The System is Winning
It’s 1:42 AM on a Wednesday. My eyes are dry. I can’t even keep them open. The sweet seduction of sleep is pulling me in, yet I fight to stay awake. Not to do anything important, just to rot my brain away.
Doomscrolling.
Despite the inherently addictive nature of social media, the most frightening thing about our society’s collective use is that every one of us is seemingly aware we are being manipulated by the system, yet none of us have the tools to fight it. We’re getting harvested.
What’s the “system”?
Social media algorithms, “for you” pages built to be perfectly curated just for us. Every post we linger on for a few seconds longer than our usual 7 second attention span, our location (fyp getting too local
), the posts that our friends like, and anything that we interact with immediately feeds the algorithm, providing it a constant feedback input on how to keep you hooked. In my opinion, social media isn’t about innocent entertainment anymore—it’s a real way to force us to be nonfunctional without daily hours of scrolling that feed us bursts of dopamine. This is the greatest weapon of the 5.81 x 2.82 inch piece of metal in your pocket: an all too easy entry into the “flow state” in which we lose track of time. Dependent on the content in our phones as if it were an organ. Yes, this is the same “flow state” that those study tips and hacks videos tell you is the secret to getting good grades—only this time, it’s not for productivity, but to rot.
To start with the very nature and source of Instagram Reels, Tiktok, and Youtube Shorts, they’re infinite.
There’s a constant stream of content, preventing users from reaching a point where they’ve exhausted the available material. “Did I just reach the end of reels?” No, you did not. And you never will. You know that’s exactly the truth as you apologetically scroll away from a video talking about how you need to get off your phone. When we realize that there’s the whole world at our fingertips, from movie edits to get ready with me’s and outfits of the day fashion inspiration videos, there’s an alarming loss of urgency. Why get on with my life if I can feed off of the lives of others? Why should I touch grass when I can watch edits of free climbers soloing a mountain? Why should I care about anything other than what other people think of me?
Secondly, it’s full of hate.
“Omg girl!! You so chopped” “Where’s the hate” “Guys stop commenting so much hate I can’t like them all” “n*****” “women
” “How to avoid this build
”
Here’s a great example: (referencing a persons apperance)
There’s a cruel paradox that exists: social media can host important movements for body positivity and eating disorder awareness while the actual user behavior in comment sections completely undermines those efforts. Social media users often feed off others’ appearances to make themselves feel better about their own insecurities, driven by the natural human desire to lift oneself up by putting others down. Hate targeting a creator’s weight or appearance are all too common, perpetuating cycles of targeted cruelty. In this culture, the positive aspects of social media—in uplifting others—feel meaningless when comment sections remain full of people degrading others.
How can anything substantially meaningful to our growth as open-minded adolescents come from a place of such unwarranted hate? Those comments about the poster’s weight might’ve been a somewhat funny joke for approximately 5 seconds for the user who commented that, but the sheer amount of hate comments on a singular post can add up to an emotional toll that can be seriously damaging for the person receiving these comments. It’s like 100 strangers who have never known you except for a 15 second video telling you you’re so incredibly “chopped” (meaning ugly).
Lastly, we all know the system’s winning, but we can’t do anything to stop it. I’ve personally downloaded several different screen time management apps (Opal, Flora, OneSec, etc.) and nothing works. My brain is now programmed to crave the dopamine that’s released when I scroll on Instagram or TikTok. While I don’t think everybody in my generation is as rewired as I am, I think one thing still remains clear: that the system is programmed to win, and unless we don’t fight against it, it will.