, Columnist
Doomscrolling Has Ruined Our Sense of Time
First Covid and now the war in Ukraine have changed our worldview and shortened our patience.
Doomscrolling in the park.
Photographer: Hagen Hopkins/Getty Images AsiaPacThis article is for subscribers only.
The dual crises of the global pandemic and the war in Ukraine have been testing our governments, our institutions, our diplomacy — and our collective sense of time. In part because of social media, both events already seem intolerably long, even though the Russian invasion of Ukraine is less than a month old.
One of the most prominent words of the last few years is “doomscrolling.” People can now easily imbibe new information 24/7, about Covid or the war, simply by scrolling through social media on their phones.