“INFINITE SCROLL” AND THE PRACTICES OF NEGOTIATING ATTENTION IN THE USE OF SOCIAL MEDIA ON MOBILE PHONES

Abstract

This paper explores how mobile phone users negotiate attention through the interaction with social media on mobile phones where content is presented through the so-called infinite scroll or endless generation of new content aiming to keep the user online. Our review of existing literature defines “scroll” as a historical successor of television “flow” as the key mode of content presentation and distracted viewing. Our empirical research, however, discloses some hitherto less known dimensions of such media use. We collected journals from 24 undergraduate students of media at the Faculty of Political Science in Zagreb. Our analysis shows that skills of quick and brief communication allow our participants to respond meaningfully to the double pressure to maintain presence in both social and media space. They shift across these spaces routinely, not abandoning any of them ever fully, which leads them to negotiate norms of behaviour.