5 healthy and productive alternatives to doomscrolling

Get rid of endless social media sweeping! 5 Healthy and Effective Alternatives

It is easy to develop the habit of "doomscrolling" (doomscrolling) when indulging in social media and passively accepting content that is not necessarily beneficial to mental health. We know deep down that there are more efficient ways to kill time, but we keep opening the same apps and refreshing them over and over again.

Part of the problem is that our phones are always around the corner and within reach. Another problem is that there are a lot of short free time in the day, like waiting for a bus at a subway platform or getting ready to go to bed, and we seem to have nothing to do except open the app to see what new content is there.

But this is not always the case. There are some applications that can bring us all kinds of benefits and positive atmospheres as alternatives to “doomscrolling”. What’s more, you can use them any time you have a few minutes of free time in the day.

1. Learn a foreign language

You don't have to sign up for a real life course to learn a foreign language, as many apps can train you in another language directly on your home screen. Most of them divide lessons and exercises into small pieces, and you can learn at your own pace.

[Related: The negative impact of social media has a huge impact on teenagers of different ages]

Search a few minutes a day and you can quickly accumulate hours of reading, writing, speaking and listening practice. You can track your progress at any time and mix various tests and challenges.

The gold standard here is Duolingo(iOS, Android) because it has an intuitive interface and quick and easy lessons. You can use it for free or you can pay $7 a month to remove ads and get more types of exercises. Babbel(iOS, Android) and Rosetta Stone(iOS, Android) are also high-quality alternatives.

2. Read books

Books can give you a new perspective on life, take you to the fictional kingdom, let you understand a variety of themes, make you laugh and cry, and more. If you don't want to deal with physical books, you only need a phone and a suitable e-reading app.

If you are using iOS, you can use Apple Books; if you are using an Android phone, you can use Google Play Books and Audiobooks. There are other third-party alternatives, such as the Amazon Kindle app (iOS, Android). All of these apps are free to download and use, and you will also find a lot of free e-books, especially classics with expired copyrights.

In terms of alternative "doomscrolling", you might be surprised at how much you can read in just a few minutes a day. You can see at a glance the reading progress and remaining reading volume of each e-book.

3. Listen to the podcast

Compared to taking the time to do "doomscrolling", there are many reasons to listen to podcasts: You can give your eyes a break, calm your mind before bed, and listen to your favorite genre. With so many podcasts, you'll be sure to find some based on topics you like.

Importantly, for this list, most podcast players include a timer feature that allows you to set the length of time you want to listen to a specific episode. So if you know you have five minutes of rest or ten minutes before bed, you can set the timer accordingly without staring at the screen.

If you are using an iPhone, then the obvious podcast player selection is Apple Podcasts. For Android users, it might be Google Podcasts (it's also available on iOS, by the way). There are many other podcast players available – we especially like the free Pocket Casts(iOS, Android).

Read articles

You can argue that reading news articles online is itself a form of “doomscrolling”, but you don’t have to if you choose carefully what to read and what to read. Just make sure you add some good news and light content while reading bad news (not bad news these days).

You can easily save articles to

Instapaper(iOS, Android) from any web browser. The app removes ads, navigation bars, and other distractions, leaving you a simplified reading interface. Even better, it shows the length of each post at a glance so that you can choose as you want. For $3 per month, you get extra features like full text search and no restrictions on added article notes.

Feedly(iOS, Android) is also worth considering. This RSS reader organizes new articles on your favorite websites, gives you a simple interface to read them and adds features like tags and highlights. You can follow up to 100 feeds for free, after which the paid plan starts at $6 per month.

Meditation

The opposite of "doomscrolling" is meditation. Mindfulness practices for several minutes a day can improve your anxiety levels and overall mental health. You can arrange it exactly the way you want, and which apps you use.

[Related: Social media really makes us more cynical]

For example, you can play easy playlists that let your mind drift - a quick search on

YouTube(iOS, Android) or Spotify(iOS, Android) will return many options you can choose from. YouTube can also provide you with many free guided meditations: include a time limit that matches the time you have in your search.

You can then use a dedicated meditation app. One of the most famous apps is Headspace(iOS, Android), which has hundreds of guided meditations to choose from – it costs $13 per month, but you can try it for a free week. Calm(iOS, Android) is also worth checking out, with its own vast library of resources and a variety of meditation duration options: a small amount of content is free to use, and a premium subscription costs $15 per month.

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