Doom-scrolling for dogs
Dr Jason Hamer | 21th May 2026
Both obesity and our addiction to our phones are on the rise, but have dogs already solved this problem? No. Dogs don't have phones, nor do they have easy access to junk food. But the more I let my mind wander while I walk with my dog, the more I start to imagine the parallel between my dog exploring the neighbourhood, and my own struggle with digital media.
This piece of data art reflects society's (human's and dog's) never ending need to stay updated with the latest news, and our bias towards stories and perspectives that are close to home.
Please use a larger screen to view the animated artwork
Meet Milly. Milly is an 8-year-old Cairn Terrier cross that we rescued one year ago. During the day, Milly sits around the house napping, patrolling the gardens and providing moral support in the form of access to her belly to rub - she slows right down. Meanwhile, my day is filled with project work and client meetings, with my focus always shifting and information constantly flooding into my brain.
When my workday is finally over - much to her excitement - Milly has her time to shine as we venture outside for a walk. There're sights to see, smells to smell, scents to leave, and dogs to suspiciously keep an eye on. This is her time to get flooded with information, and sort through it all to figure out what's worth focusing on. For me, this walk is my chance to switch off, and literally stop and smell the flowers.
The more I let my brain drift, the more I started to imagine this invisible world that Milly is investigating. While a dog's eyesight may be inferior to ours, their sense of smell is far superior. Where I see a green bush, she catches up on the latest news from the local dogs based on the scents they have left behind. Her arch nemesis a few doors down was stuck inside all day, and had kangaroo for dinner. While the loud yappy one from down the street has been feeling a little under the weather, probably because she ate something she shouldn't have. Serves her right.
I realised that Milly was essentially scrolling through her social media feed, with every new scent telling a different story, or providing a different status update from the local dogs. Of course, Milly diligently leaves her own scents around the neighbourhood as well, contributing her own stories (I wonder what she says about me?). The big difference between our doom scrolling and hers is that she gets exercise while doing it.
While we can quickly switch to different news sites or social media platforms to get a different perspective, Milly is limited by how far her little legs can take her. So I started to see our outings a little differently. I started to visualise our walks on a map in my head. How long had it been since we got an update from the dogs in that part of the neighbourhood? Have we adequately covered the area to the north, or do we need to find a new route to discover those more niche scents.
And so, the idea for this piece of data art was born. What you see here is a map of 32 local walks we took together. Except, instead of roads and other visual things that humans might focus on, it's broken into different areas of scent - different updates. Each scent tells a different story, hence the different colours, but I didn't want it to be completely random. Instead, it cycles through a rainbow, allowing us to see both the difference between sections, but also the (abstracted) path that we followed. As the days go by, our information about an area becomes outdated, so the colours fade, waiting for us to revisit to get an update.
After much playing, I settled on using height as a way to show the total area that we visited (our local territory), and if there were any areas that got over-visited (what's the point in doom scrolling if you are scrolling over the same content every day?!). Each time we revisit a section, it increases in height. This ended up creating a little hill around our house, and I can imagine Milly sitting proud on her throne looking down over all the territory she has claimed!
