The speaker starts with a question many people have probably asked themselves: when things fall apart, what will I actually be doing? There's an expectation of something dramatic, maybe heroic, or at least meaningful. The answer, delivered with a shrug, is much smaller. They're scrolling through the internet.
The twist is in the second line. The speaker isn't only scrolling during the bad times, they're using the internet to get lost in an earlier moment, when the world wasn't going to hell. So the escape is a kind of nostalgia, a retreat into a past that seems calmer, even if it may only look that way from here.
The tone is dry, tired, and self-mocking. The speaker doesn't seem proud or panicked, just honest about their own passivity. The title, "whatever," fits that mood of numb resignation. It's funny, but the humor has a sad edge, since it suggests how easily distraction can replace action, and how comforting the past can feel when the present is overwhelming.