infinite scroll
/ˈɪnfɪnɪt skroʊl/
CommonA feed design that loads new content automatically as you scroll, with no end.
Both a technical UI pattern and a cultural symbol for the addictive design of social apps. People use it to talk about the design itself or the experience of being trapped in a feed.
Real-world examples4 examples
| # | Example | What it means | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| 01 | infinite scroll was a mistake and whoever invented it owes me three hours | The person lost hours to scrolling and blames the design. | x, 2023 |
| 02 | tiktok infinite scroll is different. it knows you better than you know yourself | TikTok's version of the endless feed is particularly effective at keeping people watching. | reddit, 2022 |
| 03 | the guy who invented infinite scroll says he regrets it. a little late for that | Reacting to the original designer's public regret with sarcasm. | x, 2023 |
| 04 | i need an app with a hard stop. infinite scroll is not compatible with my executive function | The person finds it impossible to stop scrolling and wants a design that enforces a limit. | tiktok, 2024 |
Use it when
- Describing how a social media feed never ends.
- Criticizing app design choices that keep users scrolling.
- Explaining why someone lost an hour on their phone.
- Discussing the attention economy or addictive app patterns.
Do not use it when
- You mean scrolling a lot, not the design pattern specifically.Use “scroll-hole” instead.
Infinite scroll vs scroll-hole
infinite scroll
Infinite scroll is the feed design itself, the technical mechanism.
VS
scroll-hole
Scroll-hole is the experience of falling into that feed and losing time.
Origin and context
The design pattern was created by Aza Raskin around 2006 while working at Humanized, later absorbed by Mozilla. It was adopted widely across social platforms throughout the 2010s. Raskin later publicly stated he regrets creating it.
- First seen
- 2006
- Confidence
- high
Cite this page
Use this stable URL to reference the entry.
https://slang.fyi/infinite-scrollUpdated: 2026-08-28License: CC BY 4.0