Have you ever had those moments where you just keep scrolling and scrolling online? Where it’s just you, your eyes, and your thumb scrolling through the endless content on the internet? Well, my fellow digital citizen, that is the phenomena known as “zombie scrolling”–defined as mindless scrolling out of habit, with no real destination or benefit. Have you ever thought of how this phenomena could affect you? Well… our very own verbal communication patterns could change! So we start to speak differently?! Yes very much so, and it changes for the worse. From the information overload, to the heavily unfiltered conversations online, to the summarized writings and even abbreviations, all of these affect our very communication every day. To know more about this, say tuned.

              Social media is the place where we scroll, and because of the constant zombie scrolling we do, we become so immersed in these digital platforms. This is where and how our communication patterns change, these effects are very negative and can cause issues bigger than we think. These negative pattern changes include the overuse of “social media” language and the lack of understanding of non-verbal emotional cues in real-life interactions

            With the oversimplified writing we are forced to abide by in social media platforms from the character limits, it results in oversimplified sentences, special new words and abbreviations, and new speaking structures as a whole. As scrollers who are always exposed to these types of writing and sentences, we start to incorporate and use them in our day-to-day verbal interactions. This at first glance seems harmless, but it can cause major division and misunderstandings. Non-scrollers who don’t know “Internet language,” will have a disconnect in communication with scrollers due to the foreign language. So overall with the new language created in scrolling, it can cause a major disconnect and divide between the scrollers and non-scrollers.

             In real-life interactions, there are those moments where signals or messages are sent by who you’re communicating to in a non-verbal way, usually through emotional cues. As zombie scrollers are usually doing online interaction, there is a lack of need for these non-verbal, emotional cues. Therefore as these real-life cues happen, they often go over our heads. With this, it can lead to a chain of negative events, and who knows maybe it’ll cause a huge misunderstanding, or show you are not courteous, or you’re just slow. 

              Now, on the other hand it is true that it is good that we keep being online to the point where we develop new communication patterns fit into the digital age we are growing into as years go by. The internet is a powerful place to foster interaction with other people all around the world, and also a place where we can be aware of whats happening all around the world in just a simple scroll or click. Though let us not forget that it is not and will never recreate and simulate the in-real-life interactions that are so important in real life. The interactions in the online world will not be as meaningful and powerful as those in real life. 

              Now that we have seen the negative effects zombie scrolling can bring to our communication patterns, I believe this problem can be solved by learning to be aware of when to properly use the newly developed communication patterns we gained online. We should learn the appropriate situations when we can use internet language and when to use the usual real-life communication patterns. We should also just always practice with others in real-life as a whole so our communications patterns can be kept firm and proper.

When you’re scrolling through social media, sometimes the things you see can be personal to you and can affect the way you think or see things. In this article/podcast, we will talk about how zombie scrolling can affect your mental health. 

When you’re on social media, scrolling through for example Twitter, Tiktok, even through your Instagram feed, most of what is posted in today's generation is very emotional, or dysregulating. And the more we see it, the longer we scroll through this kind of content, the more it will affect the way we think and see things.

Not only that, zombie scrolling is said to cause mental disorders as well. Studies have found that social media can have a negative impact on one's mental health, such as anxiety, depression, comparison to others and more.

Although Zombie scrolling can have a negative impact on one's mental health, there are some benefits to it. Scrolling on social media can also be a way of just escaping reality for some people. It’s a way to destress and let go after a long day.

However, even if it’s a good way of destressing, in today's generation, there are a lot of posts that can be effective to one's mental health in a negative way, which is why it’s best to prevent zombie scrolling all in all.

In conclusion, zombie scrolling may have its benefits, but its downside is not worth doing. Your mental health is very important, so let’s try to keep the negativity out of your life.

Scroll, Scroll.. scroll?? I should be doing something more productive— is a line that most of Zombie scrollers feel when they’re caught by the hand of short-form content apps. Are you one of them? Do you feel like you’re stuck in an infinite loop of scrolling and often say the phrase “I’ll do it after/later?”. Well, worry not! Listen to this free podcast, ‘ZOMBIE SCROLLING: Procrastination at its Finest’ where you can gain knowledge about zombie scrolling and it might even improve your attention span while you’re at it.

As someone who struggles with zombie scrolling or for a more detailed description—short-form content addiction scrolling, I’ll guide you throughout your journey to becoming a scrolling-free person as I also take this journey with you!

What are the main arguments on why Zombie scrolling is bad? 

Argument number (1): Zombie scrolling reinforces negative thoughts and feelings because it triggers stress hormones, worsens mental health, and interferes with your sleep. 

Argument number (2): Why is zombie scrolling addictive? Causes negative feelings such as anxiety and depression but gives temporary positive feelings that are related to dopamine. 

Argument number (3): How does zombie scrolling affect our brains? It gives the brain and mind an information overload because of the huge amount of information we consume that our brains cannot handle.

Some say that zombie scrolling can be a way of rewinding or taking a breather whenever life gets tough and overwhelming. It can be a way to escape our emotions by being a distraction and an avoidance technique. However, the negatives overweight the positives. There are negatives to zombie scrolling that impact your life in a much substantial amount rather than the temporary positive benefits of it.

From what we’ve discussed but in monkey language, zombie scrolling bad, but dopamine good but mental health go down ): Zombie scrolling does have its benefits and you can utilize itbut make sure you manage your time with it and don’t rely on it! 

Thank you for listening to my podcast, I hope you learned something new today but most importantly had fun listening to my information-giving yapping and I hope you’ll tune in again in the next one! See you and have a blessed day!