Attention
How sustained focus is measured, and what happens to it under frequent, short, highly stimulating content.
A citizen-led movement · Starting in India
Your attention is your life.
REELFREE NATION examines what the evidence says about algorithmically driven, infinite-scroll video feeds — and argues for protections built on evidence, not alarm.
Less scrolling. More living.
Why ReelFree?
The loop is the product.
Short-video feeds are not accidental. Their most familiar features are deliberate design decisions, and they are worth examining in the open.
One swipe becomes another.Another becomes an hour.
Infinite scroll
The feed has no end and no natural stopping point. Nothing marks where a session was meant to finish.
Autoplay
The next video begins on its own. Continuing requires no decision; stopping requires one.
Recommendation
The order is chosen by a system optimised to hold attention, and it adapts to whatever holds yours.
The evidence
Evidence first, argument second.
We are building a structured, public record of what research actually shows — including where it is uncertain, contested or simply not yet available.
Education
Study habits, classroom concentration and the conditions under which learning is disrupted or supported.
Youth wellbeing
How children and young people use these products, and where protections are most warranted.
Sleep
Timing, duration and quality of sleep in relation to late-night and pre-sleep device use.
Digital behaviour
Usage patterns, self-reported difficulty stopping, and how people describe their own habits.
Algorithmic recommendation
How ranking systems select content, what they optimise for, and what can be observed from outside.
Addictive design
Design patterns associated with compulsive use, and the evidence for and against each claim.
Research library
In preparationThe library is being built as a structured evidence database rather than a reading list. Every record will carry its source, its method and its limitations, and will separate what a study reports from our reading of it.
Every record will carry
- title
- authors
- publication
- year
- geography
- research_type
- population
- key_finding
- limitations
- source_url
- reelfree_interpretation
The movement
Built by the people it affects.
REELFREE NATION is citizen-led. It depends on people who see this closely enough to describe it accurately.
What is at stake
Students
The ability to focus, study, and finish what you start.
Parents
Healthier habits at home, built on something better than guesswork.
Teachers
Attention in the classroom, and the support schools need to protect it.
Researchers
Evidence held to a standard — including when it does not hold.
Citizens
Technology that serves people, and a say in how it is designed.
Our demand
Regulate the mechanism, not the speech.
Our objection is to a design pattern and the incentives behind it — not to short video, not to creators, and not to anyone's right to publish or watch.
Protect children first. Prove the rest.
REELFREE NATION advocates for evidence-based regulation of algorithmically driven, infinite-scroll short-form video feeds, with particular protection for children and young people.
How we label what we publish
- Fact
- Verifiable information.
- Research finding
- What a study reports.
- Interpretation
- Our analysis of the evidence.
- Opinion
- A viewpoint.
- Policy position
- What we ask governments or platforms to do.
Take action
Three things worth doing.
A small number of meaningful actions, not a wall of buttons. Two of these are open now; the third opens when its methodology and privacy review are complete.
Attention is something we can choose to reclaim.
Join the movement
Add your name to the people asking for evidence-based protection. Sign-up opens once the supporter record and its retention policy have been reviewed — we will not collect your details before we can tell you exactly how they are handled.
Opening soon
Explore the evidence
Read what we are examining and how we intend to hold it to a standard. The research library is being built in the open, and its structure is published before its contents.
Take the survey
A national survey on how short video fits into daily life. It will be anonymous by design, and its questionnaire, consent language, retention period and statistical method will be published before it collects a single response.
In preparation