I designed and built this installation as an educational and interactive infographic that uses people's movement and physical behavior to mimic and therefore demonstrate the psychology behind user addiction to smartphones and social media.

The text reads "The CEO of Netflix claimed that its biggest competitors are not Snapchat or YouTube, but sleep. The business models of digital media companies are based on grabbing and holding your attention. They are paid by advertisers to keep you glued to your screen for as long as possible. The digital interface is not the product, your attention is. They provide you with an endless trail of content so that you don't know when to stop scrolling. Do you know where this trail ends? They use deliberate but subtle design choices that feed you the right information at the right time in the right place. A little bit like the fact that you are reading this while making your way upstairs, with the text conveniently made to exactly fit your journey. The aim is for you to become addicted to the feeling of anticipation; wanting to discover what information is just around the corner. Is that why you followed this line?"

A concept known as ‘The Magic Maybe’ describes the addictive anticipation users feel between taking an action and receiving an unpredictable result, ike clicking a notification or refreshing a feed. This is evident in features like the ‘pull to refresh’ gesture, designed to mimic a slot machine lever, and the typing indicator bubbles in chats. Similarly, endless scroll, prominent on platforms like TikTok, removes clear stopping points, encouraging continuous engagement. This mirrors a 2005 study by Brian Wansink, where people unknowingly ate 73% more soup from self-refilling bowls, showing how lack of visible limits leads to overconsumption. Features like YouTube autoplay and infinite comment threads follow the same design logic.

The aim is that the trail of text mimics these subconscious feelings and turns the concept into a bigger physical action for the audience.