Part of what shifted the online landscape was the widespread use of something called the “infinite scroll,” an internet design feature that allows you to scroll, well, forever, and never see the bottom of your feed. It’s how almost every social media platform operates these days. You have a feed, and it will keep serving up content for as long as you care to scroll. No more reaching the end of your feed because you had already seen everything your friends posted. No, you can look at Instagram forever, watching reels of strangers until you fall asleep with your thumb still on your touchscreen.
For the companies behind this tech, this is a no-brainer. It keeps the user engaged for much longer, meaning more revenue. But from the consumer side, something has been lost. The UX designer who claims to have invented the infinite scroll, Aza Raskin, has even expressed regret about his creation. In 2019, he told The Times he “did not foresee the consequences” of this tech, and that it was “one of the first products designed to not simply help a user, but to deliberately keep them online for as long as possible.” Even the purveyors of this tech know that it means some level of sacrifice.
In my early memories of the internet, it felt like a destination, not an endless void. But it’s less about the amount of content that the internet serves up than it is about the way we interact with it. Even back in 2007, the internet was way bigger than anything I could have wrapped my brain around. The way we engaged with that information, though, was radically different. Pre-infinite scroll, you would have to have some idea of where you wanted to go before you logged on. Maybe you wanted to check your messages on AOL. Maybe you wanted to see if your school friend had updated her Xanga page. Maybe you wanted to see new memes on Cheezburger.com. In any case, you weren’t aimlessly wandering. You had a purpose.
Subreddits are a great way to make your internet feel small again. Reddit is community-based, and though it features plenty of infinite scroll, it maintains its subreddits as destinations. This Blink-182 subreddit emulates the fanpages of yore, hosting information and connecting like-minded people. They’re a place for real fans to gather, to share information, and to build networks. It’s not overrun with bots or outsiders. Subreddits feel somewhat protected from the deluge of the internet, especially the more niche ones. Being an active part of one feels cozy and nostalgic, like you’re taking back part of the internet that was lost.
I’d be remiss if I didn't mention Cheezburger: that meme destination of your youth that is still here and currently hosting this article. There are still plenty of meme lists to check out, and though the content has changed with the times, the form remains nostalgic. The format of the listicle still has a lot to offer us in 2026, and it can be a balm for our infinite scroll itch. A listicle is, by necessity, finite. There is a certain number of memes, pictures, or facts you can scroll through before it’s over. Sure, there might sometimes be another listicle coming in right behind it, but it gives us a chance to choose how we engage. We have more agency over our time when we engage with the internet this way, instead of blindly surrendering to the flow of the feed.
There’s a moment in Bo Burnham’s 2021 comedy special Inside that I keep coming back to when thinking about the current state of the internet. He cynically observes:
“The outside world, the non-digital world, is merely a theatrical space in which one stages and records content for the much more real, much more vital digital space. One should only engage with the outside world as one engages with a coal mine. Suit up, gather what is needed, and return to the surface.”
It’s easy to feel like the internet is the “real” space and that everything that happens in real life is simply fodder for the digital world. We’ve switched our internet-to-real-life proportions in the wrong direction. The internet should be a tool that we can use to help us in our real lives, not a stand-in for real life itself. But if you know your way around it, you can bring back that old sense of comfort. Go back to puttering around Homestar Runner, play some Miniclip games, or maybe kick around Cheezburger for a while and see how you feel.