Have you ever noticed that you can scroll a feed forever, yet never hit the bottom? That's not a happy accident — it's a deliberate design choice called infinite scroll, invented in 2006 by a developer named Aza Raskin. Years later, he admitted it was like handing people "an endless bag of chips."

Why it works:
• No stopping cues: In the real world, you finish a chapter, the credits roll, the bag is empty — your brain gets a natural break. Infinite scroll removes those cues.
• Seamless dopamine drip: The content just keeps coming, keeping your brain in a low-level state of anticipation.
• Efficiency for them, exhaustion for you: The longer you scroll, the more ads and recommendations the platform can show.

The cost?
• Attention spans shrink.
• Kids lose hours that should be spent sleeping, studying, or simply being bored (a critical ingredient for creativity).
• Your sense of time itself gets warped.

Infinite scroll was meant to "help." In reality, it hijacks one of your most limited resources: attention.