And this is exactly why, on top of all of BigTech's other countless evils, I tell people I don't have an Instagram account. And many times they act like I'm strange or pitiful for refusing to subject myself to it.

Even if I tried to only post my own thing and nothing else, it's just designed to arrest your attention on purpose. I once was managing the account for a group I was in, and I still doomscrolled.

Infinite scrolling is terrible design because your brain keeps thinking the next best thing you've ever seen is gonna be the next one, the next one, the next one.

And your "quick check" becomes "Dude if I had started Return of the King extended edition when I opened this cursed thing, it would have been over by now!"

Pro Tip: There's lots of neat Firefox extensions that block a lot of YouTube's addiction features like recommended feeds. You can re-enable it temporarily if that's actually how you wish to spend your time. :)