After the appearance of the “Popcorn Brain”… the inventor of the infinite scrolling technique expresses his remorse | technology

In 2006, American software engineer Aza Raskin created a new concept in the world of interface design. He decided at the time to leave this innovation without a patent, open source, and available for use by everyone, but he did not realize that his innovation would lead to psychological disasters later, and would be the main reason for the spread of addiction to social media platforms among users of all ages.

Raskin is behind the invention of the “infinite scrolling” technology, which he greatly regretted inventing, but it was too late, as in recent years it has become a pivotal part of the mechanism of designing anything that can be used on the Internet, starting from social media platforms such as “Tik Tok”, “Instagram”, and “Facebook”, and even the design of electronic stores and news and scientific websites.

Despite the great damage caused by the infinite scrolling feature, Raskin did not have any bad or malicious intentions, and his primary purpose was only to help users, according to a report by the British newspaper “The Sunday Times”.

The road to hell is paved with good intentions

Raskin explained that the main idea behind the concept of infinite scrolling was to help users and save their time, so that they do not have to press any button on the web page or refresh the page in search of new information.

The user only needs to scroll down the page until more posts and information begin to appear without interruption, which saves him time and keeps him interested in the platform.

At that time, Raskin chose not to register his innovation and obtain a patent, and instead shared the project as an open source technology with Google and Twitter during the early stages of the emergence of social media platforms.

By 2013, Raskin realized the enormity of his mistake and how the technology he had created to help users had become a weapon used against them and keeping them trapped in front of their phone screens all the time, according to the newspaper’s report.

During his appearance on a radio program on the American NPR news network, Raskin confirmed that the CEOs of major companies knew well about the dangers of endless scrolling technology, but they decided to use it anyway.

He added, “Incentives trump intentions,” in a clear reference to the interest of social media platform management in achieving profits without paying attention to the basic intention of developing the technology or even paying attention to its impact on society.

In 2018, Raskin co-founded the Center for Humane Technology (CHT), a non-profit organization dedicated to addressing the harms of Big Tech’s attention-grabbing designs, including infinite scrolling and algorithmic feeds.

According to the center’s research, infinite scrolling has nearly tripled users’ engagement with content, and while there are no general statistics showing how long users spend scrolling on one application, it is likely that without this technology there would not have been what is known as passive scrolling: compulsive browsing of negative content on social media.

In an attempt to curb the dominance of infinite scrolling, Raskin and his colleagues have reached out to all the major technology companies, provided briefings to officials in America and set up training courses. Raskin also testified against Meta in a recent case brought in a New Mexico court, which convicted the owner of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp on charges of child endangerment. Meta was ordered to pay $375 million to the state.

A technology that has contributed to the success of social media platforms

The NPR episode reveals that technology companies did not stop at Raskin’s design, but rather sought to improve it and add more complementary features to it that make its results better in attracting and capturing users’ attention, including the feature of autoplaying video clips.

The technology that Raskin invented is the cornerstone of the birth of a new psychological phenomenon called passive scrolling, or “Doom Scrolling,” as psychologists like to call it, in which the user engages in a cycle of compulsive browsing of negative content on social media platforms without the ability to stop.

All of these technologies contribute to capturing the attention of users and keeping them glued to their screens, which is the ultimate goal of social media platforms that achieve their profits by displaying a group of advertisements within their various platforms.

Profit returns represent the greatest motivation for investors and shareholders to pay attention to and invest in social media platforms, so that these platforms succeed in diverting users’ attention to a commodity worth trillions of dollars.

In his interview with the Sunday Times, Raskin confirms that it is in the interest of the management of social media platforms that you are glued to your screen for as long as possible, explaining: “If you are not present, you will not be able to be influenced, and they will not be able to achieve financial gains from you.”

Prolonged psychological effects

The infinite scrolling technology and the phenomenon of passive scrolling have caused great psychological damage to all users of social media platforms, according to a CNBC news report.

The report confirms that these technologies have caused the birth of a new psychological phenomenon called the “Popcorn Brain,” in addition to the phenomenon of brain rot, which has recently made headlines.

The CNBC report describes the phenomenon of the popcorn brain as the moment when our brains become accustomed to the constant flow of exciting information, which makes it difficult to look away from it and disconnect from devices. This causes our thoughts and attention to jump quickly and continuously from one point to another in a way that resembles popcorn.

This condition makes traditional and usual daily tasks very boring to the point of being difficult to do due to the absence of immediate reward for these actions.

Dr. Baiping Chen, a neurologist at Henry Ford Health in Michigan, links the effect of endless scrolling to the dopamine system found in human brains.

He adds that the effect of endless scrolling is not completely different from the effect of gambling, as in both cases you do not know what will appear in front of you in the next step, which affects the dopamine in your brain greatly and makes you continue to return to gambling halls in the hope of winning, or to continue endless scrolling in the hope of finding an important and funny clip or post.

For her part, the doctor and author at Harvard University, Aditi Nirurkar, confirms that the effect of endless scrolling does not occur because the person is weak or that his brain is damaged, and she describes the main cause as “a primitive, unhelpful desire to scroll,” which is the same desire that technology companies have benefited from in designing the technology.

More serious impact on children

The Sunday Times report indicates that this effect becomes more dangerous for children, as it may cause delayed development of their frontal cortex, which is the part that helps the child organize and control his emotions.

This ultimately makes children uncomfortable with the basic and pivotal functions of their day, such as eating or talking to someone, as well as an increase in mental health problems such as anxiety, depression, eating disorders, and suicidal thoughts.

The author and consultant pediatrician at Leicester Children’s Hospital, Dr. Sanjeev Nichani, advises parents to start with small steps in an attempt to separate their children from the Internet, by following gradual steps that begin by preventing children from using phones as soon as they wake up, then gradually reducing use by two hours on weekdays until it ends completely, in addition to constantly practicing physical activities, which stimulates recovery from cell phone addiction.