Doomscrolling for hope

In this commentary, I explore brainrot by analysing the relationship between ‘doomscrolling’ and the TikTok trend in ‘hopecore’ content. Where doomscrolling is presented as engendering a wide range of social and personal ills, hopecore is typically seen as the antidote to a wider world shaped by crisis. Using hopecore to intervene in discussions of brainrot, this commentary analyses hopecore through feminist accounts of hope, providing ways of reframing the continuum of hope and hopelessness. I argue that the crises shaping the affective feeling rules of both doomscrolling and hopecore are similar; furthermore, I identify the capacity for hopefulness in hopecore that challenges brainrot as merely passive consumption.