3 min readInterior content is booming on social media. If hashtags are still anything to go by, Instagram alone hosts tens of millions of posts showcasing stylish, meticulously curated homes—perfect conditions for losing hours to decorating inspiration. But while room scrolling is arguably far less detrimental than falling into a vortex of negative news (aka “doomscrolling”), designers are critical of the habit.
The term doomscrolling emerged during the pandemic, when social media usage reached an all-time high. It quickly became clear that hours-long scrolling sessions, fueled by infinite feeds, could take a toll on mental well-being, prompting a wider conversation about digital habits.
Six years on, we're arguably more aware of social media's downsides. A recent Ofcom survey suggests far fewer adults are actively engaging with social media: less than half of respondents said they post on platforms like Instagram and Facebook, down from 61 percent the previous year.
Screen times may be shifting, but social media remains embedded in daily life—and not every kind of internet behavior is necessarily negative. Take, for example, “room scrolling,” a brand-new buzzword born from the explosive volume of interiors content online. Instagram alone boasts over 40 million posts dedicated to beautifully decorated homes—enough material to keep interior-obsessed eyes glued to the screen for hours.
Unlike doomscrolling, browsing pretty interiors rarely leaves you feeling anxious about the state of the world. A quick pulse check of my own Instagram following confirmed that frequent immersion in internet interiors isn't an immediate cause for concern.
“It makes me excited about designing my own future home,” one friend told me. Another described scrolling sessions as a source of inspiration for their work as a curator of small art exhibitions, while a third framed it as a form of escapism.
So far, so harmless. However, designers see it differently. “I feel these tiny decorating images...give little sense of how a room unfolds visually in person. To me, they just do not convey a real understanding of the intricate, complex layers of a fully decorated room,” acclaimed American interior designer Markham Roberts wrote in a recent column for Veranda magazine, noting the value of experiencing interiors in a more tactile, authentic way.
Even for nonprofessionals, room scrolling can have its pitfalls. Lisa Hensby, founder of her eponymous interior design studio, acknowledges that social media can help establish a shared visual language between designer and client, but warns that overconsumption can muddle personal taste.
“When you're consuming hundreds of spaces in a single sitting, everything starts to blur into one aesthetic. The same limewash walls, the same bouclé sofa, the same dried pampas in a terra-cotta pot,” she tells me. “What feels inspiring in isolation can quickly turn into a sense that your home isn't quite enough. And that's a problem, because the spaces that go viral are almost always styled within an inch of their lives for a camera, not to be lived in.”
The result, she adds, is often a loss of confidence in one's own style—something Lisa observes in her own clients. “They've scrolled so much that they no longer trust what they actually love. They only recognize what's performing well online that week,” she says.
It may sound harsh, but if genuine decorating inspiration is the aim, then consuming content with intention is key. “Save what genuinely stops you mid-thumb, not what you think you should want,” Lisa advises. “Notice whether it's the color, the light, the furniture arrangement, or simply the feeling a space gives you. That's your real brief.”
It's a familiar notion but one that simply holds true: a home should feel like the person who lives in it and not, as Lisa puts it, “like a moodboard that's been shared 40,000 times.” After all, the goal should be a home worth living in, not just worth looking at.
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