Communications Major

Your phone alarm goes off at 6 in the morning. You check some news sites and Facebook. It’s bad news after bad news.

Coronavirus cases keep climbing, and so do deaths. Children can’t go back to school. Your favorite restaurant and barbershop are still closed. People are losing their jobs.

Everything is awful. The world as we remember it has ended. Next thing you know, it’s 9 a.m. You haven’t climbed out of your pit of despair yet to even shower. You repeat this masochistic exercise during your lunch break — and again while getting ready for bed.

This experience of sinking into emotional quicksand while bingeing on doom-and-gloom news is so common that there’s now internet lingo for it: “doomscrolling.”

The one category among these that feels like a genuine trend—one not bolstered by Apple’s own apps or APIs—is mental health and mindfulness. As its Editor’s Pick in this category—and, on top of that, its App of the Year—Apple selected Calm. The app, which debuted in 2012, includes guided meditations ranging in time from three to 25 minutes, “Sleep Stories” to wind you down at the end of the day, breathing exercises, and music selections to help you relax, focus, or sleep.

On Pinterest, followers can choose from the wisdom of Shakespeare — or Elizabeth Taylor. These pop-philosophy quotes, like "Keep calm and carry on" or “Pour yourself a drink, put on some lipstick, and pull yourself together," serve as a form of group therapy on Pinterest. They have become so popular that a Quotes category was spun off in July, and now accounts for about 10 percent of Pinterest’s traffic,