Byte Curious

First, Let's Be Honest: You're in a Toxic Relationship with Your Feed When you catch yourself endlessly scrolling through your news feed, emerging drained and disheartened, you're not just indulging a bad habit; you're entangled in a spectacle by design. This phenomenon, widely known as doomscrolling , isn't a personal failure but a consequence of how social media algorithms hook our attention. The experience can be likened to falling down a 'scroll-hole', a place where time bends and the exit seems just a few swipes away yet ever elusive. Our brains have a built-in 'negativity bias', a primordial quirk ensuring that threats (i.e., negative news) have a VIP pass to our attention [1] . This bias explains the velcro-like grip that bad news holds over us. Engaging with this content feels almost reflexive, as our brains try to process and react to threats, albeit perceived ones through our screens. By understanding this, we can start to depersonaliz...

Why Your Feed Feels Like a Vending Machine Ever found yourself mindlessly reaching for a snack from a vending machine, knowing full well it's not the healthiest option? Many of us treat our digital feeds in a similar way. Engineered for compulsive use, social media algorithms prioritize content that fuels engagement—often at the cost of our well-being. These algorithms, skilled in the art of digital persuasion, aren't designed to prioritize your happiness or mental health but rather to keep you scrolling indefinitely. Within this digital vending machine, it's easy to consume the digital equivalent of 'empty calories'—outrage bait, envy-inducing comparison traps, and relentless influencer marketing. Like junk food, they provide an immediate, fleeting spike in engagement, but similar to a sugar crash, they leave us feeling empty, dissatisfied, or worse, agitated and anxious. This analogy isn't just a poetic comparison; it's a reflection of the psychologica...