Breaking the Doomscroll: Social Media’s Role in Rehumanizing Conflict

Like many others, I am stuck in a crippling doomscroll habit.

After a long day, I find myself mindlessly swiping to see the next reel. Sometimes it’s an AFV-style fail compilation, other times it’s some glamorous travel vlog. But something has been changing up many of our feeds lately. Interrupting our disconnected scrolling are the faces of ordinary civilians experiencing unimaginable suffering through armed conflict. Accounts featuring everyday life in war-torn regions have become a widespread phenomenon. In previous decades, many North American audiences’ exposure to armed conflict was largely confined to the evening news. Now, our current 24/7 content overload has brought the conversation home.

The dangers of social media-based misinformation are well established. Images, stories, and headlines are often well-circulated before they can be fact-checked, allowing governments and organizations to spread propaganda. Because of this unfortunate trend, I have found myself reflecting on why the internet and social media developed in the first place. Social media, at its inception, had a core goal of connecting people on a global level - to share ideas, experiences and life snippets across vast geographical distances.

Citizen journalists show that global connection and care can still be fostered, even on platforms plagued by misinformation and overstimulation. Gaza’s Bisan Owda and Ukraine’s Valeria Shashenok have given a perspective to war many of us have not seen before. These perspectives remind us that we are only born where we are by chance. We could just as easily have endured the experiences we see on our screens. These citizen journalists have used social media to garner international attention and generate real-world change. Millions of doomscrollers like myself have heard personal stories that were historically inaccessible to the masses. These stories have mobilized civil society efforts across the world, causing a sharp rise of organized demonstrations, engagement with political officials and support for humanitarian efforts in war-torn regions from audiences. These actions can be ascribed to many factors, but I strongly believe that rehumanization efforts through citizen journalists have been critical in spurring public action.

I write this piece not to glamourize social media or disregard the very real harm it can perpetuate. Rather, I am trying to add a drop of optimism to a very pessimistic bucket. While consuming these journalists’ content is one way to fulfill social media’s original goal of global connection, I encourage you, dear reader, to think about how you can use modern communications platforms to live up to this goal. Try to leave the cycle of despair and doomscrolling behind and find a way to learn and grow from the amazing, brave people in this world.

As zealous advocates, there are many undiscovered stories that will shape our work and mission in the legal field. That story could be hiding in your feed right now!