Why We Can't Stop Scrolling

We spend a lot of time on social media, scrolling through various feeds. For some of us, it can feel like we’re scrolling on autopilot, leading us to spend more time on social media than we’d like to… But there’s a reason behind why we scroll, and scroll, and scroll.
Psychologists use something called a Skinner box to study behavior in animals. Some Skinner boxes feature a lever for an animal to push. Sometimes, food will be dispensed upon pushing the lever. Other times, nothing happens. So the animal learns to push the lever repeatedly until food is delivered.
There’s something similar happening when we scroll through our news feeds. We’re looking for a reward as well, in the form of a funny or exciting post. Once we find this, it’s right back to scrolling in search of the next one.
So next time you're scrolling through social media, you can be aware of why you're doing it!
We hope you enjoy!
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[@_birdy_birdy]

Stop scrolling. No rewards here :D

[@vampirethespiderbatgod9740]

Dopamine. Virtual Drugs. It all Makes us tolerant, then we need more...and more...

[@corruptneedles3384]

@@vampirethespiderbatgod9740 Literal evil

[@mediaconglomerate4897]

Literally first thing i do is hit the comments

[@mogenvonbogel7342]

It’s driving me insane I literally get into like a zone where I just don’t stop

[@GeGe-fg3hx]

Same

[@FF-tf3lq]

Same 😢

[@Pluty80]

It’s real 😢

[@Gracie-777]

Excellent presentation! Thank you for bringing us a much needed awareness.

[@ryemoboy7234]

Discpline it is. Scrolling too much is a waste of time. Use your time wisely.

[@neuanfang1876]

what a huge nothing burger.

[@ManoElMacho]

KZbin was my safe haven but now we have shorts we cant turn off. This needs to end

[@Pluty80]

Facts

[@Rohann_Singh_Rajput]

Scrolling Through Social Medias like TikTok, Insta Reels, KZbin shorts Make us Addicted and grab our all Time....

[@abdullaahmed096]

Thank you , i love it

[@MrLiao-jr8hi]

thank you❤

[@GCFLearnFree]

Welcome!

[@tonystark16]

"We all are mice but we invented the mice trap aka necular bomb" !!

[@yellowberrypie]

Awesome explanation

[@GCFLearnFree]

Glad it was helpful!

[@DejameTeExplico]

Good vid

[@alfinonikeisha6401]

Wooow

[@realeyezrealizerealliez3095]

joooo for real they dooing that too us....

[@toshighanchi4967]

Hi sir I am totally free whole day what p should I do please help me i

[@betteryet4928]

Like seriously, do we have a choice? 😒

[@ritika8397]

Yes we do . If you start looking for one .

[@Rohann_Singh_Rajput]

We have million of choice out of phone..

[@satyampandey890]

Even I am going to scroll for watching the comments below🤦‍♂️!

[@GCFLearnFree]

We can´t resist it!

[@satyampandey890]

1:04 Please Help me ! How to overcome this problem! I don't enjoy Scrolling but still I do to just know what is next & I feel very guilty from inside! I am. A student 2:04 Correct ! They want this & prey on my😫 weakness

[@naveendahiya144]

We all are mice. They have made us.

[@benshepherd2419]

I hope that was reference plz

[@aakashshah9505]

Don’t you think we have to be more responsible and aware of how we are spending time & what will be the outcome out of it?….. this is all business tactics we have the brain to control ourselves

[@rizwanfaisal7606]

Master splinter

[@TheLillianYoung]

I’ll pick up my phone to look at the weather and end up forgetting about that and scrolling for hours.

[@Pluty80]

Sad

[@BrandoKOmmando91]

*Starts scrolling comment section *

[@UnbeatenPlayzMinecraftandmore]

🥲

[@MohamedShaarawy]

Always giving us beautiful knowledge

[@Ahmed-rh6lm]

منور يا شعراااوي❤❤❤

[@เติมเงินก่อนเพื่อให้มีเน็ตใช้]

😯😲😱

[@safiahmad1344]

It starts with awareness.

[@leweiwang3209]

Found this video by scrolling on my phone at 1:50am

[@hanac5586]

I already knew social media addiction had something to do with conditioning mixed with random rewards but I'm still here watching this and being trapped on yt :""D

[@kemalavicennafaza8985]

Gacha Addict

[@cgpcgp3239]

Scrolling through youtube find video on why we cant stop scrolling. Watch video. Go back to scrolling. Sigh...

[@AbdullahQumper]

I am a mouse after all

[@mirhasnainali2100]

Can you help us to stop watching shorts, reels etc too they are getting out of hands

[@BlackBeard_Channel_0]

mice are more intelligent because they press on the lever to receive food,they need food to survive human scroll to receive videos and stupid post

[@safiahmad1344]

+1

[@iwuvpiesgaming9164]

I’d rather say people have an addiction, not stupidity

[@han4574]

I don’t think so, it’s the same cognitive function that drives our reaction. I think we were just taken advantage of by social media corporations

[@dottoro3986]

I don't want to do this anymore, I'm going crazy

[@GrenouilleDS]

Watching this I feel the urge to kill my eating brain phone. At least put a screen for the mice too so it can enjoy as well. 😅

[@mediaconglomerate4897]

Pt. Why we cant stop reading every comment while we mindlessly scroll

[@MonyMoOse2O12]

I put my phone a way after this video and i immediatly teared for the wave of anxiety that hit me.

[@nivatharan9237]

Yap that's true

[@mrsvoice7292]

I was scrolling and listening to this video at the same time 🥲

[@Xplanetgaming]

Nice

[@godknows4454]

Soooo true

[@ioftendontreplybacktoidiot5251]

Thx!

[@dzairino2899]

nice

[@GCFLearnFree]

Thanks

[@LiamApilado]

We need an updated video relating to TikTok

[@GOWTAMVARMAKANUMURI]

Well said.

[@casouvideos]

EASY MONEY

[@julianpla8951]

@GCFLearnFree hi there im one of your subscribers and I need to do a short video for school about social media I've been trying to contact you to get your permission to use a short clip of one of your animations in my video.

[@samkennedy793]

Phenomenal video to explain this to kids! Thank you!

[@harinebhaskaran5580]

good

[@GCFLearnFree]

So nice of you! ;)

[@facundoa5829]

Primer comentario, un saludo

[@xXSepZXx]

Primera respuesta de primer comentario, un saludo

[@juanpa09y]

Primera respuesta, despues de la primera respuesta del primer comentario

[@xXSepZXx]

@@juanpa09y Primera respuesta de la respuesta a la respuesta del primer comentario, un saludo

[@lukmantantowi1455]

It's about dopamine

[@helionator]

For me as the mouse The food is memes

[@brulindavin]

I watched this video and I forgot to eat lunch!!

[@Jukuchina]

thank you so much ❤️

[@GCFLearnFree]

You're welcome 😊

[@a.c9952]

Does anyone know of any tips to stop the mindless scrolling? I have deleted the apps many times but I always found a way to get back to this habit Edit: Thanks for the advice! I genuinely appreciate it, I been trying to improve my attention span and reducing time scrolling is more than beneficial. Thanks again

[@douak2617]

Personally I try to avoid taking my phone on the morning and just live my life. I also TRY to avoid it on evening but most of the time I just stay scrolling, an i know how hard it is to control yourself... But if you try to at least spend half of your day without taking your phone (for a useless purpose ), that's already it. You can also give yourself for example better rewards if you stop scrolling than the small seconds of satisfaction a post could bring you. Also you can "hide " the icons of the "dangerous " apps, the ones you know will distract you. Try to keep a i-have-nothing-to-do-and-I-am-free account, separated from the one you use usually during a week of work or school for example. That's what I do for KZbin... (and also but this is harder, ask yourself WHY you do this, why you follow someone, if this brings you joy, etc. If you forget to ask yourselves these questions at the beginning, try at least to do it when you feel kinda fed up with this unstoppable scrolling, and then it could become an instinctive behaviour ). Hopefully this will help some of you 😅 HAVE A MINDFUL DAYYY XD

[@fahadus]

Always sign out when closing the app. Never leave it signed in and don't save the password. Even if signing in takes a few secs, it's just that extra friction that will help you kick the addiction. I removed the apps from the phone and just switched to using it on the computer and always signed out. If you can't be bothered, just open it in an incognito window and close it at the end of the session. That way you will have to sign in each time starting with the email. I can't believe the amount of time I've wasted on the feeds now that I can look back at it.

[@zeynebnv]

Download app called forest. And watch after yourself. Whenever you want to come back to the apps stop yourself

[@anonymousinternetuser2904]

This is a bit late, but try finding a hobby or interesting activities that have more benefits like planting a tree. My mum loves scrolling through Facebook in the past but after she planted a lot of trees in the backyard and now she spend a lot less time on her phone.

[@Hope-ou3mv]

Turn on Grayscale mode. Humans are very sensitive when it comes to clours

[@josuenascimento8644]

Amazing explanation! Thanks

[@GCFLearnFree]

You're welcome!

[@Kxt11]

Thanks a lot!

[@GCFLearnFree]

You're welcome!

[@lightlawliet3526]

you're wrong to assume people follow posts that are easily ignorable. what i mean is i have an insta where i mostly follow art accounts. around 500+ so i never run out of posts to like. so scrolling until you find stuff to like analogy is wrong. i also have another account for photography-related content. again rarely a post shows up that i'll not 'like'.

[@lime8074]

You still scroll to see the next post

[@lightlawliet3526]

@@lime8074 of course that's why i go to insta. to see all the posts.