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It took more than two decades of web surfing and a second presidential term for the increasingly unhinged Donald Trump, but I have finally reached the conclusion that constant connection to a feed of news, chatter and apocalyptic threats might not be the best thing for my long-term mental health, or anyone else’s either.

To that end, I’ve gone through a process of selective unplugging, removing as much of the feed and its algorithms from my life as a person can who makes his living writing about the news on the internet. I’ve even ditched most of my streaming services in favor of a physical media collection and the DVDs on offer from the local library. 

I stopped relying on algorithmic music discovery tools built into platforms like Spotify, partially because it tended to feed me new songs too similar to the ones I already liked. Instead, I’ve reverted back to an .mp3 blog era relic called Hype Machine. This still-functioning aggregator maintains a music-focused blogroll. If I want to hear what people are buzzing about, I can just click play, and the app runs through new tracks in chronological posting order.

I’ve subscribed to several physical magazines and a few online publications, turning to them when I just want to read something, with the understanding that whatever they’ve put out is likely to be smart. Taken together, its obvious that my ultimate goal is to eliminate doomscrolling, a relatively recent online innovation that’s become the primary way many people interact with the internet. Still, all the sharp commentary and new music in the world can’t provide the jolt of algorithmic chaos offered by spaces like X and Instagram, where any single post may introduce you to something extremely weird and entirely new. But I found a suitable substitute in physical space, projected on the wall of a nearly empty bar earlier this month.

EXP TV is an online television channel that collects and shares video ephemera in a 24/7 stream. At any given hour, the channel might be playing French ye-ye videos, amateur short  horror films, Bollywood outtakes or remixed personal-injury attorney ads. Most of its day consists of of an endless mixtape of quick, unidentified clips. At night, the programming blocks are more selectively curated around themes like Bigfoot, public access television or montages of commercials for 900-line psychics, comedians and bookmakers.

Anyone familiar with the archival work of Everything Is Terrible! or the lo-fi style of Tim and Eric probably already has some idea of what this channel typically offers.  During a recent watch I encountered a novelty song about a potato by Italian pop star Rita Pavone, an art film about old men on a boat who suddenly found themselves turned inside out by the sun and a news segment about a collector of miniature animatronics who has sloppily restored some truly nightmarish, lifelike monkeys using found bits of leather. It’s fun, it’s upsetting and it’s easy to turn on and off. It’s what some of us briefly believed, or at least hoped, the internet would be.

Getting through an era where an increasingly senile strongman can promise the end of days in a message typed with his thumbs will require each of us to control our personal level of acceptable chaos. Finding ways to remove yourself from the constant chatter of a globally connected world that is also on fire is a necessity. If your brain’s been rewired by the endless scroll to seek out weird and new things, going cold turkey is inadvisable. You’re going to need the equivalent of a former smoker’s toothpick or chewing gum to wean yourself off the information firehose. I’m not saying this will work for everyone, but I’ve found my own personal methadone  turning my eyeballs over to art-damaged archivists whenever I feel that irresistible itch.

What do you think? Do you have any doomscroll detox methods that work? Sound off in the comments.

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