There is a lot of talk about screens’ effects on mental health. But how does it happen? And are you in control of how you scroll?

Amplify’s innovation practice, FUTURES, has collaborated with Kai Lab’s creative technologist, Sean Malikides to create the DoomScroller robot. The initiative, which is supported by NABS, the advertising industry’s wellbeing charity, promotes the importance of intentional scrolling on social media.

The project film features the DoomScroller robot prototype measuring social media behaviour and giving a receipt on the user’s mental health. The aim isn’t to demonise social media, instead, it aims to highlight how everyone can scroll more intentionally.

Amplify FUTURES and Sean Malikides built a prototype DoomScroller to prove their hypothesis that understanding our online actions will allow us to have greater control. Merging the physical and digital worlds, the DoomScroller allows viewers to see a greater cause and effect of digital actions, making actions in the digital world visible. 

Ed Hallam, FUTURES leader and Amplify innovation creative director, stated, “The DoomScroller is an incredibly exciting prototype from our newly formed innovation practice Amplify FUTURES. We’re thrilled to have collaborated with Sean Malikides to explore our relationships with the digital world, challenging the status quo for social media behaviours and adding real weight to our actions online – these are all principles that make for a FUTURES experiment that puts people at the centre.”

Lou Thomspon, marketing director, NABS, added, “Mental health issues continue to rise in our industry with many factors contributing to this, we continue to see this upward trend on our Advice Line, with emotional support being the top reason for contact – representing one-third of the 4,500 calls we took last year. To thrive we need to put conversations and action about improving our collective mental wellness at the heart of what we do. At NABS our purpose is to advance the mental wellness of our industry community. It’s great to have FUTURES contributing towards this.”