Doom Scrolling

An original speculative poem.

Photo by Nsey Benajah on Unsplash

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Video killed the radio star. Then it melted down human brains into junkyard scraps.

Social media has birthed a practice known as “doom scrolling.” For social media neophytes, doom scrolling is the act of spending excess time reading negative news online. Doom scrolling often sends you careening from hot button political issues to reality TV celebrities doing stupid things and creates an anger and anxiety spiral that swallows you whole like a black hole slurping matter from a nearby star or planet.

Doom scrolling can also send a person diving down conspiracy laden rabbit holes where education, intelligence, and basic common sense are discarded like empty pop bottles. Why believe proven facts and science when you can embrace end of days fan fiction on YouTube, TikTok and elsewhere?

This second form of doom scrolling inspired my latest poem.

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The world will end soon.
Random videos warn on my feed. 
The real truth is hidden
They are opening eyes.
Tilling hard soil and planting seed.

So did you know? 
Our maps erase many hidden lands.
Civilizations forgotten. 
Footnotes in history.
Memories turned to shifting sands.

Aliens lurk among us.
Reptiles clothed with human skin.
Power, wealth, and fame.
Tools for a diabolical trade. 
Eternally ruling is how they win. 

Everything is a simulation.
Time and space were never real. 
Red pill or blue pill.
You are programmed.
Told what to see, hear, and feel.

A dark global conspiracy 
dances the world on a puppet string.
Secret ancient societies. 
Smothering minds and hearts.
Until no real songs are left to sing.

The world will end soon. 
Will a comet or asteroid bring doom?
Fire mimicking raindrops.
Falling from the skies. 
Armageddon enters the chat room. 

Death and despair have become all the rage.
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