How to Be a Better Human How to stop doomscrolling — and what to do instead? (w/ Katherine Cross)
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Sep 8, 2025 Katherine Cross, a researcher on online harassment and author of "Log Off: Why Posting and Politics (Almost) Never Mix," dives into the pitfalls of doomscrolling and its detrimental impact on mental health. She discusses why social media is often “anti-political,” making genuine engagement difficult. Katherine stresses the need for critical thinking around technology's societal roles, and she advocates for real-life connections to foster meaningful political discourse instead of superficial online interactions.
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Social Media Can Cause Political Harm
- Katherine Cross realized social media often causes political harm rather than solving it after Gamergate and 2020's intense online activity.
- She links mass online engagement by elites to worsening civic problems and false hopes about social media as a political fix.
Politics Requires Social Work
- Social media renders people as isolated individuals pretending to be a collective, undermining real political sociality.
- Katherine Cross ties this to Hannah Arendt's idea that politics requires social negotiation and communal work.
Anti-Political Simulation Of Engagement
- Social media is 'anti-political' because it demobilizes and scatters the polity while simulating collective action.
- That simulation makes people feel they're doing political work when they often aren't investing in real organizing.
