Social media feeds are essentially a curated maze of algorithmic manipulation
Last week, for example, I scrolled through a feed on X and every single post felt like it was designed to provoke a reaction—but not a genuine human connection. Someones vacation photo was sandwiched between an inflammatory political meme and an advertisement that seemed to know me too well. The algorithm is reducing human experiences to engagement metrics, turning our most personal moments into content to be consumed, liked, and quickly forgotten.
The real tragedy isn't just the superficial nature of these interactions, but how they're fundamentally rewiring our capacity for empathy. These platforms have become master manipulators of our attention, creating echo chambers that reinforce our existing beliefs and isolate us from different perspectives. Each like, each share, each comment becomes a tiny brick in an invisible wall that separates us from genuine understanding.
Pick any even slightly triggering post and you won't see nuanced dialogue (not sure if I have ever seen a long civil discussion on X), but a conversation that devolves into aggressive sound bites and outrage. People aren't listening to understand; they are listening to attack. Is it outrageous to state that the algorithm rewards conflict and not connection? It serves up content that triggers our most base emotional responses—anger, fear, indignation—because these generate the most engagement.
Just to take an example from YouTube. Have you noticed how the thumbnails there have devolved over the recent years? A while back I heard that the single most important factor for getting your videos trending there are the thumbnails: make them interesting and you are guaranteed clicks and rewards... Well I can hardly browse the trending page there (not that I ever use it anyway) since they have become so ridiculous.
The consequences are profound. Our ability to empathize is a muscle, and social media definitely is not helping in that regard. We're becoming experts at crafting performative responses rather than developing genuine emotional intelligence. A sad post gets a quick emoji, a political argument becomes a battlefield, and complex human experiences are reduced to binary likes and shares.
Algorithms learn from our interactions, creating increasingly narrow paths of content that confirm our existing worldviews. If I show even a moment's interest in a particular perspective, suddenly my entire feed becomes an amplification of that viewpoint. It's like being trapped in an echo chamber where every wall reflects back our own beliefs, eliminating the possibility of genuine discovery or meaningful dialogue. Not that this is a really new insight, but it's still something to keep in mind when browsing the interwebs...
Conclusion
Okay enough contemplation, I still have to get through my feed on X and reply to my 8 followers. It's incredibly important that I they hear what I have to say about Hunter Biden's pardon.
Glad that Joe-Hypocrite-Biden is on his way out.
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