As missiles crossed the Gulf this weekend and explosions were reported across the region, millions of people did the same thing: they reached for their phones. Within minutes, social media feeds filled with videos, breaking alerts and speculation about what might happen next.
The strikes followed US-Israeli attacks inside Iran earlier in the week, triggering a wave of retaliatory missile launches and air-defence interceptions across several Gulf states.
Moments like this are when social media can quickly turn into doomscrolling — the compulsive consumption of bad news delivered through endless updates, alerts and algorithmically amplified crises. A quick check for information can easily spiral into a stream of war updates, political instability, cyberattacks and constant crisis coverage.
In the days since the first…