Every day, I am faced with a familiar scene: scrolling.
It’s a well-practiced manoeuvre in our society. No matter where you go, you are almost always guaranteed to find someone flicking through social media at a rapid rate.
But occasionally, the thumb stops moving and you can see a person’s attention hone in on one particular post.
As content creators, this is the moment we are looking for, this is the movement we crave.
After all, why dedicate so much time and effort on something that people barely give a second of screen time to? Quality content creation is important, but the real trouble lies in how to get people to pay attention to the things we make.
How do we stop the scroll?
How Attention Works (Scientifically)
Think of attention like a spotlight. We can only shine it one thing at once (otherwise we face the repercussions of “switching costs”).
Inside our brains, attention is a cognitive system that selects which information gets processed. The rest is filtered out.
In the digital world where we are fed constant stimuli from multiple sources, our brains become adept at rapidly scanning, rather than sustaining focus one thing at a time.
With the increase of our cognitive load, this increases the likelihood of disengagement.
Attention Killers
Too much information, too quickly
Overloading users increases cognitive strain, causing attention to drop before your message is even delivered.
Poor visual hierarchy
When everything looks equally important, it’s more difficult for the brain to know where to focus. If people can’t decide where they should be looking, they are more inclined to keep scrolling.
Sounding like everyone else
If people have heard a message before, they are less likely to listen to it again. If your content blends into the feed, its likely to get filtered out quicker.
How You Can Stop the Scroll
Pattern disruption
Duolingo’s TikTok account is wacky, unhinged, and unpredictable.
However, they often reach higher levels of engagement than brands with bigger budgets who have dedicated more resources.
Since their content breaks expectations, people are more likely to stop and watch.
For you brand, think about how you can defy typical narratives and create things that your audience won’t expect.
Use movement
Our brains prioritise change over static input.
Even subtle movements, like small animations, pop-up graphics, or transitions, help your video fight harder for precious attention.
Use deliberate motion to signal important information and keep viewers more engaged.
Signal value immediately
Humans are often lazy. Many of us want quick rewards derived from minimal effort.
To get people to stop scrolling, make the benefit of your content obvious from the get-go.
Use punchy openings, legible graphics, and clear headlines.
If users need to guess, dig through, or ‘stick around’ for meaning, there’s a high chance their attention will leave before the seed of curiosity can be planted.
These days, attention is a highly contested resource.
Before creating a piece of content, it’s well worth taking those few extra moments to consider exactly how you are getting people to stick around.
Scrolling is a tough opponent to face, but with the right tools it can be defeated.
