Abstract

In Touching Grass: A Book of Comics (2026), Rachita Taneja looks at a familiar part of digital life: we have constant access to information, but that does not always help us understand what is happening or know what to do next. This paper reads doomscrolling as more than spending too much time on a phone. It is also an emotional and political condition shaped by the digital spectacle. Through Taneja’s reflections on phone use, COVID-19, notifications, engagement metrics, rage bait, misinformation, and political paralysis, the paper explores how the nezaed to stay informed can turn into exhaustion. I draw on Guy Debord’s idea of the spectacle, research on digital affect and the attention economy, studies of doom scrolling and rage bait, and Nancy Fraser’s idea of subaltern counter publics. I closely read the prose on pages 38–43 and selected comics about gendered media attention, patriarchy, political silence, misinformation, online misogyny, and advertising. I argue that “touching grass” is not about simply rejecting digital media. It is about reconnecting what we see online with embodied awareness, solidarity, and action in the world.