Rewired by Rage

The Cost of Doomscrolling

This essay was originally published by The Bright Side in November 2025. Read the original here.

The dreaded doomscroll. Even if you don't know it by that alarmist-sounding name, you definitely know the feeling. For me, it's that incessant urge to fill every "down" moment of my day. Waiting in line at a store, a few minutes early to a meeting, giving myself a break from my "big screen" with my "little screen"—I'd list more examples, but I have a feeling this is relatable to anyone with a smartphone. What starts as a few innocent moments to fill the time quickly ensnares me and completely absorbs my focus and my energy. Headlines designed to elicit rage send me running to the comment section to witness the carnage. Hooky opening lines have me watching minute after minute of some cautionary tale or horror story. It's undeniable that I'm entertained—in the sense that I can't look away—but ultimately, the passive scroll intended to allow me to escape reality fills me with the very real and very grounded feelings of anxiety, despair, and anger. All in the name of staying informed or connecting with friends and family.¹

Now, there are many think pieces and research out there that tell us the ins and outs of dopamine and how it works with social media, and addiction to our phones is, unfortunately, nothing new—or even going away anytime soon. And to that end, I want to explore how we can understand the emotions being triggered by doomscrolling and inflammatory sensationalism online so that we can begin to understand how it might be reshaping our minds and what we can do to stop it.

One emotion that kept surfacing in me—online and offline—was anger. And of course, as these things go, just as I was starting to recognize this as a pattern, my pastor said something mind-blowing about this very topic. He said that venting—or ranting—your anger is actually not beneficial. In fact, it can be harmful. Now, this was disappointing to hear, as I can really hone my complaints into a compelling and entertaining monologue for my friends. But here’s the thing about anger. Which, ultimately, is at the heart of venting—and most of the comment sections online, for that matter. It builds. It doesn’t readily diffuse when you close out of the app or when you’re ramping up to share your outrage with the third willing party of the day. Since I was reluctant to embrace it, I found the report the pastor was referencing about venting. Leading researcher in aggression, Brad J. Bushman, found that venting (i.e., hitting a punching bag or screaming into a pillow—remember that advice from your childhood? Just me?) increases aggression, not reduces it.²

The scientific reasoning behind this is neuroplasticity—our brain’s ability to form and reinforce habits through repeated behaviors. Repeated anger only deepens grooves in your brain, strengthening your anger response. Basically, the more you revisit those angry emotions, the more your brain will spring back into that angry headspace. And when you apply that principle to our online behavior, scrolling doesn’t just shape what you see—it shapes how you think³. Yikes. When I walk away from venting ad nauseam with my friends or doomscrolling the comment sections of spicy reels, I may walk away feeling validated by those who agree with me or outraged by those who don’t, but it often re-stokes my initial anger. Terrible news for my hypothetical, proverbial brunch table, but admittedly better for my mental health.

Even the ancients were grappling with these issues. King Solomon writes in his collection of proverbs, “A fool gives full vent to his spirit, but a wise man quietly holds it back” (Proverbs 29:11). The Apostle Paul writes in his letter to the Ephesians, “Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger…” (Ephesians 4:26-27). And James, the brother of Jesus, writes in his book, “Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, because human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires” (James 1:19-20). Now, a caveat: of course you can process hurt with safe and trusted people—bottling up emotions and not processing them is not wise either.

So, where does that line fall? Anger is a perfectly normal human emotion⁴. Perhaps the balance we should seek between the dangerous emotions brought on by doomscrolling and the healthy, non-sinful mentality lies in our ability to discern when it builds into aggression and starts to shape the way you view the world and the people in it. Do you find yourself thinking in generalizations? Drawing lines in the sand on who you will or will not associate with? Find yourself holding your tongue or avoiding people altogether out of fear of disagreements? I know I have. These well-worn grooves of anger in my own brain have ultimately built up walls of division. But my friends, family, and colleagues aren't an algorithm of perfectly tailored groups served up to me with identical opinions to my own—they're human beings. And they are the very people God has placed in my life to love. I would invite you, just as I'm trying to do myself, to examine your heart and your tendency toward anger when you interact with people in person and online. Don't let your addiction to validation create a wall between you and the very people you are meant to love.

Until next time, be kind to yourself and to the people on the other side of the screen.

Take heart,

-bri rosely

1. Remember when that’s all social media was? Simpler times.

2. For readers who want the full study: Bushman, B. J. (2002). Does venting anger feed or extinguish the flame? Catharsis, rumination, distraction, anger, and aggressive responding. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 28(6), 724–731.

3. Thanks algorithm.

4. Just look at the book of Psalms. As a pastor of mine once put it, this is the book where God meets us in the midst of our full humanness and even despair.