p-ISSN: 2980-4302
e-ISSN: 2980-4310
Vol. 3 No. 7 July,
2024
The Relationship of Doomscrolling with
Anxiety in Students of the Faculty of Medicine, Islamic University of North
Sumatra
Muhammad Adib Al Wafa1*,
Tezar Samekto Darungan2, Surya Akbar3, Rosa Zorayatamin
Damanik4
1,2,3,4Islamic
University of North Sumatra, Medan, North Sumatra, Indonesia
Email: muhammadadibbb20@gmail.com1*, darungantezarsamekto@gmail.com2, dr.akbar9@gmail.com3, Rosadamanik@fk.uisu.ac.id4
Doomscrolling is a new term which
is commonly used as a tendency to keep scrolling on the bad news, even though
the news is miserable, hurtful, and scary. This new term affects society at
various ages, gender, caste, class, religion, and national boundaries.
Doomscrolling comes up as a vicious cycle, which is when users stick to a
pattern to search for negative information, no matter how bad the news is. It
is hard to distinguish which is the trusted news on social media. This spread
of misleading propaganda creates fear, anxiety, and confusion. This research design is observational analytics with
cross-sectional design. The sample of this study was 216 respondents, which was
included in the inclusion and exclusion criteria at the Faculty of Medicine,
Universitas Islam Sumatera Utara. The data was taken in February 2024 using
stratified random sampling. Data collection was carried out using the HAM-A and
Doomscrolling scale questionnaires. In this study,found that the value of p=0.000
(p<0.05) which shows that there is a significant relationship between Doomscrolling
and Anxiety which has a value of r=0.303 where the strength of this
relationship is weak (p=0.2-0.4) and the direction of the correlation is positive
(+) means there is a unidirectional relationship at the Faculty of
Medicine, Islamic University of North
Sumatra. There is a relationship between Doomscrolling and Anxiety in
Students at the Faculty of Medicine, Islamic University of North Sumatra.
Keywords: Doomscrolling, Anxiety
INTRODUCTION
Technology is the easiest and most important means of
communication in this day and age,
especially related to the use of social media. Social media is closely related
to people's daily lives. Based on a research conducted by DataReportal, it
shows that social media users in Indonesia have reached 191.4 million users in
January 2022. This figure can be said to be equivalent to 68.9 percent of
Indonesia's total population, which now stands at 277.7 million as of January
2022 (Kemp S, 2022).
Users access social media content, messaging
communications, games and online shopping more often. The area with the
highest rate of internet users is still on the island of Java, which is 56.4%,
Sumatra 22.1%, Sulawesi 7%, Kalimantan 6.3%, Bali-Nusa Tenggara 5.2% and
Maluku-Papua 3%. Active internet users in North
Sumatra also increased from 10.9 million in 2018 to 11.7 million in 2019.
The
use of the internet and mobile phones makes it very easy to access various
information anywhere and anytime, both through websites and various
applications provided, resulting in many people, especially teenagers,
lingering on accessing the internet, thus causing internetharassment, especially the use of social
media.
In 2021
(Covid-19), there has been a 35% increase in news consumption through digital
platforms, and a 47% increase in social media use. Despite the enormous
positive effects, the overuse and dependence on online platforms has caused
people to become addicted to online use, and in some cases has led to an
increase in phenomena such as "doom surfing" and "doom
scrolling"
Istilah doomscrolling
emerged in early 2020 to become common, describing digital media practices
that took a bigger life during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic and social
distancing
Doomscrolling emerged as a vicious circle where users
were trapped in a pattern of searching for negative information no matter how
bad the news was. In addition, since online platforms are well
aware of what is most searched for using algorithmic systems, they
deliver content that will grab the attention of social media users based on
what they searched for before on the internet
Individuals who performdoomscrollingOften become
aware of their behavior and make some efforts to reduce it. Individuals also
consider negative news to be uncomfortable to read, and
want to reduce their habit of reading such negative news
The urge
to get all the facts to protect oneself from danger makes a person keep
scrolling through his gadgets for hours to get information and news, which is
especially negative news. Constant exposure to negative news on social media
can take the form of "doomscrollingwhich is generally defined as
the habit of browsing social media where users obsessively search for sad and
negative information
Distinguishing
accurate and inaccurate information spread through social media can be
difficult. This Spread of misleading propaganda causes fear, anxiety, and
confusion
According to the Indonesian Association of
Psychiatric Specialists (PDSKJI), which examined 14,988 people from 2020-2022,
it was found that the results of an increase in psychological problems that
continue to increase every year, namely 70.7% had psychological problems in
2020, 80.4% had psychological problems in 2021 and 82.5% had psychological
problems in 2022. For anxiety problems, there were 68.8% had anxiety problems
in 2020, 76.1% had anxiety problems in 2021 and 75.8% had anxiety problems in
2022. The most age range is 20-30 years old, followed by ages less than 20
years and 31-40 years where this age range is still included in the productive
age
Previous research has revealed a link between social media
use and increased feelings of depression and anxiety
The
formulation of the problem in this study is to find out the relationship
between doomscrolling and anxiety of students of the Faculty of
Medicine, Islamic University of North Sumatra.
Knowing how doomscrolling is related to anxiety in students of
the Faculty of Medicine, Islamic University of North Sumatra
1.
Knowing
the frequency distribution
of doomscrolling events
2.
Knowing
the frequency distribution of anxiety levels
3.
Knowing
the frequency distribution of the sexes with doomscrolling
4.
Knowing
the frequency distribution of the duration of device use with doomscrolling
5.
Knowing
the frequency distribution of doomsrolling with Anxiety level
1. To increase insight and knowledge about
the influence of doomscrolling on students
2.
To
increase insight and knowledge about its impact on student anxiety
1.
As one
of the references for agencies, especially in the health sector, in making
movements to minimize this phenomenon.
1.
As one
of the sources of reference for other researchers in researching the same or
related variables in this study
1.
To
provide information about the impact of doomscrolling on anxiety
2. To raise public awareness about the
effects of doomscrolling
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
This research was conducted
at the Faculty of Medicine, Islamic University of North Sumatra (FK UISU). UISU
Faculty of Medicine is one of the Private Medical Faculties established in
1965. FK UISU is located at JL. STM NO. 77 Suka Maju, Medan Johor, Medan City,
North Sumatra.
The type of research
conducted uses an observational analytical study with a cross sectional design, which aims to determine the relationship between
Doomscrolling and anxiety in students of the Faculty of Medicine, Islamic
University of North Sumatra. The respondents in this study are students of the
Faculty of Medicine, Islamic University of North Sumatra. The number of
respondents in this study was 216 students.
Table 4.
1 Frequency Distribution of Anxiety Levels
|
Frequency |
Percentage |
|
|
Anxiety Level |
|
|
|
Usual |
145 |
67,1% |
|
Light |
21 |
9,7% |
|
Keep |
31 |
14,4% |
|
Heavy |
12 |
5,6% |
|
It's
very heavy |
7 |
3,2% |
|
Total |
216 |
100% |
Based
on the table above, of the 216 respondents showed the distribution of anxiety
frequency (M =
1.68, SD = 1.11). The majority of respondents, 145
(67.1%) respondents, did not experience anxiety problems. A total of 21 (9.7%)
respondents experienced mild anxiety. A total of 31 (14.4%) respondents
experienced moderate level of anxiety. A total of 12 (5.6%) respondents
experienced severe level of anxiety. Meanwhile, 7 (3.2%) respondents
experienced anxiety at a very severe level.
Table 4.
2 Distribution of Doomscrolling Event Frequencies
|
Frequency |
Percentage |
|
|
Risk of
Doomscrolling |
|
|
|
Ya |
95 |
44% |
|
No |
121 |
56% |
Based on the table above, the majority of
respondents as many as 121 (56%) did not have a doomscrolling problem.
Meanwhile, as many as 95 (44%) respondents experienced doomscrolling.
Table 4.
3 Distribution of genders with Doomscrolling
|
Frequency |
Percentage |
|
|
Law Law |
38 |
40% |
|
Woman |
57 |
60% |
Based on the table
above, the majority of respondents who
experienced doomscrolling were women, as many as 57 (60%) respondents.
Table 4.
4 Distribution of Duration of Gadget Use with Doomscrolling
|
Frequency |
Percentage |
|
|
1-2 Jam |
12 |
12,6% |
|
2-5 hours |
26 |
27,4% |
|
> 5 jams |
57 |
60% |
Based on the table above, the majority of
respondents who experience doomscrolling are those who use gadgets for
more than 5 hours per day 57 (60%).
Table 4.5 Frequency
Distribution of Anxiety Levels of Doomscrolling Respondents
|
Frequency |
Percentage |
|
|
Usual |
52 |
54,7% |
|
Light |
10 |
10,5% |
|
Keep |
19 |
20% |
|
Heavy |
9 |
9,5% |
|
It's very heavy |
5 |
5,3% |
Based on the table
above, the anxiety level of respondents who experienced doomscrolling was
mostly not anxiety, which was 52 (54.7%) of respondents.
The spearman correlation test
aims to see if there is a linear correlation between the two variables that we
want to investigate
Table 4. 6 Relationship between Doomscrolling and
Anxiety
|
Mean |
Standard
Deviation |
Skewness |
Kurtosis |
Spearman
Correlation |
Significance |
|
|
Doomscrolling |
36,6 |
18,9 |
1,272 |
2,000 |
0,303 |
0,000 |
|
Anxiety |
11,3 |
11,07 |
1,154 |
1,393 |
0,303 |
0,000 |
Based on table 4.6 above, the results of
the statistical test using the Spearman correlation test with a significance
value of p=0.000 (p<0.05) which means that there is a significant
relationship between Doomscrolling and anxiety. Based on these results, H1
was accepted. The correlation strength between variables is r=0.303 which means
that the strength of the Doomscrolling is weak (r=0.21-0.40) with a positive
(+) or unidirectional correlation direction, the higher the level of Doomscrolling, the higher the anxiety experienced and
vice versa.
In this study,
the gender of female respondents was 157 (72.7%) more than male 59 (27.3%).
When the researcher distributed the questionnaire, female respondents were more
engaged and willing to take the time to fill out the questionnaire. Number of
respondents at risk doomscrolling is 95 (44%). The majority
of
respondents who experienced this doomsrolling were women (60%). This is in line
with the article
Table
4.3 shows many gadget users with a fairly high
duration of use. From the number of respondents at risk doomscrolling,
57 (60%) of which the duration of daily gadget use is >5 hours. Research
In
this study, a significant relationship between Doomscrolling with anxiety.
This is in line with research Similar to this finding, research conducted by
In
the study
Doomscrolling can interfere
with learning by reducing focus, wasting time potentially used for studying,
and increasing students' stress and anxiety levels
In adverse
life events (natural disasters, epidemics, and so on), and situations that
affect society in general (e.g. elections), a person will feel the need to
obtain more information and they may get stuck when they encounter negative
news from digital media. This vicious cycle of negative news triggers negative
emotions in the individual and causes him to experience a negative emotional
state. In other words, individuals with psychological distress experience bad
luck more often and are more anxious about the future. Many studies conducted
during the COVID-19 pandemic revealed that media exposure is closely related to
depression and anxiety
Gadgets,
social media, and news feeds, are indeed designed to encourage frequent or prolonged
interactions. This further increases the need to perform doomscrolling to
get information and facilitate browsing more than usual negative news
Based
on the results obtained from this study, it can be concluded that the majority of
FK UISU 145 students (67.1%) do not experience anxiety or are in a normal
state, and the majority of FK UISU 121 students (56%) do not experience
doomscrolling. Most of the FK UISU students who experience doomscrolling are
women (60%) and use gadgets for more than 5 hours per day (60%). Although the
majority of those who experience doomscrolling do not experience anxiety
(54.7%), there is a significant positive relationship between doomscrolling and
anxiety with values of r= 0.303 and p= 0.000, indicating a weak relationship.
Based on this research, it is suggested that further research should conduct
different statistical tests and consider different socio-demographic conditions
since this phenomenon is still relatively new. The results of this study are also
expected to be a consideration and source of information for the Islamic
University of North Sumatra regarding the relationship between doomscrolling
and anxiety. Additionally, it is recommended that further research be conducted
on more specific conditions or at certain moments, and readers are encouraged
to increase digital literacy as a preventive measure to avoid doomscrolling.
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Copyright
holders:
Muhammad Adib Al Wafa, Tezar Samekto Darungan, Surya Akbar, Rosa
Zorayatamin Damanik (2024)
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AJHS - Asian Journal of
Healthy and Science
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