Doomscrolling and Doom spending

Like it or not we are the best beast in the nature. for controlling the fire to make ourselves "concrete jungle" for us to live and thriving while make sure "wild creature" are not surviving the "jungle" that human made. However, it is creating a different problem all together. Human does not evolve to constant stress that involve microstress on daily basis while interacting with each other in confined space.

Nothing changes much between homo sapiens in the last 300.000 years old. Our "software and wiring of neutrons" still the same as our ancestors did have. We yearn for comfort and avoiding any pain be it physical or mentally. Often times, pains win over pleasure and no wonder doomscrolling is a powerful stimulant for our ancient brains. Doomscrolling is a phenomenon when people "keep scrolling" negative content that affects their brains to think that the world is cruel and unforgiving and to keep their "control" in those situations.

Compound that with bad economics and harsh job market make Indonesian youth anxious about their future. Rising living cost also provide additional fuel to the fiery blaze of negativity bias. This phenomenon also creating new phenomenon that we call Doom spending in which people tend to buy a lot and often time more than they could afford.

We wonder why buy things we don't need and above our means as fellow gen Z, that phenomenon happens because the act of purchasing new stuff our brain becomes "happier" for a while. Sometime the act of shopping is a way to "take control" of bad situations be it emotional, personal or financial trouble that lingers on the gen Z.

It creates a feedback loop, the more people consume doom and negative content the more people feel "helpless" and they try to "take matters in their own hands" by doom spending. Like it or not, it is unwise to doom spending and burying our head to the ground. because it will create problems the longer, we are doing such act.

Now... the questions are simple. How to avoid falling victims toward both Doomscrolling and Doom spending? Touching the grass might be a good answer for that. Although, this words often associated with bad meaning we can extract the value of those words. Less online and take your time offline as many as you can. It will create a more realistic world view that the world is not all gloom and cruel.

Writing gratitude journal also helping to cope with daily stress and urge to Doomscrolling and Doom spending. Writing a good thing even though is a small gesture or little things that we accomplish help reinforce our self believe. Our brains will be thankful if we avoiding Doom spending and Doomscrolling in the long run.

Stay Positive!