# The man who designed infinite scroll wishes he hadn't > In 2006 a young designer made web pages load forever. Today he warns about what it did to our time. Why good things have endings, and why Philos does too. By Luca Daniel (One of the people who make Philos) · Published 16 Sept 2026 · 3 min read Section: Our thinking · Topics: Attention Source: https://getphilos.com/blog/the-man-who-designed-infinite-scroll ## In short - Aza Raskin, who says he designed infinite scroll in 2006, now estimates it wastes on the order of 100,000 human lifetimes a day. - Books have chapters and a glass of wine has a bottom. These stopping cues hand the decision back to us; endless feeds remove them. - Philos puts the ending back. When you've seen what your people shared, Home says you're all caught up. In 2006, by his own account, a young designer called Aza Raskin, working at a small interface firm called Humanized, had a sensible idea. Why make people click "next page" at the bottom of a list? Why not load more as they reach the end, so the page never stops? It worked beautifully. So beautifully that, twenty years later, it's on almost every app on your phone. And Raskin has become one of its sharpest critics. ## A good idea in the wrong hands Raskin's design removed friction, which is usually a good thing. Nobody misses the "page 2 of 47" button. The trouble came when infinite scroll met business models that earn more the longer you stay. In 2018, Raskin told the BBC's Panorama that the tricks used to keep people scrolling were like sprinkling "behavioural cocaine" over an interface. The BBC reported that he hadn't set out to hook anyone, and now felt guilty about it. He went on to co-found the Center for Humane Technology, which campaigns for technology that respects people's time. In 2024 he put a number on it. His invention, he said on a TED podcast, now wastes "on the order of a hundred thousand human lifetimes per day". ## The slot machine in your pocket Infinite scroll has a partner: the unpredictable reward. In the 1950s, the psychologist B.F. Skinner showed that animals keep pressing a lever most persistently when the reward comes on an unpredictable schedule. He later pointed out that every gambling system works on the same principle. Tristan Harris, a former design ethicist at Google who co-founded the Center for Humane Technology with Raskin, made the comparison famous. On CBS's 60 Minutes in 2017, he described the phone as a slot machine: every check is a pull of the lever, to see what you got. Loren Brichter, who invented pull-to-refresh in 2009, agreed. "I agree 100%," he told the Guardian. He said he never meant it to be addictive, and that he regretted the time his own phone had pulled him away from his two children. ## Why endings matter Raskin explains the problem with a glass of wine. You don't usually ask yourself whether you want to stop drinking until you reach the bottom of the glass. The empty glass is the moment the question comes. Other good things are built the same way: - **A book has chapters.** At the end of each one, you can close it and go to sleep. - **A TV episode ends.** The credits roll, and for a moment, you decide whether to watch another. - **A plate of pasta has a last forkful.** Then it's empty, and you know you've finished. These are stopping cues: small, natural endings that hand the decision back to you. They're not walls. You can always pour another glass. But they make you choose. Infinite feeds remove every stopping cue. There's no bottom of the glass, no empty plate. The decision to stop never arrives on its own. You have to make it against the design, again and again, with a thumb that's already moving. ## Putting the ending back A plate of fresh tagliatelle is wonderful partly because it ends. Nobody wants a bowl that refills itself while they're eating. We built Philos on the same idea. Home shows what your people shared, newest first. When you've seen it all, it says so: **You're all caught up**. That's your empty glass. If you want to look back, older posts are one tap away. If you don't, you can put the phone down knowing you've missed nothing from the people you care about. We wrote more about [why your feed ends](https://getphilos.com/blog/why-your-feed-ends). The short version: an app for the people you love should be something you finish. ## Try this tonight Pick one app you open without thinking. Before you open it, decide when you'll stop: three posts, five minutes, the end of your tea. Then notice how it feels to stop on purpose. That's what a stopping cue gives you, built in. ## Questions people ask ### Who invented infinite scroll? The designer Aza Raskin is usually credited with designing it in 2006, though Microsoft's image search shipped a similar design the same year. Raskin later co-founded the Center for Humane Technology. ### Why is infinite scroll so hard to stop? It removes stopping cues, the natural endings that prompt us to decide whether to carry on, and each swipe might bring something new, like the next pull of a slot machine. ### Does Philos have infinite scroll? No. Home shows what your people shared, and when you've seen it all, it says you're all caught up. Older posts are one tap away if you want them. ## Sources - [Social media apps are 'deliberately' addictive to users](https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-44640959), BBC News, Panorama, 3 Jul 2018 - [Aza Raskin on why technology and democracy are in an imagination crisis](https://www.ted.com/podcasts/rethinking-with-adam-grant/aza-raskin-on-why-technology-and-democracy-are-in-an-imagination-crisis-transcript), ReThinking with Adam Grant, TED, 14 May 2024 - ['Our minds can be hijacked': the tech insiders who fear a smartphone dystopia](https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/oct/05/smartphone-addiction-silicon-valley-dystopia), The Guardian - [Brain Hacking](https://www.cbsnews.com/news/brain-hacking-tech-insiders-60-minutes/), CBS 60 Minutes, 9 Apr 2017 --- © 2026 Philos. From the Philos blog: https://getphilos.com/blog/the-man-who-designed-infinite-scroll