Doom Scrolling Could Be Draining Gen Z's Wallets Dry

Doom scrolling is pinching your wallet more than you know. Picture this —You're walking into office on a mopey Monday morning and the only thing keeping you awake apart from coffee, is the new pair of sneakers your colleague has bought. Taking longer strides to match their pace, you try to catch a glimpse of the make and the label.

You picture your last large big spend and tell yourself that you do not need new sneakers.

“Does everyone have these sneakers now?” you think as you see another person with a similar pair on your feed later in the day. You find yourself lingering, looking at it a little longer.

You didn’t know you could miss something you never had, till you see another model showing off a shiny pair of sneakers again. Moments later, you find yourself entering your UPI pin to buy the pair of kicks, and then, sighing about the space you're going to have to make in your shoe cabinet for them.

Doom scrolling paired with targeted social media advertisements can convince you that you need new shoes before you cut the price tag off the one you already own.

Advertisers look to build up the fear of missing out progressively as one scroll through your feed. What that means is that in a single scroll through the feed, one will likely see multiple advertisements on products that they recently indicated interest in.

“We look at market emotion, engagement and fear of missing out," said Vidya Vijay, founder and chief executive officer of The Adstronaut. "As people see trends and products, we take advantage of that emotion.”

Even as doom scrolling can make the mind feel numb, the system ensures that products show up on your feed enough times to ensure action.

With meta tags and search engine optimisation, social media advertising has the tools to ensure that the products are pushed to the right demographic. And that is why advertisements seem specifically directed while scrolling.

The more one lingers over ads, the more the social media algorithm sends their way. Essentially, for someone who constantly scrolls on social media, the journey from a like to the purchase or a reel to a receipt, is much quicker than purchase made as a result of traditional advertisement.

“The youth want everything quickly and they do end up buying a lot of what they see. Increased accessibility and easy processes like UPI has played an important role in facilitating this,” said Vijay.

To cash in on these fast-tracked purchases, companies now allocate a lot more funds for social media advertising than before, she said.

Delayed gratification is the key. Pausing before the purchase or taking some time before actually making payment will help keep spending in check, according to Mrin Agrawal, founder and chief executive officer of Finsafe India.

“Add it to your cart and come back and pay for it after a week. This will give you time to think and change your mind if you need to," she said.

Another recommendation by Agrawal is to set a spending limit. Everyone sets a limit but finds themselves failing to stick to it.

Of course, maybe the best fix of all is to cut down on doom scrolling in the first place.