anesthetized by algorithms

The generations that came before us had family as an emotional default, nature as regulation, and faith as a pillar of hope. They were lucky to have people and things connect to them on a deeper level.

Our generation lives in the digital age. It just feels as though we're all connected, but in reality, we've never been lonelier. After a bad day, we don’t sit with the feeling; we unlock our phones and scroll until the pain is edited down, dulled into something almost unrecognizable. I rarely find myself agreeing with people from older age groups when they criticize our generation, but the one thing I do agree with them on is the fact that, our obsession with the dopamine loop is NOT normal; it's far from it. It's messed up and so destructive, yet so normalized.

And it’s not just psychological, it actually messes with our brains. Every like, comment, and unpredictable burst of a new post triggers dopamine in the same neural circuits tied to reward and addiction, the pathways that reinforce behavior the way drugs or gambling do. Over time, the brain starts craving these tiny hits, lowering dopamine receptor sensitivity so real-world pleasures feel duller and less worth your attention, while the next scroll feels urgent and indispensable.

Sometimes I notice it in my brain too. Every notification or unpredictable post triggers this tiny hit of dopamine, and I start craving it almost without thinking. The more I scroll, the more ordinary things feel dull, and the easier it becomes to ignore consequences or skip over uncomfortable feelings. Even when I’m offline, my attention jumps, my thoughts feel fragmented, and I realize I’ve trained myself to expect quick hits instead of actual reflection. It’s not tragic, it’s just how things are now. And that casualness, that quiet rewiring of how I think and feel, is the part that sticks with me.

What bothers me most is how normal this all feels. None of it looks extreme enough to question. Everyone’s doing the same thing, feeling the same dull restlessness, reaching for the same distractions, so it passes as fine. There’s no clear breaking point, no obvious damage, just a slow shift in how we exist with ourselves. We’re constantly stimulated but rarely settled, constantly informed but rarely present. And maybe that’s the real issue, not that we’re online too much, but that we’ve quietly forgotten what it feels like to be undistracted without needing to escape it.

Social media has polluted the idea of recognition so much that we are left with no option but to glorify our lives into something curated and tasteful just to feel substantiated. And what's so messed up is that, even after trash-talking social media and the devil it sows in all of us, this article will end up on my Instagram bio.