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Glite Dictionary
to scroll through social media

to scroll through social media

3.3
To look at posts on social media by moving your finger on a screen
  • phrasal verb
  • Texting
translation icon : desplazarse por las redes sociales
  • Whenever I have some free time, I often scroll through social media to catch up with my friends' updates.

Like, you know, I'm scrolling through social media, lots of emails, I'm watching videos, things like that.

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Examples

  • I just spent three hours scrolling through social media while I was lounging on the couch watching something on Netflix.

  • When you do these quick, sort of quick dopamine hits, like scrolling through social media, eating junk food, it makes you feel really good in that moment.

  • Like if you actually just scroll through social media, you feel the gravitational pull of negative emotions.

    Lex Fridman

  • And before Morning Brew, I would like scroll through social media like what happened?

    Silicon Valley Girl

  • Like, you know, I'm scrolling through social media, lots of emails, I'm watching videos, things like that.

    Marques Brownlee

  • I just spent three hours scrolling through social media while I was lounging on the couch watching something on Netflix.

  • If I'm, if I get, you know, if I scrolling through social media and I see a post that bugs me, yeah, I can, I can fight back or I can argue or whatever.

  • He likes to scroll through social media during his lunch break to see what everyone is sharing.

  • After dinner, I usually scroll through social media to unwind and see the latest news.

Synonyms

to scroll
vsto scroll through social media
89 3.4

Move the page up or down to see more content

is used for browsing sequential items rather than just revealing hidden display parts
to surf
vsto scroll through social media
  • Texting
43 2.7

To look around online or through TV channels

is more specific to moving through short feed items on a screen
to scroll through
vsto scroll through social media
  • Texting
15 2.8

To move information on a screen up or down to look at it

is narrower for browsing posts and updates by sliding or flicking a screen

How Engaged

post
  • Texting
∞ 3.3
to comment
589 1.7
to like
∞ 1.0
to scroll through social media
  • Texting
3.3
view
  • Texting
80 3.0

Surface Forms

scroll through social media infinitive
scrolled through social media past
scrolled through social media past participle
scrolling through social media present participle
scrolls through social media third person singular

Morphology

scroll + through + social + media

The meaning 'to move through content on social media' is directly and compositionally derived from 'scroll' (move text/graphics), 'through' (across), and 'social media' (online platforms). The motion/browsing sense of 'scroll' in digital contexts is common and cross-linguistically paralleled, so a B1 learner who knows the parts can infer the overall meaning.

Etymology

Scroll through social media comes from the simple image of using your finger to slide a long list of posts past your eyes, like unrolling a paper, so you keep moving content by touch. That's why scroll is the moving action and social media are the many posts you pass, and the phrase means 'to look through many posts quickly'.