[tfp137]

Is this "scroll fatigue" a problem with algorithms, though? I remember the days of boredom with cable TV: 96 channels, "nothing on". Well, it wasn't that there was a lack of quality programming— I mean, modulo Sturgeon's Law and all that— but it more has to do with the paradoxical nature of boredom... when you're bored, it's not because there aren't things to do, but because all the things there are to do (for a varying number of reasons) seem unpalatable... hunger gives you motivation to eat and makes food more appealing than it would otherwise be, but deep boredom goes the other way and makes things seem so boring that it leaves you doing nothing, stewing in diffuse frustration.

If you're in an airport lounge, it's the unpleasantness of the environment (one designed to irritate and low-key humiliate you, so you spend 5x on a more expensive version of the same service) that causes boredom, even if you brought a good book. Same with work environments; people who work in open-plan offices are much more likely to suffer work boredom, not necessarily because the work itself is boring, but because they cannot concentrate.

So, I think the problem isn't that the algorithms suck. (I mean, they might; they probably do, it's just not the causative issue.) The problem is that we live in a society that leaves us simultaneously dopamine-addicted and stimulus-rich while having no actual power... a lot of that mindless boredom-scrolling comes from the brain craving that next dopamine hit (which is achieved more by finding a new movie to watch or book to buy than by actually watching or reading it). Of course, we all know that's a losing game in the end.