The Doomscrolling Couple: Spending Time Together on Different Screens

In 2025, a lot of couples end their day the same way: lying in bed, each silently scrolling through an endless stream of bad news. They’re physically together, but emotionally somewhere else.

Licensed Marriage & Family Therapist Gaea Woods sees this pattern constantly in her practice — and says doomscrolling has become a quiet third party in many relationships.

“Phones are killing interpersonal relationships — not because tech is evil, but because we use it unconsciously at the moments connection matters most,” she says. “Even something as simple as being on your phone at dinner is a way to express, ‘I’m more interested in my phone than I am in you.’”

Instead of talking about their day, fears, or plans, partners lie next to each other consuming the same distressing content, letting shared anxiety take the place of actual conversation.

Research on doomscrolling backs up what Woods sees in the therapy room. Studies and reviews have found that compulsively consuming negative news online is linked with higher anxiety, depression, stress, sadness, and feelings of overwhelm, and even existential anxiety and pessimism about life.

“Doomscrolling feels like you’re staying informed together,” Woods says, “but what’s really happening is that both nervous systems are getting more activated while neither partner is actually talking about what they’re feeling.”

Relationship science adds another important piece: phubbing — phone snubbing during interactions. Multiple studies (including a recent meta-analysis published by Frontiers in Psychology) show that partner phubbing is associated with lower relationship and marital satisfaction, less intimacy and emotional closeness, and more conflict and jealousy.

Woods describes what that looks like in real life:

“You pick up your phone instead of saying, ‘That hurt my feelings.’ Your partner wonders, ‘Is she okay? Is he mad at me?’ and then they grab their phone too. Suddenly you’re two people on your phones instead of two people connecting.”

Her core message for couples and for journalists covering modern relationships is that: scrolling together isn’t the same as being together. When screens become a third party at the table or in bed, intimacy quietly leaves the room.

Featured Expert

• Gaea Woods, MA, LMFT – Licensed Marriage & Family Therapist specializing in digital dependency, intimacy and communication. She speaks to how doomscrolling and phone use act as a “third party” in relationships, why scrolling side-by-side increases emotional loneliness, and the practical phone rules that help couples rebuild genuine connection.

Expert interviews can be arranged through the Offline.now media team.