The war on doomscrolling - The Jewish Standard

The war on doomscrolling seems to be picking up.

In case this is your first time hearing about doomscrolling, worry not: you are not out of touch, you just didn’t hear the term yet. But in all likelihood, you have already experienced the “benefits.”

Doomscrolling works like this: you are about to go to sleep and decide to take just one more look at your phone or other electronic device. You click once and, somehow, before you know it, it’s already 1 a.m., you’ve spent two hours on your device, and you don’t even have anything to show for it. It was just that Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, and company managed to manipulate you again into watching and scrolling for hours.

They score one, you score zero.

Now, it seems that the war on doomscrolling is picking up. I see op-eds, and technology companies (yes, the same ones that are responsible for the phenomenon to begin with!) are coming up with features to help us fight it.

Recently, I heard a business coach speak passionately about how doomscrolling is harmful to people who want to succeed in business. “Instead of sitting in front of the screens for hours, use that time to learn something that will help you make a lot of money!”

Pretty inspiring, I thought to myself.

But then I thought some more, and I wasn’t sure anymore. Because ultimately, this person was advocating replacing one sort of pleasure — immediate, short-term — with a different kind of pleasure that will come much later, with much effort. But what if people actually want to stick with the short-term pleasure?

It reminded me of the famous story of the wealthy person vacationing on a remote island. While he was enjoying fishing, he noticed an elderly native standing by the water, fishing, then grilling the fish he caught and enjoying a meal of that fish, accompanied by a small bottle of beer.

The wealthy man engaged the native in conversation. “It seems like you really know how to fish,” he said. “Why won’t you do this as a business? I will teach you. You start by selling fish, ultimately you earn enough to buy your own fishing vessel, and as you grow, you will hire more people to work for you until you make a lot of money!”

“And then?” asked the elderly man. “What would I do then with my money?”

“Then you can be like me and take this luxury vacation, have fun, fish…”

“Well, I am doing that already,” replied the elderly man.

You see, the war against doomscrolling is doomed (sorry, I had to) to fail if we try to replace one pleasure with another and one self-serving occupation with another.

So what will work? Changing our perspective and thinking bigger. Instead of focusing on what makes us feel good, we need to think of the purpose for which G-d created us. Why are we here? Is it just about us having fun or doing what will make us feel better?

Deep inside, we all know the answer: We are here to achieve a higher purpose. We are here to make the world better. We are here to help people around us. We are here to make a difference.

So when we have free time, it’s a precious opportunity to connect more deeply with our core and purpose. And while we might not be able to help others at 11 p.m., we can use that time to draw closer to G-d, who created us and entrusted us with our holy mission. An hour of Instagram won’t get us anything. An hour of learning Torah will.

So, in one line: Torah scrolling instead of doom scrolling.

Wishing everyone a happy Shavuot, and may we receive the Torah with joy and inwardness!

Mendy Kaminker is the rabbi of Chabad of Hackensack and an editorial member of Chabad.org. He looks forward to your comments at rabbi@chabadhackensack.com.

Opinion