the Endless Scroll Trap: How Attention Economy Steals Your Time — and to Take It Back

You opened your phone for a minute. Where did the next hour go? The endless scroll is not an accident. Behind every feed is an economy competing for something more valuable than money: your attention. In The Endless Scroll Trap, Yonas Gebremichael takes you inside the systems that turn spare moments into sessions, habits into revenue, and attention into a commodity. From the invisible auctions operating behind digital advertising to infinite scroll, notifications, social comparison, and the disappearing stopping points of everyday life, the book asks a deceptively simple question: Who gets to decide what your attention is for? But this is not another alarmist argument that every screen is harmful. It examines the strongest evidence, the limits of that evidence, and the uncomfortable reality that the science is often more complicated than the headlines. Inside, you'll discover: - How the attention economy profits from keeping you engaged- Why feeds, notifications, and frictionless design can make stopping so difficult- What research actually says-and does not say-about screens, focus, well-being, children, and relationships- How fragmented minutes can quietly consume a meaningful part of a life- Practical ways to build stronger boundaries and use technology more intentionally This is not a guilt trip. It is a field guide to seeing the system clearly. You do not have to abandon technology. But you can stop letting every spare moment be claimed by default. Your attention is your life in pieces. The question is where you want those pieces to go.