Kinda but it was always very limited. If you had a subscription then you would read what you have, but that would probably be only a few magazines a month. If you were in some waiting room you might “doom scroll” but only until you are done waiting. The closest thing would be heavy readers who would read books for hours and always have another on the list. But you can hardly call reading a book “doom scrolling”. So really, doom scrolling is limited to digital content, Usually social media.

I once moved into a house that had been lived in by a very elderly person. In the kitchen there was a pincushion hanging on the wall that was covered in death notices clipped from the newspaper. Kind of like doom scrolling, just super personal. Watching everyone you knew die, until it was your turn.

I’ve made myself sad all over again. :(

Maybe not, but they definitely did with television.

Nope. Paper material ends fairly quickly, and changing pages provides a measurable progression. Doom scrolling goes essentially forever, with no sense of progression

Cartoon published in 1910. What do you think?

Note: Spain did NOT in fact, blowup that ship.