Gen Z is Doomscrolling on Doordash

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We’ve all been there: you’ve just snapped back to reality after spending the past 20 minutes endlessly scrolling social media, and you can’t remember anything you just consumed. This act of mindlessly scrolling as a form of escapism or a manifestation of anxiety—or in the words of Merriam Webster, “to spend excessive time online scrolling through news or other content that makes one feel sad, anxious, angry, etc.”—is known as “Doomscrolling.” The term is now used widely regardless of content consumed or any emotional effect to describe the act of the endless social media scroll. As more apps focus on ways to include shortform video, the feature that helped make TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube Gen Z’s most used apps, Doomscrolling has only increased.

The latest apps to shoehorn in a video feed? Delivery apps! Uber Eats and DoorDash have been experimenting with short form video feeds in select markets to entice customers to try new restaurants and help remedy misleading menu imagery fueled by generative AI.