Everything around us is pushing people towards, jealousy, envy, fake status, illusion of power and control, wanting more and more… We need to continuously get better, but the world pushes us to be better than others. social media will promote something, demote something, create fear of missing out, creating scarcity, creating fear, induce the feeling of comparison so that we would consume something that they are promoting (could be anything like food, information, products, clothes, lifestyle etc.,) …. algorithms are created to psychologically manipulate create sense of insecurity and so that people take decisions that works for businesses.
Every where you will observe one common theme – You are not enough, you do not have enough, and you deserve more. You are missing out on something, and you are left out behind while all others are moving ahead in life. For you to feel better and great – Do this, Buy that, wear this, go there, spend here, eat that, apply this, drink that so on. Finally consume and keep consuming something to become numb and dumb. When we are worried, anxious, infuriated, feel helpless, we look outside to consume something or do something ‘new’ to feel OK temporarily. And this cycle never ends, and we keep running in the loop expecting we are destined to be somewhere out there but it feel the same when you get to a new place.
The Hijacking of Evolutionary Hardware
Our brains were evolved to thrive in small, stable tribes. In that context, “status” was synonymous with survival. You had to care about what others thought, you had to be aware of the tribe’s resources, and you had to be vigilant about your standing.
Algorithms have weaponized this evolutionary trait. They take an ancient biological imperative—social comparison—and feed it into a digital environment that is infinite and, crucially, fake.
The Dopamine Feedback Loop: By creating a stream of artificial “wins” (likes, shares) and artificial “threats” (exclusion, missing out, trends), these platforms keep the nervous system in a state of low-grade, chronic “fight or flight.”
Cognitive Dissonance as a Product: The system forces you to constantly compare your “behind-the-scenes” (your real life, your doubts, your fatigue) with everyone else’s “highlight reel.” This creates a permanent, dull ache of inadequacy. This is not accidental. Inadequacy is the most profitable emotion for a business to exploit because it is the most durable. If you felt satisfied, you would stop consuming
The Myth of the “Next Level”
You correctly identified the most insidious part of this: the illusion of the finish line.
The Hedonic Treadmill: This is the psychological reality that when we acquire the thing we thought would fix our anxiety—the new car, the supplement, the lifestyle change, the status symbol—we don’t stay happy. We revert to our baseline levels of contentment very quickly.
The Algorithm as a Behavioral Architect: Algorithms don’t care about your optimal health, your cognitive clarity, or your peace of mind. They care about time on device and click-through rate. To maximize those, the system optimizes for extreme emotions—outrage, envy, and fear. These are high-arousal states that disable the prefrontal cortex (the seat of logic and long-term planning) and hand control over to the amygdala (the seat of immediate, reactive impulse).
The Biological “Opt-Out”
If you are a biohacker, you know that the only way to beat a rigged game is to change your own internal physiology. The “numb and dumb” state you mentioned is what happens when the prefrontal cortex gives up and goes offline, leaving us to act as stimulus-response machines.
Reclaiming your autonomy in this environment is a form of cognitive resistance. It requires a few radical shifts:
Radical Indifference to “Status”: If status is the currency of the trap, the only way to be wealthy is to stop accepting that currency. Ask: Does this signal serve my internal goals, or is it just noise designed to make me visible to people I don’t even respect?
Information Hygiene: If your feed is a constant stream of “you need this,” you are being fed a controlled diet of artificial scarcity. A clean information diet is as critical as a clean nutritional diet. If an account or platform induces consistent feelings of anxiety or “lack,” it is a toxin. Exclude it.
The “Why” Audit: Every time you feel the urge to “do” or “buy” something to relieve anxiety, pause. Perform a 60-second audit. Is this an impulse to soothe a manufactured feeling of insecurity, or is it an aligned action? 90% of the time, the “new” thing is just a distraction from a deeper, uncomfortable emotion that needs to be felt, not consumed away.
The world wants you to believe that “more” is the destination. But the reality is that the capacity to sit in discomfort, to be bored, and to reject the “shiny object” syndrome is the only true competitive advantage left in a world designed to keep you spinning.
Do read the Disclaimer