Endless scroll: why OurDot’s feed has a bottom
Many apps are designed so there's never a natural place to stop. OurDot puts the stopping point back.
Endless feeds and autoplay remove natural stopping points. The American Psychological Association's 2024 review calls infinite scroll "particularly risky for youth," because young people's ability to stop is still developing. Most experiments are with adults, but they find scroll-heavy sessions feel worse and that removing autoplay increases people's sense of control.
What the research found
- The APA (2024) says infinite scroll is "particularly risky for youth" and may contribute to symptoms of dependency, and that recommended content should put youth safety ahead of engagement.
- Real-world scrolling. A study of 6,605 app sessions from 46 adults (Rixen et al., 2023) described an "inner loop" of endless scrolling. Scroll-dominated sessions had lower mood than sessions spent posting or talking with people.
- Autoplay and control. A 2026 lab study found that replacing autoplay with tap-to-play increased people's sense of control and reduced time distortion. An earlier study of YouTube users (Lukoff et al., 2021) found recommendations, autoplay and endless feeds reduced their sense of agency.
Where experts disagree
Almost all experiments use adults, and no published trial yet shows that removing infinite scroll improves children's mental health. Rixen and colleagues found most people stop scrolling because of something in their real lives, not the app, so app design is only part of the picture.
How this shaped OurDot
The OurDot feed shows your family's posts, newest first, then says "You're all caught up." There's no autoplay, no algorithm and no suggested content. Games have no streaks or rewards for coming back.
What we don't claim
- That infinite scroll is clinically addictive.
- That OurDot reduces screen time. We don't have that data yet.