Asian Journal of Arts, Humanities and Social Studies

Doomscrolling and Anxiety Disorders Among Young Adults in the Digital Era: Psychological and Behavioural Implications

2026-06-22T08:48:29+00:00

The contemporary digital information environment has transformed media consumption patterns by increasing exposure to continuously updated online content. Although digital platforms have improved access to information and social interaction, they have also intensified information overload and exposure to distressing material. Within this context, doomscrolling has emerged as a pattern of repeatedly consuming negative or threatening information through digital media. It is described as habitual and immersive scanning of timely negative information on social media newsfeeds, characterised by repetitive and difficult-to-control engagement with distressing digital content. This narrative review examines the relationship between doomscrolling and anxiety among young adults, with attention to cognitive, emotional and behavioural mechanisms that may sustain anxiety-related processes. Literature was retrieved from PubMed, Web of Science and Google Scholar, and peer-reviewed studies published between 2020 and 2025 were narratively synthesised. The review also considers the digital conditions that reinforce doomscrolling, including algorithmic exposure, information overload and compulsive checking patterns. The reviewed evidence suggests that the relationship between doomscrolling and anxiety disorders is complex and multidimensional. Reported psychological and behavioural implications include heightened worry, emotional fatigue, cognitive overload, sleep disturbance, reduced concentration, compulsive media checking and social withdrawal. The findings indicate that doomscrolling should not be understood solely as excessive screen use, but as a digitally embedded behaviour shaped by individual vulnerability, crisis-related uncertainty and platform design. However, much of the current evidence remains correlational, limiting causal interpretation. A clearer understanding of doomscrolling-related anxiety may support conceptual development, inform targeted interventions and guide digital well-being strategies for young adults in contemporary media environments.

The Pursuit of Euphoria: An Integrated Biopsychosocial Framework for Understanding Substance Abuse

2026-07-20T13:25:29+00:00

Substance abuse remains a major global public health challenge, contributing substantially to preventable morbidity, premature mortality, and socioeconomic burden. Although considerable advances have been made in addiction research, existing models predominantly examine the social, psychological, and neurobiological determinants of substance use in isolation, providing limited insight into how these domains interact to drive the transition from initial substance use to compulsive dependence. This narrative review addresses this conceptual gap by proposing an integrated framework that positions the pursuit of euphoria as a unifying mechanism linking these multidimensional determinants across the addiction continuum. A structured literature search was conducted in PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, and Google Scholar, drawing on peer-reviewed and seminal publications. Evidence was synthesised thematically to identify interactions among social, psychological, and neurobiological factors relevant to substance use initiation, escalation, and dependence. The review demonstrates that the pursuit of euphoria is a dynamic motivational process shaped by reciprocal interactions among environmental influences, psychological vulnerabilities, and neurobiological adaptations. Social determinants influence exposure to psychoactive substances and reward expectations; psychological processes regulate emotional coping, motivation, and decision-making; and neurobiological changes progressively reinforce craving, compulsive drug-seeking, and dependence. Rather than viewing these determinants as independent pathways, the proposed framework conceptualises them as an interconnected system that explains the progression from voluntary substance use to addiction. By integrating these traditionally separate domains within a single conceptual model, this framework provides a clearer basis for interdisciplinary addiction research, supports the development of precision-informed prevention and personalised treatment strategies, and offers a conceptual foundation for evidence-informed public health policy.

Decline, Otherness, and Symbolic Space in Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard and Coetzee’s Waiting for the Barbarians

2026-07-17T11:59:55+00:00

This study comparatively examines how social decline, otherness, and identity are represented in Anton Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard and J. M. Coetzee’s Waiting for the Barbarians. Although both works have been widely discussed in relation to historical change, power, and moral conflict, less attention has been given to the ways in which weakening structures of authority reshape identity through symbolic space. Using qualitative comparative literary analysis, the study applies close reading informed by new historicist and postcolonial perspectives. The analysis focuses on institutional decline, identity formation, symbolic space, and the relationship between individual agency and structural complicity. In The Cherry Orchard, the sale and destruction of the orchard signify the erosion of aristocratic privilege, inherited memory, and cultural authority, while Lopakhin’s rise reveals the tensions between economic mobility and social belonging. In Waiting for the Barbarians, the Empire sustains its authority by constructing culturally diverse frontier communities as a threatening Other, and the Magistrate’s moral conflict exposes the instability of imperial power. The orchard and the desert function as contrasting symbolic spaces: the orchard preserves memory while revealing the historical burden of privilege, whereas the desert exposes territorial uncertainty, restricted imperial knowledge, and coercive classification. The comparison shows that decline is represented not as a single universal process but as historically distinct forms of social and moral instability. By bringing the two works together, the study demonstrates how changing relations of property, territory, memory, and power unsettle personal identity, cultural belonging, and ethical responsibility across different literary and historical contexts.