90% of People Are Doom-Scrolling Wrong — Here’s How to Bill It as Research

By Del.GG Research Team | February 13, 2026 | 5 min read

I just received a bill for $4,300. It wasn't from the IRS, and I didn't buy a used Honda Civic. It was a receipt from my own iPhone.

According to the DataReportal Global Digital Overview, the average human surrendered nearly 2.5 hours daily to screens in 2024. Most people call this a "bad habit." Economists call it Opportunity Cost. I call it financial negligence.

The Doom-Scroll Invoice Generator connects to your Screen Time API to calculate the exact dollar amount of your distraction. It puts a price tag on the infinite scroll mechanics designed by Aza Raskin—a UI pattern he now famously regrets, likening it to "behavioral cocaine" sprinkled over your interface.

The dominant narrative—pushed by the "digital wellness" crowd—tells you to disconnect. They are wrong. In 2026, you can't afford to disconnect. The secret isn't abstinence; it's auditing. You are currently doom-scrolling for free. Here is how to start billing for it.

The Feed-to-Fee Pipeline

Stop treating your screen time as a moral failing. It’s an inventory management problem. You are fighting against the Center for Humane Technology's worst nightmare: an Attention Economy designed to extract your time like a strip mine extracts coal.

When you stare at TikTok for an hour, you are engaging in labor. You are tagging data, training algorithms, and viewing ads. The platform is monetizing you. The Doom-Scroll Invoice Generator reverses the polarity. It forces you to answer a single, expensive question: Was this scrolling session Market Research or Numbing?

If you can't prove it was research, you owe your future self the money.

Nir Eyal wrote the book on how to build habit-forming products (Hooked). He explained the Variable Ratio Schedule—the same psychological trick used in slot machines. You pull the lever (swipe down), and sometimes you get a prize (a funny video), usually you get junk. That uncertainty keeps you pulling.

The Invoice Generator breaks that Dopamine Feedback Loop by assigning a fixed cost to every pull of the lever. It turns the slot machine into a parking meter. The moment you see a bill for $357 for a Tuesday morning spent on X (formerly Twitter), the dopamine dries up fast.

Foraging vs. Numbing: The Taxonomy of the Scroll

Most productivity tools, like RescueTime, give you pretty charts showing where your time went. They are passive. They are polite. This tool is neither.

To turn this "vice" into a virtue, you must adopt the Feed-to-Fee workflow. This requires a hard split in how you categorize your digital behavior:

• The Numbing Mode (Billable to You): This is Revenge Bedtime Procrastination. It’s 11:30 PM. You are watching hydraulic press videos. You are not learning; you are sedating. The Invoice Generator flags this time at your full hourly freelance rate. It hurts because it should.
• The Foraging Mode (Billable to "Client"): This is active hunting. You are looking for competitor ad creatives, trending audio for your brand channel, or UX patterns to steal. This is valid work, but only if you document it.

The "Reverse-Invoice" methodology demands proof of work. Did you spot a trend? Great. Did you capture it to Notion or Trello? No? Then it wasn't research. It was entertainment. Pay up.

How to Rig the Game

Cal Newport advocates for Digital Minimalism, but let's be real: total abstinence is for monks and tenured professors. For the rest of us in the trenches of the gig economy, we need to monetize our consumption.

Here is the proprietary "Scroll-to-Billable" ratio you need to maintain to stay in the black:

1. The 10:1 Rule: For every 10 minutes of scrolling, you must produce 1 minute of actionable insight. A screenshot, a saved link, a voice memo.
2. The Capture Shortcut: Configure your phone so a triple-tap sends the current screen to your project management tool. If the friction to save an idea is higher than the friction to keep scrolling, you will lose.
3. The Weekly Audit: Friday at 4 PM. Review the invoice. If your "Numbing" total exceeds 10% of your weekly income, you aren't burned out—you're bankrupting your own potential.

Your attention is the only currency you actually own. Silicon Valley is betting billions that they can steal it from you without you noticing. The Doom-Scroll Invoice Generator is just the receipt.