POV: You’ve just spent hours scrolling through TikTok, swiping through a tirade of short-form videos, with content ranging from mindless cat videos to heavy-hitting news carousels, after initially planning to use the app for five minutes before you went to bed.
If this sounds familiar, you aren’t alone. Research has found that 31% of US adults are guilty of doomscrolling, with this percentage rising for Gen Z users – the first generation to have come of age with social media. And with apps like TikTok, Instagram Reels, and YouTube Shorts being scientifically engineered to hold your attention, putting down your phone isn’t always as easy as it seems.
While it’s easy to feel like a slave to your smartphone, the good news is there are a number of tools out there designed to improve your relationship with social media. Whether you’re looking to curb your screen time or stamp out mindless scrolling altogether, we’ve rounded up the best apps to help you combat doomscrolling and use your free time more productively.
Doomscrolling: Its Causes, and Its Consequences
Most of us are guilty of the odd doomscroll. But while indulging yourself in the internet’s finest short-form content from time to time isn’t a crime, spending an excessive amount of time-consuming content – especially if it’s of a negative nature – can have pretty dire effects on your mental health.
Research shows spending excessive time on social media can lead to an abundance of undesirable symptoms, including irritability, poor concentration, mental fatigue, and lack of productivity. What’s more, with many people turning to endless scrolling to escape anxiety and other negative emotions in the first place, adopting the habit as a coping mechanism can result in a damaging cycle that’s hard to break.
While doomscrolling is still a relatively new concept, research has found that the practice is significantly associated with five major personality traits, including social media addiction and fear of missing out (FOMO). Therefore, if you’re serious about leaving doomscrolling in the past, tackling these underlying factors will be the best way to make lasting change.
Yet, alongside being mindful of these triggers, there’s also an army of apps out there designed to make the adjustment a little easier. We outline our favorites, alongside their features and prices, below.
6 Apps to Help You Avoid Doomscrolling
1. Freedom: Best Anti-Doomscroll App Overall
- Price: from $3.33 per month (when billed annually)
- Free plan: No
Freedom is one of the original anti-scrolling apps designed to help users become more productive. The popular tool comes stacked with a range of features geared toward helping you stay on track, including its ‘distraction checklist’ which lets you block websites and apps you want to avoid, and its ‘advanced scheduling’ capability, which allows you to carve out focus times in the future.
In addition to blocking tempting distractions, Freedom offers an ambient noise feature, which lets users choose between the soothing sounds of a cafe, library, or nature. You’re able to annotate your sessions as well, to motivate you to maintain your positive progress.
The best thing about Freedom? It’s not just a smartphone app. The tool also operates as a dedicated browser extension, to help you avoid distractions whether you’re switching between apps on your phone, or browsing the internet on your laptop or computer.
Screenshots of Freedom app. Source: Freedom
Freedom key features
- Customizable blocklists
- Browser and smartphone compatibility
- Future scheduling
Freedom pricing
Freedom costs $8.99 per month, or $3.33 per month when billed annually. You’re also able to gain lifetime access to the app for $99.50. Freedom does offer a free version of the service for seven sessions, but you’ll have to upgrade to a paid plan after they run out.
2. Blinkist – Best for Getting Into Non-Fiction Reading
- Price: from $12.99 per month
- Free trial: Yes
If you’re interested in replacing doomscrolling with a healthier activity, Blinkist should be on your radar. Blinkist is a book summary service that helps users avoid TikTok deep dives with 15-minute non-fiction book summaries.
The platform is stacked with over 6,500 bestselling titles, with around 40 new titles being added each month. Non-fiction content is available in both audio and text formats too, to cater to different user preferences. If podcasts are more your jam, the subscription also includes access to Shortcasts – a service that breaks down popular podcasts into succinct summaries.
Blinkist app screenshots. Source: Blinkist
Blinkist doesn’t block distractions like Freedom or Opal. However, the app caters well to netizens with shorter attention spans who want to expand their knowledge base without being daunted by information-heavy non-fiction books.
Blinkist key features
- Personalized recommendations
- Podcast summaries
- Audio and text non-fiction summaries
Blinkist pricing
Blinkists costs $12.99 per month, but if you buy the annual plan you’ll be able to get the service for half the price. Blinkist does offer a free plan too, which lets you read or listen to one pre-selected book per day at no cost.
3. Forest: Best For Visualizing Your Process
- Price: from $14.99 per month
- Free plan: For Android users
Forest is a creative app that incentivizes users to stay off their phones by growing virtual trees. It works by letting you plant a seed in the app, before watching it grow into a tree and forest. The clincher is that the tree grows if you stay on the app, and if you leave to check your social media feed, or to carry out other activities, the tree with wither.
While this concept might sound a little obscure, it has real-world applications. The bigger your virtual forest gets, the more virtual coins you earn, which are able to be spent to facilitate reforestation efforts thanks to the app’s partnership with Trees for the Future.
Screenshots of the Forest app
Forest key features
- Gamified focus sessions
- Enviromental incentives for focusing
- Visual representations of progress
Forest pricing
Forest’s only paid plan costs $3.99 per month, and this will give you access to its full suite of features. A limited version of the app is also available for free to Android users.
4. Imprint: Best For Learning New Subjects
Screenshots of the Imprint app
- Price: from $14.99 per month
- Free plan:
Imprint is a micro-learning app that encourages users to replace doomscrolling with gamified learning tasks. The user-friendly app lets you choose between a breadth of interesting topics, from interpersonal dynamics to astrophysics.
Imprint is a field day for visual learners, with the app using appealing illustrations, charts, and diagrams alongside bite-sized chunks of text to make the information easier to consume. The platform does a great job of making seemingly complex topics accessible too, providing users with a low barrier entry to a wide range of topics.
Imprint was also awarded Google Play’s App of the Year in 2023, so if you’re looking to switch out social media for some accessible intellectual stimulation this could be a great place to start.
Imprint features
- Daily quizzes to improve memory recall
- Courses on a wide range of topics
- Visually appealing graphics
Imprint pricing
Imprint costs $15.99 per month or $99.99 per year. The app also offers a free week-long trial and currently has a free version that lets you unlock free daily content.
5. Opal: Best For Limiting Screentime
- Price from: $8.29 when paid annually
- Free plan: Yes
Working in a similar way to Freedom, Opal is a productivity-focused app that helps you set digital boundaries and lower your screen time. It works towards this goal through a range of strategies, including by letting you rank your apps from most and least distracting and blocking them accordingly, or giving you the chance to set up scheduled blocks.
Opal also provides users with detailed breakdowns of their screentime usage, helping them gain a clear overview of where they’re wasting most of their time. The productivity app gamifies the process too, by entering you into a leaderboard where you’re able to compete with fellow users and receive rewards for your achievements.
Screenshot of the Opal app
Opal features
- App limits and hard locks
- Deep focus sessions
- Rewards for successful time-blocking
Opal pricing
Opal costs $8.29 per month when you opt for the annual subscription. If you don’t fancy this commitment, you can also pay $19.99 month by month, or $399 for lifetime access. Opal does offer a free plan, but its blocking capabilities are much more limited, and it only allows for one recurring focus session.
6. Mindful Scroll: Best For Improving Mindfulness
- Price from: $10 per month
- Free plan: No
Mindful Scroll is an innovative coloring app designed to enhance the mental health of its users by promoting mindful activities as a healthier alternative to doomscrolling. The app replicates the satisfying infinite scroll of apps like TikTok and Instagram Reels, by presenting geometric tiling that transform colors and patterns as you scroll.
The mobile app was developed by researchers from the University of Waterloo, who were keen on exploring ways people could incorporate mindfulness into their daily routines.
Screenshots of Mindful Scroll
Mindful scroll key features
- Mindfulness infinite scrolling
- Virtual coloring tools
- Additional mindful activities
Mindful Scroll pricing
Mindful Scroll offers one plat, which costs $10 per month. You’re also able to opt for an annual subscription for $60 per year. Unfortunately, there is currently no free version of the app.
