# Page numbers? **URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/page-numbers/355213 **Category:** Support **Created:** [March 1, 2025, 5:51pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/page-numbers/355213 "2025-03-01T17:51:34Z") **Posts on this page:** 1 **Showing post:** 9
### Author: ![Canapin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/canapin/32/119591_2.png) [@Canapin](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Canapin) #### Post date: [March 1, 2025, 8:30pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/page-numbers/355213/9 "2025-03-01T20:30:28Z")
I was convinced for years that infinite scrolling was superior **in any way** to pagination. The argument that pagination allows the user to catch a breath or stop browsing felt wrong to me. I was more like “If a user wants to stop reading, they stop reading, whether there’s pagination or infinite scroll 🤷” Until a few days ago! I’m a daily user of Reddit (don’t judge me), which has infinite scrolling. A few weeks ago, instead of browsing Reddit, I installed [Redlib](https://github.com/redlib-org/redlib), a local client that serves Reddit content without the noise, and it also uses pagination instead of infinite scroll. More precisely, there’s a NEXT button at the bottom of the page, after X posts, which when clicked reloads the page and shows the next batch of posts. I only realized after a few weeks (which was, like, two days ago) that I felt way more at ease when browsing Reddit through Redlib. I was not sucked into an endless scrolling of posts, looking at each post like a zombie. The pagination made me read fewer posts, and forced me to stop, which made me more relaxed when browsing Reddit’s content. I now think infinite scrolling sometimes exploits our cognitive vulnerabilities and is not necessarily the best for one’s sake of mind compared to a “next” button that requires user interaction to see further content. I also think it heavily depends on the person, the website, the context, the mood, etc. I feel relieved that pagination makes me see less of Reddit, but I definitively wouldn’t be happy if there was pagination on [meta.discourse.org](http://meta.discourse.org). I don’t go to both of these websites for the same reasons at all, as they don’t offer the same content, which is also presented very differently. I think Discourse should offer both options at an admin level (who chooses the default) and user level (who chooses what is best for them). * * * Edit : pagination isn’t the only way to incite users to stop reading at some point. This theme component proposes an alternative: [Take a break! Theme component](https://meta.discourse.org/t/take-a-break-theme-component/140248) I remembered it after reading the abstract of this paper: [Design and Development of a Mobile Application to Combat Digital Addiction and Dissociative States During Phone Usage](https://www.researchgate.net/publication/364304957_Design_and_Development_of_a_Mobile_Application_to_Combat_Digital_Addiction_and_Dissociative_States_During_Phone_Usage). --- _[View the full topic](https://meta.discourse.org/t/page-numbers/355213)._