Emily Alta, a Gen Zer, said she made the personal decision to remove her TikTok.
Alta said she picked up daily journaling, a healthy habit to replace what she called an addiction to TikTok.
“Everyone around me was doing it, making videos, sharing videos with me as well, but when I decided to delete it, I was going through a really, really tough time mentally and physically,” Alta said. “And so, I felt like my life needed a complete change.”
Alta, 21, a student at Mount Saint Mary College, said it was hard at first.
“TikTok was like a drug to me,” she said.
She said reading self-help books helped to keep her digital detox on track. Alta said she was wasting endless hours scrolling on TikTok, losing track of time and even doomscrolling, where one has an obsessive urge to scroll through negative or controversial content.
“Depending on what people watch, they might see a lot of negative news about celebrities, or what’s going on in third world countries, or what’s going on in our own government, and that puts a lot of pressure on us,” Alta said. “Because we want to make a change, and we want to be able to help, but at same time it’s like what can we do?”
Alta said with the clean break, TikTok no longer stresses her mental health.
“I was really looking at the world like super negatively. I always saw the glass half empty, super pessimistic,” she said. “I now look at the world so much differently. I dress differently, I did my hair differently. Everything about my life just completely changed, once I decided to change my mindset.”
A study by Texas Tech University shows doomscrolling leads to greater levels of stress, anxiety and poor health compared to people who didn’t scroll through bad news. Researchers say nearly three out of every four people who severely doomscroll have a mental health problem.
She offered advice to other Gen Zers and older adults who struggle with doomscrolling.
“Stop focusing your energy on other people. To use that to yourself, so you can build the life that you actually want,” she said.