If you find yourself constantly “doom-scrolling” on your phone, a new app promises to pull you from mindlessness to mindfulness.
Researchers at the University of Waterloo in Canada have unveiled Mindful Scroll, a mobile app that encourages users to “fill in endlessly scrolling patterns of geometric shapes using predetermined, soothing colour palettes,” according to its creators.
In a video that shows the app in action, the narrator says the goal of the app is to “cultivate an uninterrupted state of flow and relaxation.”
A group of 28 people tested the app by using it for 10 minutes a day over a period of five weeks. All the participants reported feeling more mindful and less anxious when they used the app. They also all agreed that they would use the app again.
In creating the app, the researchers tried to model their approach after the success of adult coloring books.
The researchers also added features to keep users in a relaxed frame of mind. For instance, if you color too quickly, the app’s brush grows smaller in an effort to get you to slow down.
In a press release, Saralin Zassman, first author of the study and a recent computer science master’s graduate, said:
“So many of us struggle with endlessly, mindlessly scrolling using social media apps like TikTok, Instagram, and Twitter. Mindful Scroll unites art and computer science to help turn that scrolling into something healthier.”
