LATE-NIGHT DOOMSCROLLING AND MORAL DETACHMENT IN DIGITAL USERS

KIRTI DIXIT , DR. KUMAR ASHUTOSH

Late-night doomscrolling—defined as the compulsive intake of negative digital content during night-time hours—has become widespread yet remains insufficiently theorized. Although doomscrolling is increasingly associated with anxiety, depression, sleep disturbance and digital exhaustion, existing scholarship rarely distinguishes late-night usage or examines its ethical and moral implications. Drawing on secondary sources such as empirical studies, conceptual analyses, dissertations, news reports and clinical commentaries related to doomscrolling, social media consumption, sleep disruption and digital distress, this paper develops a conceptual model linking late-night doomscrolling to emerging forms of moral detachment among digital users. Using an integrative review method, the study synthesizes evidence on psychological strain, media fatigue, vicarious trauma, cognitive overload and sleep disturbance. Three core mechanisms are identified through which late-night doomscrolling may cultivate moral detachment: (a) emotional numbing and reduced sensitivity to suffering; (b) cognitive overload diminishing reflective judgment; and (c) erosion of empathy due to prolonged exposure to crisis narratives and polarized media. The paper proposes a multi-level framework in which individual factors (FOMO, emotion regulation), platform design features (infinite scroll, algorithmic amplification), and contextual influences (night-time isolation, pandemic pressures, political conflicts) collectively create conditions that foster moral detachment. The study contributes a new construct—late-night doomscrolling–induced moral detachment—and outlines implications for digital well-being interventions, platform regulation and future research.