Why are Reels and Shorts so hard to stop watching?

Reels and Shorts are hard to stop mostly because of how the feed is built. The next video starts the moment you swipe, the feed has no end, you never know whether the next one will be good, nothing on screen counts the time, and the recommendations keep learning from what you just watched. Each video is short, so one more never feels like a real decision. Free settings such as Instagram's Following feed and YouTube's Shorts feed limit help a little. If you want to keep your DMs and lose the endless feed, minulo hides Reels and Shorts for free.

2026-10-23

Written by Ayumu Kitabayashi, the developer of minulo. Every outside source below was opened and checked on 2026-10-23. This page explains how the apps are designed and what you can change. It isn't medical advice, and feeling hooked on a feed isn't a diagnosis.

What the feed does	Why it makes stopping harder	What helps
The next video plays by itself	You never decide to press play. Swiping is the only step, so stopping is the thing you have to choose.	Turn on YouTube's Take a break reminder. Hide the Reels and Shorts feeds.
The feed has no end	YouTube's help calls the Shorts feed "a never-ending stream of videos". There is no last video where you would naturally stop.	Set the Shorts feed limit to 0. Use Instagram's Following feed, which only goes back 30 days.
You can't tell if the next one will be good	Most videos are fine, and now and then one is really funny. Researchers compare this to intermittent rewards.	Snooze suggested posts. Remove the feed instead of trying to scroll less.
Nothing counts the time	The video fills the screen and the feed doesn't show how many you've watched or how long you've been there.	Screen Time limits, Downtime, a charger away from the bed.
The picks learn from what you just watched	Instagram says the most important signal for Reels is your recent activity, so the feed fits tonight's mood more and more.	Following feed, Not interested, or a feed that doesn't recommend at all.
Each video is short	A Short is at most 3 minutes. One more feels like it costs nothing, and many of those add up to half an hour.	Decide once, before you open the app, by hiding the feed.

A familiar evening

You open Instagram to reply to a friend's DM. They sent you a reel, you watch it, swipe up once, and the next time you check the clock, 30 minutes have gone and the DM still isn't answered. Nothing about that is unusual. Instagram says Reels are built for entertainment and that most of what you see there comes from accounts you don't follow. In minulo's own anonymous usage data, most social media sessions happen between 8 pm and 1 am (Japan time, where most of the data comes from), late in the day, when most people are tired.

1. The next video is already playing

On Reels and Shorts you don't choose a video and press play. A swipe starts the next one straight away, so watching takes no decision and stopping does. Montag and colleagues (2019), in a review of what makes social media hard to put down, describe autoplay this way: as soon as one video ends the next begins, and viewers become more and more absorbed, "which makes it hard to stop watching."

In a survey of 120 YouTube users in the US, Lukoff and colleagues (2021) found that autoplay and recommendations were the features that mainly reduced people's sense of control over their use, while search and playlists supported it. That study looked at the regular YouTube app, not Shorts in particular.

2. There is no last video

YouTube's own help page says that from the Shorts player, viewers "can scroll to watch a never-ending stream of videos in the Shorts Feed." A TV episode ends, a chapter ends, a news page ends. A short video feed doesn't. Montag and colleagues point out that endless scrolling means you never reach a natural stopping point where you might think about quitting.

3. You never know if the next one will be good

Most videos in the feed are just OK. Every so often one is very funny, useful or exactly your taste, and you can't tell which swipe will bring it. Montag and colleagues write that endless scrolling is reinforced because you find something rewarding "from time to time", and connect this to research on intermittent rewards in slot machines. Because most reels come from accounts you don't follow, the next one really is a surprise.

4. Nothing on screen tracks the time

A reel or Short fills the screen, and the feed doesn't show how many you've watched or how long you've been there. Montag and colleagues note that being absorbed in an app goes with losing track of time, and that this kind of absorption is what many app developers aim for. That is why 30 minutes can feel like five.

5. The feed learns from what you just watched

Instagram explains that for Reels it predicts how likely you are to reshare a reel, watch it all the way through, like it and go to its audio page. The most important signal, it says, is your activity: which reels you've liked, saved, reshared, commented on and engaged with recently. Instagram also asks people in surveys whether a reel was worth their time or fun, and learns from the answers.

YouTube says its recommendations use your viewing behavior, likes, dislikes, subscriptions and feedback, including satisfaction surveys. So what you watch tonight shapes what you are shown next, and the feed gets closer to what keeps you watching.

6. Each video is short, so one more feels cheap

YouTube's help says Shorts can be up to 3 minutes long. When the next video costs a few seconds or a minute, it doesn't feel worth stopping to decide. You make that small choice again and again, and none of them feels like choosing to spend half an hour. This is our explanation, not a finding from a study.

What research says, and what it doesn't

A large review by Nguyen and colleagues in Psychological Bulletin (2025), combined 71 studies with 98,299 participants. Heavier short-form video use was associated with poorer attention and self-control (inhibitory control), and with poorer mental health, most clearly more stress and anxiety. It was not associated with body image or self-esteem. The authors stress that most of the studies were cross-sectional and correlational, so they can't say which comes first. For example, people who are already stressed may turn to short videos for relief.

How common heavy use is: in a Pew Research Center survey of 1,458 US teens aged 13 to 17 (September 25 to October 9, 2025), about one in five said they use TikTok and YouTube "almost constantly", and 12% said this of Instagram. These are the teens' own answers, not measured screen time.

So the evidence for what the design does is strong in the sense that the platforms describe it themselves. The evidence for what it does to people is mostly correlations. You don't need a study to know the half hour went somewhere you didn't plan.

Free settings that make stopping easier

Instagram Following feed. Tap the Instagram logo at the top of your feed and choose Following. Meta says it shows posts only from accounts you follow, in chronological order, with no suggested posts, going back 30 days. You have to pick it again each time, and the Reels tab stays. How to see only people you follow.
Snooze suggested posts. Tap the X on a suggested post, then Snooze all suggested posts for 30 days. How to hide suggested posts.
YouTube Shorts feed limit. You > Settings > Time management > Shorts feed limit, and choose 0. When you reach it, a reminder appears that you can dismiss. How to set it to 0.
YouTube Take a break reminder. Profile picture > Settings > General > Remind me to take a break. YouTube says it's on by default for ages 13 to 17 and off for adults, and you can tap to keep watching.
Screen Time. An App Limit or Downtime with a passcode can stop Instagram or YouTube opening at all, but it blocks DMs too. How to block Instagram on iPhone and how to stop scrolling at night.

All of these leave the endless feed one tap away, which is the point of the list above: it is easier to remove the feed once than to resist it every evening.

Keep DMs, lose the feed: minulo

minulo is an iPhone app that opens Instagram, YouTube, TikTok and Snapchat with Reels, Shorts, Explore and suggested posts hidden, while DMs, search and regular posts keep working. Hiding them is free. You can still reply to that friend's DM and watch the reel they sent, and the feed doesn't start after it. If you want the official apps locked at certain times as well, minulo can do that with Screen Time (up to 2 hours per block for free; schedules are Pro).

Why are Reels and short videos so addictive?

Mostly because of the design. The next video plays as soon as you swipe, the feed never ends, you can't tell whether the next one will be good, nothing on screen counts the time, and the recommendations learn from what you just watched. Instagram and YouTube describe these features themselves. Feeling hooked isn't a diagnosis; it's a sign the feed is doing what it was built to do.

Why can't I stop scrolling Reels even when I'm bored?

Because every swipe might bring a really good video, and finding one now and then keeps you going. Researchers compare this to intermittent rewards. There's also no last video and no clock in the feed, so there's never a natural moment to stop.

Are short videos bad for your attention?

A 2025 review of 71 studies found that heavier short-form video use was associated with poorer attention and self-control and with more stress and anxiety. Most of those studies were cross-sectional, so they can't show that short videos cause these problems; it could also be that stressed people watch more.

Does YouTube's Shorts feed limit stop Shorts?

Not completely. You can set it to 0 under You > Settings > Time management > Shorts feed limit, but when you reach the limit YouTube shows a reminder you can dismiss or ignore. It's a reminder, not a block.

Can I keep Instagram DMs but get rid of Reels?

Not inside the Instagram app, but you can with minulo. It opens Instagram with Reels, Explore and suggested posts hidden while your DMs keep working, and hiding them is free. It does the same for YouTube Shorts and TikTok's For You feed.

Sources

How to stop doomscrolling at night →Stop opening Instagram out of habit →Reset Instagram Reels recommendations →Turn off YouTube autoplay and recommendations →Use Instagram for DMs only →Free apps to block Reels and Shorts →Who hides Reels and Shorts: minulo data →