How often do you “doom scroll” and feel all kinds of bad about it afterward? Maybe the act of fruitlessly falling down one online rabbit hole after another just makes you think about all of the other things you could be doing with your time. So many of us do it (you’re def not alone) — but did you also know how bad your scrolling habits can be for your phone battery? Tech experts clued us in on why scrolling is worse that you thought — and the one worst scrolling habit of all that can result in a dwindling phone battery.
Scrolling Continuously On Social Media
Constant scrolling — even if it’s on shopping and news sites, is draining your battery, but it actually gets much worse when you’re scrolling social media sites. “According to a study conducted by the battery company Mophie, scrolling through your social media feeds uses up twice as much battery as reading an article or viewing a video,” said Tech Expert James Calderon at Alrigh.com. “When you scroll through your feeds, you’re constantly launching and closing apps, loading new content, and refreshing your screen. This process uses up a lot of battery power.”
And, according to Tech Expert Ronald Ander, the CEO of SEOAnt, TikTok is one of the worst social media offenders when it comes to battery drainage.
“As with many other social apps, using TikTok requires constant internet connectivity, screen use, video recording, and playback of online content, which significantly drains the battery,” Ander said. “TikTok’s battery drain is also due to:
- Notification-TikTok has an exceptionally high volume of notifications based on the same topic.
- TikTok videos play in a continuous loop. It loads the previous and next videos simultaneously while streaming and keeps going until you pause it. Also, the clip is loaded every time you swipe up or down, and because it’s a short film, the whole thing is streamed at once, which uses a lot more data and drastically drains the battery.”
- If you are one of many TikTok users who stares at the app until your battery is discharged to zero percent, Ander warns that this accelerates the cathode’s mechanical deterioration. “If this keeps happening, the battery’s capacity to hold energy decreases,” Ander said. “So, plug it in for a charge whenever your phone’s battery life drops below 15 percent. In that case, you will need to have the battery replaced.”
You can reduce TikTok’s battery consumption by disabling unwanted alarms and limiting its use, Ander says.
And, of course, limiting the overall amount of time you spend scrolling is the best cure of all.
