The problem lies in social media platforms' automatic refresh behaviors, particularly Instagram's forced feed refresh when users scroll up. This design choice disrupts user experience by unexpectedly resetting the scroll position, pushing new content consumption, and creating accessibility challenges for some users. It represents a broader tension between platform engagement goals and user wellbeing.

A User-Controlled Alternative

One approach could be implementing a settings toggle that disables automatic feed refresh. When enabled, users would need to manually pull down to refresh, similar to many email apps. The system could optionally maintain scroll positions for short periods and provide subtle indicators when new content is available. This would cater particularly well to intentional browsers and users with certain accessibility needs while still allowing platform engagement when users choose to refresh.

Balancing Stakeholder Interests

While users and digital wellbeing advocates would benefit from increased control, platforms might be concerned about engagement metrics. However, there are potential alignments:

• Improved long-term user retention through better experience
• More meaningful engagement with content when users do interact
• Preemptive addressing of digital wellbeing concerns

Implementation Considerations

Starting with a simple toggle in the settings menu would allow testing the concept with minimal development effort. Building on existing patterns from email clients and some third-party social apps could provide a familiar interaction model. The feature could initially preserve scroll position only during active sessions before potentially expanding to longer-term persistence.

This approach demonstrates how social platforms might give users more control over their experience while maintaining the platform's business objectives. The existence of similar patterns in other content-consumption apps suggests it could work well for certain user segments.