Doomscrolling in Times of Crisis: Algorithmic Audiencing, Affective Overload, and News Avoidance Among Three Birth Cohorts

Crisis news increasingly reaches people through algorithmic feeds, where users may keep scrolling despite anxiety and exhaustion. This practice, known as ‘doomscrolling’, has largely been examined through quantitative measures of psychological well-being, often in young samples. Less is known about how people with different histories of media socialisation make sense of this experience or how they try to regulate exposure within algorithmic feeds. This study examines the accounts of participants from Generations X, Y and Z, together with their news-avoidance practices and awareness of algorithmic feeds. In this exploratory comparative qualitative study in Türkiye, semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted with a total of 35 adults in two phases (first phase: n = 16; second phase: n = 19). Data were analysed through Braun and Clarke’s reflexive thematic analysis; MAXQDA 2024 was used to organise the material. Across the interviews, doomscrolling was described as a recurring tension between the wish to remain informed and the need to limit emotional strain. Participants also cited the expectation of good news—such as a rescue or a positive development—as a reason for continuing to scroll; even those who believed they could control the feed noted that they found it difficult to stop themselves from returning to it. Incidental exposure could draw crisis news into ordinary platform use, while muting, source selection, feed curation and other forms of algorithmic steering were used to regulate exposure without necessarily leaving the platform. Differences across cohort accounts are treated as exploratory patterns rather than generalisable generational effects. The study contributes to debates on platform-mediated news consumption and public attention during crises.