Until a week ago I had never even heard the words doomsurfing or doomscrolling before.  Have you?  Not only does the Urban Dictionary online include it, but the well-known  Merriam-Webster recently wrote a blog post describing it as, “the tendency to continue to surf or scroll through bad news, even though that news is saddening, disheartening or depressing.”  What they fail to mention is that many of us do it even if the source of the “news” hasn’t been verified and is sometimes untrue. That leads to the other new word—Infodemic—as a “blend of ‘information’ and ‘epidemic’ that typically refers to a rapid and far-reaching spread of both accurate and inaccurate information about something such as disease. As facts, rumors, and fears mix and disperse, it becomes difficult to learn essential information about an issue.”   So these days, with the flood of doom issues related to the COVID-19, the economy, the political landscape, police brutality and systemic racism, every piece of news carries the potential for both doomsurfing and being a part of an Infodemic.  The question is, are we personally adding to or easing the spread? [Read more…]