Doomscroll Cost Calculator
Read this before you start
This is arithmetic, not a verdict. It multiplies the minutes you enter out over a year, and adds a refocus estimate for the sessions you report: research tracking real, interrupted workers found it takes a substantial stretch of time, on the order of 20-plus minutes, to fully regain focus after switching away. This calculator counts that cost once per scrolling session, not once per glance, so it will not overstate a habit of frequent short checks.
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Where does the 23 minute refocus estimate come from?
From the same body of research this site's own guide on attention residue cites: Gloria Mark's research tracking real, interrupted workers, reported in a 2023 University of California interview. That guide rounds the same research to about 25 minutes. This calculator uses 23 minutes, the figure most often quoted from Mark's original tracked-worker studies. Both describe the same underlying finding, that regaining full focus after switching away takes on the order of 20-plus minutes, and neither claims more precision than that.
Why once per session, not once per glance?
Because a burst of quick glances inside one sitting is not the same as leaving and returning cold. This calculator asks for your rough number of separate scrolling sessions in a day, meaning distinct times you picked the phone up to scroll, and charges the refocus cost once per session, which is the more defensible reading of the underlying research.
Does anything I type here get saved or sent anywhere?
No. The whole calculation runs in your browser in plain JavaScript. This page makes no network request of any kind while you use it, and writes nothing to storage. Refresh the page and the numbers reset to the defaults.
Sources
- Capuano, C. (2023), "Can't Pay Attention? You're Not Alone", University of California. Interview with Gloria Mark: her research tracking real workers found it takes on the order of 20-plus minutes to return to an interrupted project.