Apps to distract you from the endless cycle of doomscrolling
You open your phone to check the time or a quick message. The next thing you know, an hour has passed and you’ve scrolled through endless celebrity drama, cat videos, awful news stories, influencer rants, and whatever else the algorithm decided to throw at you.
Even though you probably don’t want to keep wasting your time and energy on this mind-numbing content, you do it again the next day.
Doomscrolling, the habit of spending excessive amounts of time consuming content on social media, has become incredibly widespread. A survey from last year found that 64% of Americans say they doomscroll.
Researchers have warned that doomscrolling can negatively affect several aspects of your well-being, including your mental health and attention span. Spending long periods scrolling can lead to brain fatigue, difficulty focusing, and disrupted sleep. And if a lot of the content you’re consuming is negative or stressful, it can leave you feeling disheartened, anxious, and emotionally drained.
It’s hard to break the cycle of doomscrolling, but there are plenty of apps that provide content that’s engaging and productive.
Of course, you could always read a book or go for a walk (we have a guide on how to stop doomscrolling), but this list is for when you have a few spare minutes and want something to do on your phone that isn’t endless scrolling.
If you still want to feel connected to the world without scrolling through social media, you can check out Radio Garden. The app lets you listen to over 25,000 live radio stations from across the globe.
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Once you open the app, you’ll see green dots marking cities and towns. Tap any dot to listen to radio stations broadcasting from that location. You can add favorites or search for radio stations, countries, and places.
Radio Garden is free, but it also offers an ad-free premium plan for $2.99 per month. The app is available on both iOS and Android.
Elevate is an app designed to help improve focus, memory, reading, math skills, and other cognitive abilities. It includes over 40 games to train different abilities you use in everyday life, from reading faster to comparing prices more efficiently.
You can track training streaks and compare your mind’s performance over time.
The app offers a free version with access to three games per day, or a yearly subscription of $39.99 for unlimited access. It’s available on both iOS and Android.
