When Srishti Karmakar, a development sector professional from Chembur, got an alert about militants testing positive for the virus, she couldn't stop reading about it. While she always keeps track of news, she's found that her consumption has been on the rise in the past few months. "When I read about this news, I freaked out, locked myself in and ordered a pepper spray. I started thinking that my house could be attacked," says the 25-year-old. She adds that despite realising it was affecting her sleep cycle and mental health, she couldn't stop herself from tracking the news. Turns out, Karmakar isn't alone. In fact, there's a word, or two, to describe this compulsive need to keep reading article after article or plumbing the depths of Twitter for updates on the pandemic; it's called doomscrolling and doomsurfing."

Recently, American publishing house Merriam-Webster noted the two terms on its blog, Words We're Watching. "Doomscrolling and doomsurfing are new terms referring to the tendency to continue to surf or scroll through bad news, even though that news is saddening, disheartening, or depressing. Many people are finding themselves continuously reading bad news about COVID-19 without the ability to step back," the blog defined the terms. While Merriam-Webster is yet to officially add the words to the dictionary, the usage of both has picked up amid the pandemic, and searches in India peaked between June and August, according to Google Trends.