Are You A 'Doomer'? This Mindset Is All Too Common Today

"Becoming engrossed in this mindset leads to rigid thinking, hyperfixation and can have real impacts on people’s lives."

Culture & Parenting Reporter, HuffPost

There’s a certain kind of person many of us have in our lives – the one who constantly sends you alarming articles, along with a comment to the effect of “we’re f**ked”.

They always know the latest awful happenings in the world and seem ready to tell everybody that nothing anyone does matters.

The name for these kinds of people? “Doomers.”

″‘Doomerism’ is a mindset that’s rooted in chronic pessimism and worst-case scenario thinking,” Chloë Bean, a licensed marriage and family therapist, told HuffPost. “It’s the belief that the future is bleak, things are only going to get worse and individual actions won’t matter. It tends to carry a sense of hopelessness, helplessness and emotional exhaustion.”

For “doomers,” there’s a pervasive sense that everything is bad. Alexandra Cromer, a licensed therapist with Thriveworks, compared doomerism to “existential dread,” highlighting the sense of fear around imminent destruction against which you have no power.

“It posits that the future of global welfare is inherently ‘doomed,’ meaning that there is almost a guarantee that the global population will soon face climate, economic and other grave disasters that ultimately contribute to widespread societal collapse,” she explained.

While there have always been “doomers” in the world to some extent, this mindset seems to have become more prevalent in the age of the internet and social media.

“A lot of people are consuming a steady stream of alarming news headlines, conflict, economic stress, climate anxiety and comparison culture without enough time to process what they’re absorbing,” Bean said. “Our nervous systems were not designed for 24/7 exposure to global distress.”

She noted that social media can amplify doomerism as fear-driven content often gets more engagement.

“The more someone interacts with pessimistic or catastrophic content, the more the algorithm will serve it back to them,” Bean explained. “This creates the false feeling that despair is the only reality.”

This phenomenon is true for those who don’t engage directly with these kinds of headlines and posts as well.

“Information that’s posted online and via social media can find you even if you’re not seeking it – e.g. your Facebook friend comments on a post or shares the concept of doomerism as a post – thus enhancing the chance that you’re exposed to that concept,” Cromer said.

Very real cultural factors can shape this mindset as well – from recent global affairs and instability to political figures espousing........

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