[croutonwagon]

I feel like the inflection point was about here:

https://imgur.com/ALMObBv

Not that I am blaming porn. I am not. But once the screens and bandwidth became large enough, UI's easy enough to navigate etc AND the devices themselves became quite commonplace, the always online mentality became one used much less for essential communication and business and transitioned more to a cultural way of life (porn is just an easy and funny way to drive that point home).

Doom scrolling wasnt really as much of a thing until Android and iOS matured enough and gained enough acceptance that it was no longer a status symbol. Heck i cant even tell you most of the social media apps these days, much less dating, but having some conversations with my younger cousins over break, there really arent many ways to meet folks outside of some of these apps (at least to them), which is sad. Apparently something as simple as "why not just join some type of IRL hobby and meet people that way" was scoffed at.

[AlexandrB]

Doom scrolling is an intentional social media "feature". Before infinite scrolling, algorithmic feeds doom scrolling required some effort on the users part. Now you can just keep flicking your thumb up and keep getting more shit.

[rescbr]

Infinite scrolling was also present in desktop.

I blame the pivot from the chronological feeds to algorithmically generated feeds based on engagement (or whatever other metric).

[Sohcahtoa82]

> algorithmically generated feeds based on engagement

This is one thing that really gets me.

Your feed is based on engagement. It doesn't have to be GOOD engagement, just engagement.

So when you angrily reply to a tweet you hate, that's engagement. You will be shown more content that makes you angry.

Most of the things people complain about in terms of what Twitter shows them, I don't experience. I don't follow people I hate, and if someone quote-tweets, I avoid replying. Definitely don't click the original tweet to see what other people have said.

[croutonwagon]

It was. And I agree that plays a part. But Desktops are, by nature, much less accessible. Even a laptop is.

You didnt have people nearly as commonly doomscrolling on the subway on the way to work, or in the car, or in the living room around family, when the computer was restricted to a specific space/time etc.

[rchaud]

agreed, chronological feeds have a visible signal to users telling them how far they've scrolled. If you're seeing posts from Feb of the past year, you've been scrolling too long.

Ad-based social apps (all of them) replaced that with algorithmic, so you have no real signifier of how long you've spent scrolling.

Tiktok takes this one step further by stripping the date from the videos.