Guide
Infinite scroll: the design behind feeds with no end.
A book has chapters, a series has episodes, an old website had a “next page” button. A modern feed has none of them: reach the bottom and more appears. That was a design decision, and you can undo some of it yourself.
In short. Infinite scroll loads more as you reach the bottom, so there is no natural place to stop. Aza Raskin designed it in 2006 and later said he had not seen how habit-forming it would be. The EU’s proposed KIDS Act would ban it for minors unless it builds in real breaks, and the UK plans to switch autoplay and personalised feeds off by default for 16- and 17-year-olds. You can put the stopping points back yourself.
What it is
On a page with infinite scroll, new posts load as you near the end, before you ask. Autoplay does the same for video: the next clip starts by itself. Both remove the moment when you would otherwise decide whether to go on.
Where it came from
Aza Raskin designed infinite scroll in 2006, at a user-interface consultancy called Humanized; the idea was to save people the clicks of turning pages. In 2018 he told the BBC’s Panorama that he had not recognised how addictive it could be, and described today’s apps as “taking behavioural cocaine and just sprinkling it all over your interface”.
Why it is hard to leave
The end of a chapter, an episode or a page is a small pause: a moment to notice the time and choose. Designers sometimes call these stopping cues. A feed without them leaves every decision to stop to you, and that decision has to be made again with every swipe. It is the same reason a series that starts the next episode in five seconds is hard to switch off.
What the research says about short, endless video feeds and attention: brain rot. And when the feed is full of bad news: doomscrolling.
What lawmakers plan
- The EU. The Commission’s KIDS Act proposal of September 2026 names endless autoplay and infinite scrolling without real breaks among the designs services may not use for minors, together with notifications meant to pull a child back and “streaks”. It is a proposal, not law.
- The UK. The government plans default protections for 16- and 17-year-olds on social media, with autoplay and personalised feeds switched off and no access between midnight and 6am.
Where each country stands on age limits: social media age limits in Europe.
Put the stopping points back
- Decide the end before you start: until the kettle boils, ten videos, the end of the bus ride.
- Use the phone’s own limits. A daily limit for an app in Screen Time (iPhone) or Digital Wellbeing (Android) adds a pause, even if you can wave it away.
- Turn autoplay off wherever an app lets you.
- Prefer the feed you chose. Many apps offer a feed of the accounts you follow beside the one the app picks for you; the first one runs out.
- Add friction: log out, move the app off the home screen, or try a grayscale screen.
- Leave the phone out of bed: the phone before bed.
A screen with an end
A ring’s screen has room for a line or two. There is nothing to scroll, so every answer comes with its own end: a line, a buzz if it matters, then quiet. The thinking behind it: calm technology. Lychnos Ring is in development and makes no health claims.
Sources, read 4 November 2026: BBC News, social media apps are “deliberately” addictive to users, 4 July 2018; European Commission, the KIDS Act explained; UK Government, growing up in the online world: government response, July 2026. General information.
Questions
Who invented infinite scroll?
Aza Raskin designed it in 2006, while working at a user-interface consultancy called Humanized. In 2018 he told the BBC he had not recognised how addictive it could be.
Will infinite scroll be banned in the EU?
Not for everyone. The KIDS Act, proposed by the European Commission in September 2026, would stop services from using infinite scrolling or endless autoplay without real breaks for minors. It is a proposal: the European Parliament and the member states still have to agree on it.