Doomscrolling became one of the words of the year on Oxford Languages’ annual list. And why not?
Let’s face it, 2020 hasn’t been the most upbeat of years. The pandemic. A contentious election. Protests.
Research in Great Britain showed that the average person scrolls through about 75 feet, or 22.7 meters, of information on social media on their phone each day. And with so much of the news negative, doomscrolling became the term for what users were finding. Iceland thinks it’s about time to change that attitude.
The Iceland Tourism Board has launched Joyscroll.com, a site designed to change users’ mindsets. The site gives users the opportunity to scroll through 75 feet of uplifting content instead.
Doomscrolling is something we’ve all been doing either consciously or unconsciously, according to Sigriour Dogg Gudmundsdottir, head of Visit Iceland.
“We want to do what we can to help uplift spirits and to inject joy into the everyday again,” she told Cadence magazine. “We hope our content will offer an escape and bring a smile to the world and, hopefully sometime soon, people will be able to enjoy it in real life.”
Until that time comes, Joyscroll.com is there for an escape.
“It’s about time we scroll through joyful things instead,” a video promoting the site states.
It features Icelandic streams, waterfalls, images of wildlife, and celestial scenes. There is a section to practice calming breathing techniques and an area to enjoy music from a variety of Icelandic artists.
The site measures how far you’ve scrolled until you reach the bottom at 22.7 meters.
The site also serves as a reminder that Iceland can be a fantastic travel destination once the pandemic has calmed. More than 2 million visitors traveled to Iceland in 2019 to capture the very things portrayed on the joyscrolling website.
Tourism accounted for 42 percent of the nation’s economy in 2019, so that has taken a big hit in 2020.
In September, Iceland began to welcome some visitors under tight protocols and restrictions. That list does not include Americans, however, as the border remains closed to both U.S. and Canadian citizens. Until we can go, we’re joyscrolling through