What is The Home Feed Detour?
You open the app to do one thing. It opens onto a recommendation feed built to replace your plan with its own, and the thing you came for sits a search box away.
Where it comes from
Recommendation-first app design (2010s)
How it hooks you
Exploits intention interference: a vivid, novel stimulus presented before you act on a plan can quietly overwrite the plan.
What the research shows
71% of videos users regretted watching came from YouTube's recommendations, and recommended videos were 40% more likely to be regretted than searched ones.
Source: Mozilla Foundation, 'YouTube Regrets' crowdsourced study (2021)
How to resist it
Enter apps through search, subscriptions, or a direct link. If the home feed loads first, treat it as a detour, not a destination.