scroll through social media

Meaning

To spend time looking at different posts, photos, or videos on social networks by moving down the screen. It often implies doing this casually or mindlessly to pass the time.

Examples

• I often scroll through social media for half an hour before going to sleep.

  I often scroll through social media for half an hour before going to sleep.

• Instead of studying, he spent the whole afternoon scrolling through social media.

  Instead of studying, he spent the whole afternoon scrolling through social media.

• I caught myself scrolling through social media during the meeting, so I put my phone away.

  I caught myself scrolling through social media during the meeting, so I put my phone away.

• Do you ever just scroll through social media when you're bored?

  Do you ever just scroll through social media when you're bored?

• She was scrolling through social media and found a really cool recipe to try.

  She was scrolling through social media and found a really cool recipe to try.

Common Mistakes

• ✗ I was scrolling social media last night.

  ✓ I was scrolling through social media last night.

  We use the preposition 'through' after 'scroll' when talking about browsing social media platforms.

• ✗ She likes to scroll on social media.

  ✓ She likes to scroll through social media.

  While you can scroll 'on' a phone, the standard phrase for browsing the feed is 'scroll through social media'.

Related Expressions

Practice

• Instead of working, I ended up spending an hour to ___.

  💡 To look through apps on your phone casually.

  Show answer

  scroll through social media

• It's not a good habit to ___ right before you go to bed.

  💡 Look at social apps on your screen.

  Show answer

  scroll through social media