The never-endingness of social media

Digital Minimalism Diaries #1

There are very few places you can hang out 24/7, very few places you can stay - forever.

Even pubs and bars have closing times, even if it's an ungodly hour. There's an inherent time boundary that states “that's enough now; stop and do something else,” whether that's a place to eat (or drink), a cinema, or a shopping centre. Even at a shopping centre, where the shop owners want you to stay there so that you never stop spending, you would be considered suspicious if you never left the building. At some point you’re expected to stop shopping and do something else with your life.

But we stay on social media - way past what’s reasonable, and for most of us, probably way past our bedtime. But I’ve come to realize that a lot of my problem with social media lies in a function called “infinite scroll.”

It’s as horrific as it sounds. You've probably experienced it, and if you have then you've undoubtedly fallen prey to it. You reach the very bottom of the page and - wait - there is no bottom. You can just keep scrolling, so of course you do. There's no end in sight, and no-one to say: “that’s enough now - go away!” And we all know by now that the social media platforms want your attention because that’s how their make money, by monetizing your attention and selling you ads, so they're not going to help you, are they?

That's why we need to take responsibility for how, when, where and why we use social media. If we can't count on social media platforms to help us (which we can't), then we need to help ourselves (which we can). We can set ourselves up for success by setting strict boundaries around our social media usage. Unfortunately social media platforms encourage us to override those boundaries by employing tactics like infinite scroll; we can have the best of intentions to limit our social media usage, but with only self-accountability to stop us, we have a tendency to just keep scrolling.

Facebook is a master at infinite scroll, as are Instagram and Twitter (or “X”). There's never a ‘bottom of the page’, or end point, so you just keep scrolling. You only stop when you have an intrinsic or extrinsic reason or motivation to do something different (even if it’s a ‘what the hell am I doing with my life?’ moment and throwing your phone at the wall). It's all too easy to get sucked in, and to get sucked back in - and social media platforms have designed it that way. Infinite scroll is always waiting for us, lurking in the background (or should I say at the forefront?), its lure of endless opportunities and possibilities dangling right in front of us, a million little hits of dopamine that keep us scrolling for more.

You probably came to Substack thinking (or hoping) that this platform was different, but I’m sorry to say that Substack is little better. The platform we all flocked to in the hopes it would be different is yet another algorithm, only another way to keep us scrolling, another bottomless pit of information and yes, great writing - but at what cost? We came here thinking we’d found the unicorn, only to discover that infinite scroll has once again locked us in it's grip, albeit on a slightly better, kinder, nicer platform. But is it a good deal to trade infinite scroll on one platform for another, even if there are more benefits to this one?

I am the last person to criticize Substack for the direction it is taking. I understand that as a business, Substack needs to make money - it is not a charitable organisation concerned with our wellbeing or welfare. In order to make money Substack takes a cut of paid subscription fees as opposed to showing us heaps of ads like other social media platforms do. It is in Substack’s best interests to promote paid subscriptions because that’s how the business model works, and in order to drive paid subscriptions it needs to expose its readers to more writing, necessitating the need for an algorithm (hello Substack Notes).

And herein lies the problem: whilst I can’t deny that Notes is a great place for connecting with likeminded people, networking, self-expression and promotion, it also leaves me with a certain amount of ick. Not necessarily ick at Substack, because it’s just how the business model works, and we’ve already ascertained that it’s a better business model than most other social media platforms, but I feel ick at social media in general. It is in their best interests to keep us scrolling (which they do tactics such as infinite scroll), but is it in ours?

I think we all know the answer to that question.