Short-form video platforms such as TikTok, Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts use an effective tactic to maximise the time their users spend on the platform: they feed one video after another into the algorithmically generated feed. As you scroll, new content loads automatically. This creates an endless loop of ever-changing content with no discernible end.
A study by Graz University of Technology (TU Graz) has now quantified the negative effects of these recommender systems on people with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), who, among other things, experience impairments in executive functions such as impulse control, time management and self-regulation. The researchers led by Elisabeth Lex from the Institute of Human-Centred Computing define the phenomenon of the “engagement trap” as a state in which algorithms capture users’ attention so effectively that the ability to deliberately stop using the service is systematically undermined. “By the ‘engagement trap’, we mean a situation in which (video) recommendations are, on the one hand, perceived as highly relevant, but, on the other hand, people find it very difficult to tear themselves away from the screen and consciously control their own behaviour.” They lose control over when to stop and put their mobile phones away – and, unfortunately, this particularly affects people with ADHD, according to Elisabeth Lex.
Losing track of time and emotional strain following use
The results of the study, which involved 302 participants, highlight significant differences in the user experience between groups with and without ADHD. Everyone rated the content of the video recommendations as equally relevant to their personal interests. However, the consequences of its use varied considerably. Participants with ADHD suffered from a marked lack of the awareness of time and reported great difficulty in perceiving the time that had actually elapsed while scrolling. As a result, they often stayed online for much longer than they had intended and found it difficult to stop engaging with the short-form video platforms.
The negative effects do not end when the app is closed, but often result in emotional distress. The study shows that people with ADHD often experience intense feelings of regret and guilt after consuming short videos. They often feel that the time spent doing so was not valuable, important planned tasks had been put on hold, and they report that their mood deteriorated. “Our findings show that recommender systems optimised for engagement place a disproportionate emotional and behavioural burden on people with ADHD,” Lex goes on to explain.
Calls for inclusive design solutions
In light of this systemic inequality, researchers at TU Graz are calling for the design of digital interfaces to be made sensitive to neurodiversity. The study found that participants were interested in support in the form of a fixed maximum number of videos per session or continuous visual time displays. Elisabeth Lex emphasises the responsibility of developers: “To redress this imbalance, we must move away from optimisation focused purely on engagement towards human-centred design practices that explicitly support users’ sense of time and their intentional control.” Such inclusive features could help to mitigate the negative effects of the engagement trap in the long term and strengthen digital self-determination.
Platform operators under pressure
These scientific findings from TU Graz come against the backdrop of an increasingly public, political and legal debate over whether platform operators such as Meta encourage compulsive or potentially addictive use through certain design elements and recommendation systems, thereby breaching their duty of care. In the US, Meta and Google were found negligent by a jury in a landmark case in March 2026 and ordered to pay a total of US$6 million in damages; TikTok and Snapchat had previously reached out-of-court settlements with the claimant. Developments have now also taken concrete shape at EU level: In February 2026, the European Commission identified preliminary breaches of the Digital Services Act by TikTok, and in July 2026 by Instagram and Facebook, due to ‘addictive’ designs. The focus is, amongst other things, on infinite scrolling, autoplay, push notifications and personalised recommendation systems, as well as their potential impact on physical and mental health, particularly that of minors and vulnerable adults.
Elisabeth Lex holds the endowed chair in ‘Human-Computer Interfaces and Inclusive Technologies’ at TU Graz; this is financially supported by the Erzherzog-Johann-Gesellschaft Initiativ für Kinder und Jugendliche mit Behinderungen association. The aim of the endowed chair is to bring inclusion and technology even closer together.
To the study by TU Graz:
Vedad Misirlic, Gregor Mayr, Elisabeth Lex (2026). Quantifying the Engagement Trap: Impact of Short-form Video Recommender Systems on Users with ADHD. Preprint available at: https://arxiv.org/html/2609.07795v1 . The study will be presented in October 2026 at the 28th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility in Portugal and has been nominated for the Best Paper Award.
People
Quantifying the Engagement Trap: Impact of Short-form Video Recommender Systems on Users with ADHD.