Though the data from such experiments are not fully available for public scrutiny, the evidence suggests that content-feed tweaks more easily generate negative emotions (e.g., vanity or paranoia) than positive ones (e.g., optimism or self-esteem). This is why social media is such a tempting tool for psychological warfare: It can be used to poison a... See more

TikTok’s For You tab serves an endless stream of short videos that algorithmically adapt to your interests, sorting the content most likely to engage you. Using it feels like having your mind read, because all you do is watch or skip, focus or ignore, a decision made too fast to be fully conscious. Individual videos or accounts matter less than cat... See more

Platforms like TikTok and Instagram are engines of distraction and cultural rot. They stand in front of the more difficult but more rewarding aspects of life: deep work, intimate connections with friends and loved ones, focused attention for hobbies with intrinsic rewards. By training users to crave constant novelty and the immediate approval of an... See more