Team Cosmo’s most embarrassing doomscrolling addictions, revealed

Instagram is essentially a very sophisticated time machine: enter for five minutes, and emerge three hours later. “Just one more reel” has probably ruined more bedtimes than we’d like to admit. If you’ve ever fallen into the inexplicable spiral of checking a DM one minute, and within the next you’re 64 reels deep and somehow an expert on a subject you had never heard of that morning, welcome to the club. 

What’s my pleasure? A quick look at my explore feed reveals a broad spectrum, from endless recipe videos, book recommendations, spiritual guidance, beautiful stationery shops, and those “pack a four scoop gift order with me!” Truly, I can spend hours down any of these paths. And so, I started thinking: wouldn’t it be really interesting to know what everyone turns to to tune out the noise?

In that spirit, Team Cosmo shares the corners of Instagram that they can never resist watching, and honestly, some of these are dangerously relatable.

Sonal Ved, digital editor 

“I’m addicted to watching smoothie reels. There’s something so satisfying about the perfectly chopped fruit, the blender whirl, and those insanely pretty layers. I’ve gone from simply watching them to saving recipes, experimenting with combinations and making my own at home. It’s colourful, soothing and delicious.”

Rucha Sharma, digital managing editor

I have spent most of my adult life playing with my pet dogs and caring for streeties. Grooming them has been my biggest challenge, and that's saying something when I have cared for them through the worst of virus outbreaks. Moving to Mumbai and the space constraint that came with it made me leave my dogs behind with my family.

While I don't have to chase them for baths anymore, I miss smooshing their faces with mine, running my fingers through their fur, and making strange sounds to earn an adorable head tilt.

So if I am not scrolling down social media to look at the current cultural conversation, my hands will always stop when a dog grooming video appears on the feed. The care and the effort that goes into turning the good boys into handsome doggos fills me with joy. I get floored when I see a matted coat transform into a shiny back or the softest fluff. Trimmed paws, glossy boofers, and happy tails are a good antidote to the stress and pressures of the day.

Shreya Shah, digital assistant editor 

Watching recipe videos is something I can completely lose myself into, especially those cute tiny kitchens, where everything is sweetly miniature.

From four baby pennes cooked to al-dente perfection in pastel bowls the size of your thumb, to baking a chocolate cake that could fit into your palm, mini ice-creams and a perfectly crafted cold coffee in a cup the size of my attention span, the sparrow proportions just have a special place in my heart.

The subtle crunch, crackle and sizzle allow me to forget about my midnight snack cravings (well, almost!) or, you know, head to the kitchen to whip up a chic little plate.

Schenelle Dsouza, junior features editor

I love the ocean so much that even the scary bits fascinate me. I can spend hours doomscrolling through nightmarish reels about the North Sea, conspiracy theories about the Bermuda Triangle, why Point Nemo is supposedly one of the deadliest places to be stranded, the millions of shipwrecks sitting at the bottom of the ocean, and, of course, the whole “NASA stopped exploring the ocean” rabbit hole.

Most people find this stuff creepy or disturbing, and I’m not saying I’m above that, but there’s something so thrilling about watching these terrifying ocean videos. Not to mention it makes me glad I'm stuck on land and not cruising a deadly ocean.

Sagarika Chaudhary, features writer 

My guilty pleasure is definitely watching plant-care videos on Instagram. I can go hours watching people grow plants from scratch, repot their plants, propagate cuttings, or revive a sad-looking plant back to life. I especially get sucked into videos about propagating plants in water and I end up convincing myself I need to try it with every plant I own.

I literally start watching a random reel and next thing you know, I've spent an hour watching 50 reels of people trying to grow new leaves out of their Monsteras.

Santya Ahuja, junior writer

My guilty pleasure, if I really had to confess, would be scrolling through Dua Lipa’s Instagram. I could scroll through her entire feed for days, and, honestly, I kind of do look at it every day. She’s just everything: beautiful to look at, always on the most gorgeous beaches wearing the best bikinis, taking the most aesthetic pictures. At its simplest, I think I just want to be her, or at least look like her, if I could.

Tanmay Dinesh Ashar, social media manager

I can spend hours watching videos of gorgeous hotels, private villas and hidden luxury escapes across India. I’ll start by looking up one beautiful resort in Udaipur or the Himalayas, and suddenly I’m deep into hotel tours, obsessing over the interiors and mentally planning a trip I haven’t even booked.

Sidhi Goel, social media executive 

I love reels where I can find myself getting emotionally attached to cities that are shot aesthetically. Suddenly, I’m romanticising a place, planning an imaginary trip and convincing myself that I belong there. Give me cobblestone streets, golden-hour light, tiny cafés and a dreamy soundtrack, and I may not have booked the flight yet, but emotionally, I’ve already moved.

Eesha Jain, social media executive

I can get completely lost watching animal and baby videos, especially babies trying different foods, attempting to pronounce words, or saying funny things. On the animal side, it’s everything from adorable animal babies to videos of a dolphin with her calf or a lion with the human who raised him. This kind of content instantly puts me in a better mood, so I always end up watching “just one more” video and scrolling for way longer than I intended.

Yash Shah, video editor

My absolute guilty pleasure is getting sucked into wholesome pet cosy-vlog clips. I will literally sit there for an hour completely hypnotised watching videos like that fisherman taking his whole crew of cats out on a wooden boat in the middle of a massive, peaceful lake just to fish and hang out. It’s so absurdly calming seeing a bunch of cats casually chilling on the edge of a boat that I totally lose track of time and don't sleep till 3 am.

Yash Warang, video editor 

I’m weirdly addicted to watching beautifully edited cinematic reels, especially when the cuts, sound design and music are perfectly timed. The topic can be anything, but watching it packaged as a movie is what fascinates me. I’ll watch the same 20-second edit five times just to figure out why it feels so satisfying.

Ayushi Malviya, intern

At night, my feed somehow shifts into full-on brain-rot mode, and that’s honestly my favourite part of scrolling. What starts as “just 15 more minutes” turns into hours of watching absurd, nonsensical humour that makes no sense but is somehow hilarious. Like, “What do you call a flying nun? A bird? A plane? Nun of the above,” or an animal randomly standing on two feet and dancing or doing things like humans. That’s brain rot – completely pointless, completely chaotic, and somehow impossible to stop watching.

Iyanah Poonawala, intern 

I notice everything about how things are written- it's just my thing. So watching creators break down why certain copy works really validates my obsession while teaching me something real.

What I'm addicted to is seeing how a single word swap completely changes tone and psychology. "Buy now" versus "join us" creates totally different vibes. Or how corporate language is deliberately vague to sound official. Once you see it, you can't stop noticing it everywhere – in marketing emails, headlines, how brands shift messaging based on who they're talking to.

I'll watch one breakdown of copy strategy and then I'm analyzing everything I read for the rest of the day.               

So, spill the secret: what's your ultimate guilty pleasure? 

Lead image: Netflix 

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