English from Your EnglishToolbox.
I am Martin, here with Julia, and some verypatient toast.
Our expression today is doomscrolling. It meansrepeatedly scrolling through bad
or worrying news online, often for longer than youintended.
So it is not simply reading the news?
No, and it is not every long session on yourphone, either.
The negative content and the repeated scrollingare important parts of the meaning.
If I spend 20 minutes watching cheerful cookingvideos,
doomscrolling is not the best description.
Exactly. The word became widely discussed duringthe pandemic.
But that does not prove it was invented then.
The American Dialect Society chose it as itsDigital Word of the Year for 2020.
And a University of California article used itagain in April 2025.
Those are dated examples of real use, not evidencethat the term is new this week.
It combines doom, suggesting something terrible,with scrolling through a screen.
In everyday conversation, it can be a slightlyhumorous way to describe your own habit.
I was doomscrolling instead of eating breakfast.
But it can also describe a serious concern, so donot use it to mock somebody who is upset.
Our second expression is your feed.
Your feed is the stream of posts or updates an appshows you.
I keep seeing worrying headlines in my feed.
Here, feed is a noun, not the verb meaning to givesomeone food.
Although your toast is still hoping for someattention,
our third expression is get sucked into.
It means become deeply involved in something,sometimes without meaning to.
I got sucked into reading the comments and missedmy bus.
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After into, use a noun or an ing form, such asreading.
That expression is not always negative.
You can get sucked into a fascinating story too.
Now, a challenge with two situations.
First, I check a train update, learn what I need,and close the app.
Second, I keep moving through alarming headlineslong after I have the information I wanted.
Which situation fits doomscrolling better?
The second, because the repeated negative newscrolling is the key.
Now imagine a deliberately provocative post tryingto attract angry replies.
Is that automatically the same thing asdoomscrolling?
No, that describes the post's possible intention,not the reader's scrolling habit.
Last week's rage bait lesson helps with thatdistinction.
Complete this sentence about an ordinarysituation.
I got sucked into.
We are practicing language, not diagnosinganybody's mental health.
Find a neutral explanation and examples for allthree expressions on our website.
The episode link is in the description.
Now, shall we return to breakfast?
Yes, before the toast becomes another badheadline.