The feed doesn’t know
when you’re done.
Helping somebody post more is not the same as helping them get what they came for.
You open X to check one thing. Somebody has built a motorcycle out of a refrigerator. Well, you should probably see that. Below it, two men are arguing about the Roman Empire. Now you’re responsible for Rome.
The thing you came to check is long gone. There’s no particular moment when the feed says, “That answers your question. Have a nice afternoon.”
BoomScrolling is our early app for reading posts and editing suggested responses. I’ve written about turning some of that reading into something you want to say. But finishing a reply can start another loop: checking whether anybody liked it, misunderstood it or needs correcting.
That gives me a problem as the person building the tool. More replies would be easy to call progress. Progress toward what?
The system can change the assignment.
In Systemantics, John Gall and D.H. Gall describe what happens when people get absorbed in a system:
“Eventually you come to believe that the misbegotten product it so grudgingly delivers is What You Really Wanted all the time”
John Gall and D.H. Gall, Systemantics: The Systems Bible
You wanted to understand something. The system gave you forty posts about it. You wanted a conversation. It gave you a number beside a heart.
Those things can be useful or enjoyable. The mistake is letting what’s available replace what you wanted, without noticing the exchange.
BoomScrolling could make that mistake too. If somebody came to work out one response and left with ten drafts they now feel obliged to finish, we shouldn’t congratulate ourselves on the increased output.
I want to know whether they found something worth saying, decided against saying it or understood the subject a little better. Those are different outcomes. Counting posts won’t tell us which happened.
A thought is allowed to take its time.
There’s another trap in making it easier to respond. You can become quicker at saying things you haven’t thought about.
Epictetus put it rather physically:
“For there is great danger in hastily throwing out what is undigested.”
Epictetus, The Enchiridion, section 46
He was writing about people showing off their philosophy. It happens to travel well to a reply box.
A suggested response can be useful to argue with. It can also sound so complete that you borrow the confidence along with the words. Before putting your name on it, you still have to ask: do I know this, do I mean it, and is there anything here beyond a well-dressed reaction?
Sometimes the useful result is a question. Sometimes it’s a draft you leave until tomorrow. Sometimes it’s realizing you don’t have an opinion yet. The internet will survive the delay. It has reserves.
Give the visit a stopping point.
Here’s a small experiment to try with the free beta:
- Bring one reason for being there. Work on a response to one conversation. Find something interesting. Enjoy a little nonsense until the coffee’s gone. Enjoying yourself counts.
- Read the source and make a decision. Edit a suggestion, save a draft with ChatGPT sign-in or choose Skip post in the response menu. A polished sentence you don’t mean is a reason to pass.
- Finish after that decision. You can leave without posting. If you hand the draft off to X, review the words and account there before deciding whether to send it yourself. Checking the reaction can be a separate choice later.
You set this stopping point yourself. BoomScrolling doesn’t enforce a timer or block X.
The current starter feed is a prepared selection of real posts with suggested responses. You can try it without signing in; ChatGPT sign-in lets you save drafts. The beta doesn’t watch your X likes, load your personal Following feed or post automatically. There’s a plain explanation and walkthrough if you’d like to see what’s there.
Can BoomScrolling help with Twitter or X addiction?
BoomScrolling is a response-editing tool, not a treatment for addiction. We haven’t shown that it reduces screen time or compulsive use. If your aim is to stop using X, another feed may be the wrong place to start. You don’t need to turn an unwanted habit into useful output to earn the right to stop.
If your use feels out of control and is hurting your sleep, work or relationships, speak with a qualified mental health professional. The American Psychiatric Association’s resource on technology use offers further guidance.
We have to find out whether it helped.
The same scrutiny belongs on our app. If people tell us that BoomScrolling gives them more reasons to keep checking X, that has to affect what we build. A nice intention won’t settle it.
I want the tool to help somebody reach a decision they’re happy with. That’s a standard to test, not a result we’ve established.
And if the decision is “I’ve had enough of this for today,” we should be able to count that too.