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Self Regulating: Doomscrolling-to-Selective Intake

 


There is a very specific version of me that exists after a long night working at the restaurant. My social battery has been depleted, and I’m ready to be off my feet. So naturally, when I finally sit down, I open TikTok or Instagram. "Just for a few minutes." One video becomes another. A cooking video becomes a restaurant video, which becomes a sommelier blind tasting, which somehow becomes a guy restoring an abandoned swimming pool, which later turns into the new ‘bob’ and ‘bald’ trend (I won’t be going for either hairstyle). Suddenly I've spent an hour consuming an enormous amount of content without really remembering much of it.

Before this course, I don't think I questioned that behavior very much. I knew what doomscrolling was and that algorithms were influencing what appeared on my screen (I literally recognized that it was adapting to my preferences AS I was scrolling on TikTok). However, I still thought of myself as the one choosing what I consumed. One of the biggest changes I've noticed in myself is that I'm becoming more intentional about why I open a platform in the first place. Instead of opening TikTok and seeing what the algorithm has prepared for me, I'm more likely to go looking for something specific. Maybe I want to see wine content, find a cooking technique, look for an idea for my classroom, or check what someone I intentionally follow has posted. The PLN paper and reflections this week have helped me be more cognizant too.

Selective intake doesn't mean every piece of media I consume needs to be educational or productive. Sometimes I want to watch something ridiculous because I've had a long day, and I don't think there's anything wrong with that. The difference is recognizing when I'm choosing entertainment versus when I've stopped choosing at all. When I interact with something, I'm not only consuming it; I'm giving the platform information about what should come next. When I linger on a video, click a link, save a post, or follow a creator, I'm helping shape the environment I'll return to tomorrow.

That realization has changed how I use these platforms for learning, too. I've found genuinely useful culinary content, wine education, teaching ideas, professional communities, and resources through social media. The problem was never that useful information wasn't there. It was that useful information existed alongside an essentially endless supply of everything else. Maybe that's where self-regulation becomes one of the most important Web 2.0 skills. Being digitally literate isn't only knowing how to find information anymore. When information is effectively infinite, it also means knowing when you've found enough. I'm certainly not cured of doomscrolling. I'm sure there will still be nights when I open TikTok after work and lose more time than I intended. But I'm noticing that those sessions are becoming shorter and more purposeful. I'm searching more. I'm curating more. I'm following people because I actually want their content in my network. And sometimes I close the app when I've gotten what I came for, so I don’t end on an exhausted note.

Comments

  1. We're All Potatoes at HeartJuly 30, 2026 at 1:08 PM

    It sounds like we have very similar feeds. I agree that this course has made me think more about how I engage with content. I set a time limit for scrolling for entertainment, which has been helpful. Once my timer goes off, the hard part is actually stepping away. Best of luck as you figure out what works for you and how to maintain your selective intake!

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