Doomscrolling, defined as sustained engagement with negative content on media newsfeeds, has increasingly been recognized as a maladaptive digital behavior. Yet, the emotional and developmental factors that contribute to this pattern remain insufficiently understood. This study examines whether loneliness serves as an explanatory mechanism in the association between adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and doomscrolling among men from Generations X, Y, and Z. Grounded in Compensatory and Compulsory Internet Use Theories, Media System Dependency Theory, and Generational Cohort Theory, the study conceptualizes digital coping as a process shaped by early adversity, evolving media environments, and cohort-specific constructions of masculinity.
A total of 570 men in Israel completed validated self-report measures of ACEs, loneliness, and doomscrolling. The results demonstrate distinct generational pathways linking childhood adversity to digital behavior. Among Gen X, ACEs are linked to loneliness but not to doomscrolling. For Gen Y, ACEs predict doomscrolling directly, without mediation by loneliness, suggesting a compulsive media use pattern. In contrast, Gen Z shows a clear mediating role of loneliness in the ACE-doomscrolling link, reflecting compensatory digital coping.
These findings underscore that doomscrolling is not a uniform digital habit but a cohort-specific manifestation of coping shaped by emotional pathways, media dependencies, and historically situated masculine norms. By illustrating how early adversity intersects with the sociocultural conditions of each generation, the study advances theoretical understanding of doomscrolling as a socio-emotional behavior rather than a purely technological outcome. This perspective emphasizes the need for developmentally informed and culturally grounded models that account for the interplay between psychological vulnerability, gendered expectations, and digital environments. Practically, the results highlight the importance of designing interventions that are sensitive to generational histories of masculinity and media exposure, acknowledging that the same digital behavior may serve different psychological functions across cohorts and therefore requires tailored prevention and treatment approaches.