there are lots of studies on this and how infinite scrolling on social medial platforms is a factor that enables such behavior as “dopamine scrolling”, “doomsday scrolling”, and contributes to negative effects on mental health:
Summary
Dopamine-scrolling: a modern public health challenge requiring urgent attention - PMC
Social media platforms employ sophisticated algorithms and design features that capitalise on basic psychological principles to maintain user engagement. These include suggestions, auto-play, pull-to-refresh, infinite scrolling, and social investment mechanisms. The integration of short-form video content has been particularly effective at triggering psychological patterns that keep users in a continuous scrolling loop.
The Horrors of Doomscrolling & its Impact on Mental Health
This is compounded by the fact that social media platforms have blessed us all with infinite scroll powers, the ability to have unlimited access to content with no embedded stops. Thus, it has morphed into more than just negative consumption, and instead represents an overabundance of digesting content.
The Psychology of Doomscrolling: Why Apps Keep You Hooked
Infinite Scroll — The Endless Feed That Never Stops
The infinite scroll feature was introduced by UX designer Aza Raskin in 2006, originally as a way to improve user experience by removing the need to click “next page.” Ironically, it became one of the most powerful mechanisms of digital addiction.By removing natural stopping cues (like page breaks or loading pauses), infinite scroll eliminates the tiny moments that might remind us to stop. Psychologists call these “decision points”—brief pauses where our brains can evaluate whether to continue. Without them, users lose track of time and enter what researchers call a “flow trap”—a state of passive engagement that can last for hours.
A Frontiers in Psychology study (2022) found that continuous content exposure reduces self-control and increases compulsive use, especially during emotionally heightened periods (like the pandemic). People weren’t consciously choosing to scroll longer; the design made it effortless to do so.
Endless scrolling can dysregulate the nervous system and also appears to cause mental health symptoms like depression and anxiety
As digital technologies evolve, addictive algorithms and designs (aADs) have become a significant public health concern, particularly for older adults, a demographic often overlooked in digital addiction (DA) discourse. Compared to younger users, some older adults may face increased susceptibility to aADs due to factors such as cognitive changes, social isolation, physical comorbidities, or limited digital literacy. These designs, which exploit features like infinite scrolling, are associated with higher risk of compulsive use and may correlate with long-term impacts on cognitive health, social functioning, and quality of life for certain subgroups of older adults
but it’s just what chapoi said