When Scrolling Hurts

Pauline Kire
Sep 19
5 min read

A man lying on a couch scrolling on his phone, reflecting the endless stream of social media content that can mix joy with trauma and leave a lasting impact on the mind and heart.

The past couple of days, our timelines have been filled with heartbreaking videos and images from tragic events in America. In between the funny skits, cooking hacks, and inspirational quotes, we’re suddenly hit with raw footage of violence, grief, and loss. No warnings. No filters. Just pain, right there on our screens.

And here’s the hard truth: our minds are not designed to absorb this much trauma, this often.

A Personal Wake-Up Call

I remember during the last elections here in Uganda, my Facebook feed became unbearable. Video after video showed scenes of brutality on our very streets — people hurt, people bleeding, people crying. And these weren’t tucked away behind age restrictions or warnings. They were everywhere. Shared by friends, strangers, even people I trusted.

I didn’t leave Facebook because I didn’t care. I left because I realized something important: my soul was choking on what my eyes were consuming.

The Bible reminds us: “Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it” (Proverbs 4:23). Our eyes and ears are gates. What we allow through them doesn’t just vanish — it settles into our hearts, shapes our thoughts, stirs our emotions, and sometimes leaves scars we don’t even realize we carry.

That’s why, as Uganda approaches another election season early next year, I’ve already made my choice: I will guard my eye gates and ear gates. I will step away if I need to. Because protecting my inner peace is just as important as locking my front door at night.

The Hidden Cost of Traumatic Content

We often think trauma is only about what happens to us directly. But repeated exposure to violent or disturbing content online can wound us just as deeply. Psychologists even have a name for it — secondary trauma or vicarious trauma.

For adults, this can mean constant anxiety, sleepless nights, heightened fear, or even emotional numbness. The more we see, the more we start to believe that violence is the whole story of the world. Hope fades. Trust crumbles.
For children, the effects can be devastating. Their brains are still forming, their sense of safety still fragile. A single shocking video can play on repeat in their minds, leaving them fearful to go outside, distrustful of people, or quietly anxious without knowing why.

And here’s what’s alarming: our kids don’t have to go searching for this content. It finds them. The algorithms are designed to push what gets attention — and that often means fear, shock, and pain.

To Those Who Share the Pain

I need to speak to you directly. Yes, you — the one who sees a horrifying clip and feels the urge to hit share.

Before you do, pause. Ask yourself: What am I really sharing?

Behind that video is a real human being. Someone’s son. Someone’s mother. Someone’s child. When you forward their last moments, you are not amplifying justice — you are multiplying trauma. You are handing someone else’s grief to the world, and to children who never asked to carry it.

If your goal is awareness, there are better ways. Share verified news reports, support victims’ families, or use your platform to amplify voices calling for peace and accountability. But please — stop turning tragedy into content. Compassion must come before clicks.

To the Platforms: Have the Algorithms Failed Us?

And to the social media giants — yes, I’m looking at you, Mark Zuckerberg, and every leader behind these platforms: you need to do better.

Your algorithms are built to keep us scrolling, and what keeps us scrolling is what shocks us, angers us, or scares us. That’s why violent videos spread faster than stories of hope. But when a child in Uganda, or anywhere in the world, sees someone’s death on repeat because it “trends,” it is not just bad content — it’s digital trauma, at scale.

Mark, if you ever read this: the world is tired of begging platforms to remove content that should never be online in the first place. This is your moment to be more than a CEO. Be the change we all want to see.

A Call to Parents, Caregivers & Guardians

As guardians, we can’t afford to be passive. Social media is not a neutral space — it’s a stream of influences flowing straight into our families’ hearts.

Here’s how we can respond:

Know their world – Don’t just hand over devices. Sit with your children, explore what they watch, and understand the platforms they’re on.
Talk it through – When they see something disturbing, don’t shut them down. Ask: How did that make you feel? Give them language to process what they’ve seen.
Set boundaries – Use parental controls, mute harmful accounts, and set healthy screen-time limits.
Guard your own gates – If you’re doomscrolling, they’ll notice. Choose to unplug, read, rest, or fill your feed with content that brings life, not despair.
Be intentional in what you share – Before you repost, pause. If it doesn’t heal, inform responsibly, or uplift — maybe it’s not worth sharing.

This is exactly what we emphasize at TheCyberMamushka: cybersecurity is not just about protecting passwords and accounts — it’s about protecting the heart of the family in the digital age. What we consume online either builds us up or breaks us down.

Guard Your Heart

The Bible says it best: “Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it” (Proverbs 4:23). In a world where our eyes and ears are constantly bombarded with noise, images, and voices, guarding our hearts isn’t passive — it’s an active, daily choice.

As we step into another election season here in Uganda, we know what’s coming. The hashtags, the images, the videos. This time, let’s choose differently. Let’s guard our hearts and the hearts of our children. Let’s break the cycle of trauma-sharing and replace it with truth, wisdom, and hope.

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