The Infinite Scroll Trap: TikTok’s Secret Power Over Your Attention

Beneath the memes and dance trends lies a system of governance built on addiction.

You open TikTok “for a minute” and suddenly the sky getting darker. Your dinner is cold, your thumb aches, and you can’t remember half the clips you just watched. Yet your brain still wants more.

That isn’t procrastination. That’s design.

TikTok isn’t just another app. With more than one billion users worldwide, it’s a cultural powerhouse. But its influence doesn’t come only from viral dances, memes or music trends. It comes from how the app is built. The infinite scroll, the personalised For You Page, and the little dopamine hit from a like or comment are not neutral features. They are deliberate mechanisms designed to shape how long you stay and what you see.

Legal scholar Lawrence Lessig once argued that “code is law” — that the architecture of technology regulates us just as much as written rules. TikTok makes this clear. You don’t need a policy banning you from logging off. The design itself makes it difficult to leave. The platform governs your attention, not with rules or punishments, but with features that keep you swiping long after you meant to stop.

TikTok doesn’t need strict rules or moderators to keep you online. The app’s design does the job. The infinite scroll erases natural stopping points. The personalised feed locks you into loops. These aren’t accidents of clever UX — they’re strategies built to maximise your time and sell your attention.

Coming up: how TikTok’s design governs your scrolling, why that’s good for its bottom line, how the company spins the story, and why it matters for all of us.

By reframing addiction as governance, we can see TikTok differently: not just as a stage for creativity, but as a system of control. And if a feed can govern our attention, the question becomes urgent: who governs the feed?

How TikTok’s Feed Governs Without Saying a Word

Back in the early 2000s, legal scholar Lawrence Lessig coined a phrase that still makes sense today: “code is law.” His point was simple — the way systems are designed doesn’t just allow behaviour. It regulates it.

Think about traffic lights. You don’t drive through a red not only because it’s against the law, but because the design of the system physically stops you. TikTok works the same way. It doesn’t need to tell you, “Stay on the app.” The design itself makes you stay.

The clearest example is the For You Page. Unlike Facebook, which mostly shows posts from your friends, TikTok serves up a personalised stream of videos that adapts to your every move. Pause too long and the system assumes you’re interested. Swipe fast and it learns you’re not. Each tiny action feeds back into the system, building a profile so accurate it feels like the app “knows” you.

That profile has power. As media scholar Tarleton Gillespie puts it, platforms don’t just distribute content — they govern by setting the rules of visibility. Which songs blow up, which memes spread, which voices are silenced… these outcomes are driven by algorithmic design, not democratic choice.

And the governance is deliberate. A recent study by Ming Nie describes how so-called dark patterns — tricks like infinite scroll or disguised ads — are intentionally baked into platforms to keep people engaged. Addiction isn’t a bug of TikTok’s design. It’s a feature.

Even politicians have noticed. In 2024, Australia’s Education Minister likened TikTok to poker machines, calling it “pokies for kids” (News.com.au). The comparison isn’t just rhetorical — both pokies and TikTok rely on unpredictable rewards to keep people hooked.

This is what Lessig meant. On TikTok, the law isn’t written in policy documents. It’s written in the swipe.

Why TikTok Feels Impossible to Put Down

You tell yourself: “Just one more video.” But TikTok knows better.

The app is engineered to keep you there. The biggest culprit? Infinite scroll. Unlike YouTube, where a video ends, or Netflix, where an episode eventually wraps up, TikTok offers no natural exit point. Each clip flows seamlessly into the next. No friction. No pause. Just another swipe.

Psychologists call this a flow state — that trance-like immersion where time melts away. A study by Du and colleagues found that TikTok’s short-form videos and slick interface nudge users into flow, which in turn drives compulsive use. Another recent study by Yang et al. backed this up with hard data: by combining surveys with digital trace analysis, the researchers identified measurable patterns of “likely addicted” TikTok users. Addiction here isn’t just anecdotal. It shows up in the numbers.

The design also taps into something casinos discovered long ago: variable rewards. Each swipe is a gamble. Will the next video be hilarious? Disturbing? Uplifting? Or totally boring? That unpredictability is exactly what keeps your dopamine system firing. A quick laugh or shock becomes a hit of reward, and the uncertainty makes it irresistible to keep going.

The harms aren’t just about lost time. A 2023 experiment found that consuming short-form videos like TikTok reduces prospective memory — our ability to remember things we planned to do later. In plain English: the more you scroll, the more you forget. TikTok isn’t just draining your time; it’s reshaping how your brain handles it.

Even everyday users know this. Memes on Twitter joke about “opening TikTok for 5 minutes and suddenly it’s 2am.” Parents quoted in The Guardian call the app “digital junk food” for their teens. One U.S. lawsuit even described TikTok as “an addictive slot machine in your pocket” (MPR News).

And the comparison isn’t just metaphorical. Infinite scroll works on the same psychological principle as slot machines: you keep pulling the lever because you might win on the next try. Except in TikTok’s case, “winning” means a perfect 15-second clip that hits your mood exactly right.

This isn’t procrastination. It’s governance by design. TikTok doesn’t force you to stay. It makes leaving harder than swiping again. The interface regulates your behaviour, moment by moment, without you even realising it.

But design like this doesn’t exist in a vacuum. If TikTok is deliberately built to keep us hooked, we have to ask: what’s the payoff? Why does the company want us addicted in the first place?

Profit in Every Swipe

If TikTok feels impossible to quit, it’s because your attention is the fuel that powers the platform.

Infinite scroll isn’t just a clever design feature. It’s a business strategy. The more you swipe, the more data you generate, and that data is TikTok’s most valuable resource. Media scholars José van Dijck, Thomas Poell and Martijn de Waal describe this as the logic of the platform society: platforms expand by capturing data, commodifying it, and feeding it back into systems that keep users hooked. Addiction, in this sense, isn’t a side effect. It’s the pipeline.

Cultural researchers David Nieborg and Thomas Poell go further. They argue that platforms don’t just distribute culture — they platformise it. TikTok doesn’t simply host dances, memes, or challenges. It turns them into commodities that circulate at high speed, generating profit every time they’re consumed, shared, or remixed. Addictive design ensures that cultural production never slows down. Each swipe is another contribution to a cultural economy that TikTok owns and monetises.

The financial results tell the story. TikTok made roughly $18 billion in ad revenue in 2023, and projections suggest it will surpass $23 billion in 2024. Those billions don’t just come from popularity. They come from design decisions that make it hard to look away.

Even insiders recognise this. Employees raised concerns about how “sticky” the app had become. They knew the stickiness wasn’t a bug. It was the business model.

Critics outside the company are equally blunt. The Harvard Petrie-Flom Center compared TikTok to tobacco: both industries profit from dependency while insisting it’s about “choice.” Both thrive when people can’t quit.

So why does TikTok want you hooked? Because attention is its currency. Every swipe is another piece of data to harvest, another ad to sell, another meme to monetise. TikTok doesn’t just govern culture with trends. It governs your time because your time is the product.

Choice, Entertainment, or Exploitation?

Not everyone buys the idea that TikTok’s design counts as “governance.” Some argue it’s simply giving people what they want: quick entertainment. After all, humans have always chased distraction — from radio serials to TV sitcoms to video games. Why should TikTok be treated differently?

Supporters of this view say most users scroll casually without harm. Yes, some get caught in loops, but surveys suggest the majority use TikTok as light entertainment. By that logic, calling it “addictive design” risks sliding into moral panic. The company itself encourages this framing, marketing TikTok as a hub of creativity and culture where trends, activism, and laughter take centre stage. Addiction, they suggest, is in the eye of the beholder.

There’s even some academic backing. Research on media use shows that not all high engagement is harmful. Heavy consumption can sometimes be fulfilling rather than destructive, especially if it connects users socially or creatively. And a 2024 study by Zhou and colleagues found that users with stronger critical thinking skills were better able to resist addictive use, suggesting education and digital literacy may matter more than banning features.

TikTok also points to its Digital Wellbeing tools as proof that the platform empowers users. Buried in settings are timers, reminders, bedtime nudges, and restricted modes. If people scroll too long, TikTok argues, it’s not the app’s fault — it’s their choice.

But here’s the problem. These wellbeing tools are opt-in, rarely used, and trivial to override. A 40-minute timer can be dismissed with a tap, while the infinite scroll and algorithm remain the default. In practice, the power balance isn’t equal: a hidden timer versus a feed engineered for stickiness.

Courts are beginning to side with critics. In 2024, NBC News reported that TikTok failed to dismiss a lawsuit accusing it of deliberately exploiting children through addictive design. Other cases are even more chilling: Time Magazine covered how TikTok’s algorithm deepened a teenager’s eating disorder, while People reported parents blaming the platform for their son’s suicide after his feed was flooded with distressing content.

So the counterarguments — that TikTok is just entertainment, or that wellbeing tools put users in control — deserve attention. But the evidence shows something more deliberate: TikTok doesn’t simply reflect demand, it engineers it. Addiction isn’t an accident of overuse. It’s the outcome of defaults designed to keep people swiping.

When Design Shapes Democracy

The real stakes go beyond wasted time. If TikTok governs through design, then what’s being shaped isn’t just how long we scroll — it’s our autonomy, our culture, and even our democracy.

On a personal level, addictive design chips away at autonomy. You don’t fully choose when to stop scrolling if the app is engineered to make stopping harder than swiping again. Over time, that lack of control impacts mental health. A 2025 systematic review found consistent links between problematic TikTok use and issues like anxiety, depression, and disrupted sleep. The design doesn’t just capture attention — it reshapes how people feel, focus, and function.

But the ripple effects are bigger. TikTok’s algorithm isn’t a neutral mirror of culture. It decides which voices rise and which disappear. That gives a private company enormous power over what becomes visible in public life. Media scholars like van Dijck and Poell call this the new “platform society,” where cultural and political debates increasingly run through systems built for engagement, not truth.

Governments are starting to push back. In 2024, TechCrunch reported that the European Union launched a probe into TikTok Lite, accusing the app of using “addictive features” to trap users. The framing wasn’t just about entertainment — it was about public health and consumer rights. Regulators are beginning to treat addictive design as a structural harm, like tobacco or gambling, not a harmless choice.

And that’s the bigger implication: if platforms can govern attention so effectively, who governs the platforms? Right now, most of the power sits with TikTok itself. Until stronger accountability measures emerge, we’re left in a world where the scroll doesn’t just decide how we spend our evenings — it decides what culture looks like, and who gets heard.

The Law of the Feed

TikTok isn’t addictive by accident. The infinite scroll, the personalised feed, the dopamine loops — they’re deliberate features built to keep us in the app. And they work. Not by forcing us, but by making leaving harder than swiping again. That’s governance by design.

The payoff is massive. Every extra second fuels TikTok’s business model: more ads, more data, more cultural dominance. The company frames this as entertainment and choice, pointing to wellbeing tools as proof it cares. But lawsuits, tragedies, and research tell a different story: the defaults are stacked against autonomy.

The consequences stretch beyond individual wellbeing. Addictive design shapes how we spend our time, how we feel, and even whose voices dominate in public culture. When a private platform has that much power over attention, it isn’t just mediating entertainment. It’s governing the rhythms of everyday life.

And that’s the real lesson. On TikTok, the law isn’t in the terms of service. It’s in the design. The law of the feed is simple: keep scrolling. Until stronger accountability measures emerge, the feed governs us more than we govern it.

Reference:

• Alter, C. (2025, June 18). She Says Social-Media Algorithms Led to Her Eating Disorder. Now She’s Suing TikTok and Instagram. TIME; Time. https://time.com/7295323/social-media-case-instagram-tiktok/
• Campbell, E. (2024, May 9). “Toxic”: TikTok like ’pokies for kids’. News; news.com.au — Australia’s leading news site. https://www.news.com.au/technology/online/social/education-minister-tiktok-and-youtube-shorts-like-poker-machines-for-kids/news-story/1e95e9a5d854b591f70d64f12d4123bb
• Chiossi, F., Haliburton, L., Ou, C., Butz, A., & Schmidt, A. (2023). Short-Form Videos Degrade Our Capacity to Retain Intentions: Effect of Context Switching On Prospective Memory. ArXiv:2302.03714 [Cs], 1. https://doi.org/10.1145/3544548.3580778
• Cunningham, M. (2025, August 22). TikTok employees raised concerns that app could be addictive, unsealed edited video shows. Cbsnews.com. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/tiktok-employees-apps-mental-health-court-video-north-carolina-lawsuit/
• Fabio, R. A., & Iaconis, S. M. (2024). The Role of Critical Thinking in Mitigating Social Network Addiction: a Study of TikTok and Instagram Users. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 21(10), 1305–1305. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph21101305
• Gillespie, T. (2018, January). Custodians of the internet: Platforms, content moderation, and the hidden decisions that shape social media. ResearchGate. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/327186182_Custodians_of_the_internet_Platforms_content_moderation_and_the_hidden_decisions_that_shape_social_media
• Jain, L., Velez, L., Karlapati, S., Forand, M., Kannali, R., Yousaf, R. A., Ahmed, R., Sarfraz, Z., Sutter, P. A., Tallo, C. A., & Ahmed, S. (2025). Exploring Problematic TikTok Use and Mental Health Issues: A Systematic Review of Empirical Studies. Journal of Primary Care & Community Health, 16. https://doi.org/10.1177/21501319251327303
• Keskin, B. (2018). Van Dijk, Poell, and de Wall, The Platform Society: Public Values in a Connective World (2018). Markets, Globalization & Development Review, 03(03). https://doi.org/10.23860/mgdr-2018-03-03-08
• Lomas, N. (2024, April 22). EU opens probe of TikTok Lite, citing concerns about addictive design. TechCrunch. https://techcrunch.com/2024/04/22/tiktok-lite-dsa-probe/
• Nie, M. (2025). Algorithmic Addiction by Design: Big Tech’s Leverage of Dark Patterns to Maintain Market Dominance and its Challenge for Content Moderation. ArXiv.org. https://arxiv.org/abs/2505.00054
• Nieborg, D. B., & Poell, T. (2018). The Platformization of Cultural production: Theorizing the Contingent Cultural Commodity. New Media & Society, 20(11), 4275–4292. https://doi.org/10.1177/1461444818769694
• People. (2025). 16-Year-Old Was “Inundated” by “Unsolicited Suicide Videos” on TikTok Before Killing Himself, Parents Claim in Lawsuit. People.com. https://people.com/family-sues-blaming-tiktok-for-son-suicide-being-inundated-fyp-videos-11683054
• Press, T. A., & Staff, M. N. (2024, October 8). TikTok is designed to be addictive to kids and causes them harm, U.S. states’ lawsuits say. MPR News. https://www.mprnews.org/story/2024/10/08/tiktok-is-designed-to-be-addictive-to-kids-and-causes-them-harm-us-states-lawsuits-say
• Qin, Y., Omar, B., & Musetti, A. (2022). The addiction behavior of short-form video app TikTok: The information quality and system quality perspective. Frontiers in Psychology, 13. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.932805
• Samuels, J. (2024, October 30). TikTok, Tobacco, and Addiction, Oh My! — Petrie-Flom Center. Petrie-Flom Center — the Blog of the Petrie-Flom Center at Harvard Law School. https://petrieflom.law.harvard.edu/2024/10/30/tiktok-tobacco-and-addiction-oh-my/
• statista. (2025). Topic: TikTok. Statista. https://www.statista.com/topics/6077/tiktok/?srsltid=AfmBOop9gkt9wler8ktpHkOO7lpMUx87WGlqZ6CRL_wZ-21UiIooqRth
• Tafradzhiyski, N. (2025, February 25). TikTok Revenue and Usage Statistics (2025). Business of Apps. https://www.businessofapps.com/data/tik-tok-statistics/
• TikTok. (2022). Investing in our community’s digital well-being — Newsroom | TikTok. Newsroom | TikTok. https://newsroom.tiktok.com/investing-in-our-communitys-digital-well-being?lang=en
• Vallese, Z. (2025, July 11). TikTok loses bid to dismiss lawsuit alleging its “addictive design” exploits kids. NBC New York. https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/business/money-report/tiktok-loses-bid-to-dismiss-lawsuit-alleging-its-addictive-design-exploits-kids/6333201/
• Wikimediacommons. (2022). File:Las Vegas slot machines.jpg — Wikimedia Commons. Wikimedia.org. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Las_Vegas_slot_machines.jpg
• Wikipedia Contributors. (2019, August 19). Code and Other Laws of Cyberspace. Wikipedia; Wikimedia Foundation. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Code_and_Other_Laws_of_Cyberspace
• Yang, C., Mousavi, S., Dash, A., Gummadi, K. P., & Weber, I. (2025). Studying Behavioral Addiction by Combining Surveys and Digital Traces: A Case Study of TikTok. ArXiv.org. https://arxiv.org/abs/2501.15539