Obsessively checking negative news online feels like something that should be avoided – but it is strangely soothing for many. Doomscrolling – or the compulsion to check bad news online without pause – saw a rise during the pandemic, and it is now a habit that many cannot seem to let go of. In the age of social media, we find ourselves trawling through online feeds and despite an endless stream of bad news, we just keep scrolling. The question then is, why do we carry on doing something that intuitively makes us feel bad? And while these online platforms, owned by the superrich, are making us more anxious and miserable, the currency for these platforms is people’s attention – they don’t care what you pay attention to – as long as you do. It may also explain why the superrich are building doomsday bunkers in New Zealand, an escape from the inevitable chaos their greed helped create.

Apocalypse Maybe is a documentary series exploring why, in the presence of cascading global crises, many feel that we might be living in the end times.