Articles 18.
18.1 ***
The Intellectual Obesity Crisis - Gurwinder
“We evolved to crave sugar because it was a scarce source of energy. But when we learned to produce it on an industrial scale, suddenly our love for sweet things became a liability. The same is now true of data. In an age of information overabundance, our curiosity, which once focused us, now distracts us. And it’s led to an epidemic of intellectual obesity that’s clogging our minds with malignant junk.
The analogy of information as sugar is not just rhetoric. A 2019 study by researchers at Berkeley found that information acts on the brain’s dopamine-producing reward system in the same way as food. Put simply, the brain treats information as a reward in itself; it doesn't matter whether the info is accurate or useful, the brain will still crave it and feel satisfied after consuming it (at least until it starts craving more).
For hundreds of millennia, this wasn't a problem, because on the plains of the savanna, information was as scarce and precious as sugar. But this all changed with the rise of industrial society and the web.
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Junk info is often false info, but it isn't junk because it's false. It's junk because it has no practical use; it doesn't make your life better, and it doesn't improve your understanding. Even lies can be nourishing; the works of Dostoevsky are fiction, yet can teach you more about humans than any psychology textbook. Meanwhile, most verified facts do nothing to improve your life or understanding, and are, to paraphrase Nietzsche, as useful as knowledge of the chemical composition of water to someone who is drowning.
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The vast majority of the online content you consume today won't improve your understanding of the world. In fact, it may just do the opposite; recent research suggests that people browsing social media tend to experience “normative dissociation” in which they become less aware and less able to process information, to such an extent that they often can’t recall what they just read.
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Eventually, the addiction to useless info leads to what I call “intellectual obesity.” Just as gorging on junk food bloats your body, so gorging on junk info bloats your mind, filling it with a cacophony of half-remembered gibberish that sidetracks your attention and confuses your senses. Unable to distinguish between relevant and irrelevant, you become concerned by trivialities and outraged by falsehoods. These concerns and outrages push you to consume even more, and all the time that you're consuming, you're prevented from doing anything else: learning, focusing, even thinking. The result is that your stream of consciousness becomes clogged; you develop atherosclerosis of the mind.
We now live in a state of constant distraction caused by an addiction to useless information, and this distraction is so overpowering it even distracts us from the fact we're being distracted. You'll probably read this article, briefly consider the damage junk info has done to you, and then return to aimlessly scrolling Twitter.
But before you do that, let's try to work out some kind of solution.
The most straightforward way to improve your information diet is to develop a habit for meta-awareness; to pay attention to what you're paying attention to. When you find yourself reaching unprompted for your phone, or hovering over the Twitter icon, invoke the “10-10-10 rule:” ask yourself, if I consume this info, how will I feel about it in 10 minutes, 10 months, and 10 years? Doing this may help you realize that the brief sugar-rush offered by junk info is so transient and insignificant in the grand scheme of your life that it's simply not worth your time.
And if your cravings can't be beaten by mere reasoning, then consider rearranging your lifestyle so junk info is simply not an option. The way I beat intellectual obesity was by trying to become the best writer I can be. Writing requires you to filter out bad information because you have a duty to your readers to not be full of shit. Writing also forces you to periodically shut out information altogether so you can be alone with your thoughts. This regular confrontation with yourself helps you keep your bearings in a world constantly trying to lure you away from your brain.
Ultimately you'll have to determine the info-diet that works for you. But if you insist on endlessly consuming whatever the web serves you, know that this banquet culminates in a bitter dessert: at the end of your life, when you're weighing your regrets, you probably won’t say “Man, I wish I’d spent more time browsing the web.” On the contrary, you'll have no recollection of that tweet by a stranger telling you they prefer pasta to pizza, or that gif that amused you for five seconds, or that Times piece that made you mad for a whole minute. And when you notice the myriad holes that all this junk has left in your memory, then it’ll finally be clear that you weren’t consuming it as much as it was consuming you.
18.2
What is Intimacy in a World of Content? - Jordan Stephens
“Adapt or die. Double tap or cry. Some say it’s best we morph into the slipstream. Aquire a taste for feeds. It’s how it’s always been. Moving with the times. Can’t be an old fart, moaning about how it used to be. And yet, it feels clearer this time. Especially when discussing social media. There is a consensus that something is being lost. There are cries about the effect it’s having on younger brains. Hyper comparison during an already tumultuous time. Unregulated advice from people unqualified to be giving it.
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Beyond that, you only have to go to a live show these days to see the screens. The red dots and wide eyes. Fearful that the performance itself isn’t actually happening unless it’s recorded. Banking an experience we’re present for just to make sure we were present later. It’s easy to critique but we’re past that. More worryingly - I’ve found it creep into my entire view of engagement. As in, real life engagement - not clicks.
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I handed him the book and he was absolutely buzzing. It dawned on me then that I hadn’t really considered how special that moment would be. He struggled to contain a grin. It was all very wholesome. Fist bump. Page flicks. Joyful colour. I thought it best to just leave it with him and scoot away as planned. Jump back in the car knowing I’d provided a close friend with a good feeling. It was only as I drove away that a rogue thought tortured me.
‘Maybe I should have filmed myself giving it to him. Then I could have posted his reaction and helped sell the book.’
The thought entered my mind. The thought that I’d just missed out on potential “content”. That if only I’d been able to capture that moment of purity - people would connect to it. Unbelievable. Or is it in fact - very believable? Is it reasonable? Not only would the world get to witness a moment of connection, I would have immortalized it for myself and for my friend and for his kid. But then would the moment have been as pure if I was filming it? Would I have been less connected? Would our future selves even be able to reignite that intimacy when reviewing it on a little screen in a totally different context?
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A sickening new adaptation to the human biopic. An almost paranormal desire for us to witness our experiences as if we’re an audience. I’ve seen people film themselves in the middle of a break up. I’ve seen people film the moment that they proposed. There are countless videos of people performing acts of charity. It’s tantalising. Because, I guess, it is truth we’re capturing. Especially if the camera is hidden.
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So we’re left with the decision between immortalised half experiences or fully felt moments of intimacy that might disappear. It’s a tough one. As with anything in life, it’s probably about moderation and intention. Still, it’s undeniable how reliant we’ve become on these ego extensions to help us cope or process.
7 years ago I stood at the end of my ex-girlfriend’s road in West London, watching an entire building burn to the ground. My best friend and I had been having a cup of tea in her back garden when little pieces of what I now know to be cladding started landing all around us. We didn’t think much of it. When he went to go home he rung me and said I had to come to the end of the street.”
18.3**
High Agency In 30 Minutes - George Mack
“I believe high agency might be the most important idea of the 21st century. When I first learned of high agency, it felt like a secret that had been hidden from me.
So, what is it?
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You wake up in a 3rd world jail cell. You’re only allowed to call one person you know to get you out of there. Who do you call?
Why did you choose this person? What is it about them that made you pick up the phone?
This person you picked has something. A spark. A je ne sais quoi. That ‘something' is high agency.
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You’re giving the person you would call a seemingly impossible problem alone in the real world with no guidebook – and still betting on them finding a solution.
If you created a room with everyone you'd call when stuck in a 3rd world jail cell, what would that high agency room have in common?
It's not age, gender, race, education, job titles or politics. It’s not optimism or pessimism either.
Optimism states the glass is half full. Pessimism states the glass is half empty.
High agency states you’re a tap. You look in the mirror and see a giant tap staring back at you.
The one big thing everyone in that high agency room has in common: They are happening to life. They don’t view the future as a static entity. They view it as something to be shaped by human action.
"When you're told that something is impossible, is that the end of the conversation, or does that start a second dialogue in your mind? How to get around whoever it is that's just told you that you can't do something" - Eric Weinstein on high agency.
High agency is such an important idea because the more agency an individual or society has -- the more problems they can solve.
High agency can be a confusing idea to understand because it’s not just one idea. It’s a combination of three distinct skills rarely found together:
Clear thinking
Bias to action
Disagreeability
High agency is like a tricycle. If you remove one of the wheels, it stops working.
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The essay is split into four parts:
1. High Agency Software - Five simple lines of high agency code.
2. The Highest Agency Human Ever? - The story of possibly the highest agency person ever to live.
3. Escaping Low Agency Traps - The 5 most common low agency traps people find themselves stuck in and potential escape routes.
4. Turning Bullshit into Reality - A practical technique to start using agency today.
This essay is what I wish I read at 18 — rather than writing at 30.
Let’s go down the high agency rabbit hole.
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If you dig deep enough under low agency thinking, you often discover a belief in a god-like adult class that is superior to them. There’s a Peter Pan perception of reality that has been frozen in time from childhood. The fictional beliefs of Santa and the Tooth Fairy were debugged – but a belief in a perfect group of adults who run the world still remains.
A low agency trap is to put these "adults" on pedestals. To turn flawed humans into a superior god class.
If you meet your heroes or read their biographies, you discover Superman is often Clark Kent. The movie studio of your mind placed this imperfect human on a flawless pedastal.
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One of the biggest killers of high agency is a desire to be normal: To fit in and be liked by others.
The normal paradox: We hide our weirdness and act out “normal” behaviour to be liked by the tribe — but the tribe forgets the normal behaviour.
Normal behaviour costs nothing in the short term but disappears into the memory abyss. Unconventional weird behaviour costs a price in the short term — but the actions live on as story assets in the future.
If you pay the bill for everyone at the table - the short-term reaction is shock and confusion. In the long term, it’s everyone’s favourite memory of you.
If you travel across the world for a friend's birthday, the friend’s initial reaction is: “You don’t have to do that” — but it’s the story they tell at your wedding.
If you’re 100% honest with your feedback on people’s business ideas, the short-term reaction is anger. In the long term, you become one of the few people they trust.
Go to the funerals of the people you care about and the normal rational behaviour is never mentioned. It’s filled with weird and hilarious stories of the individual — the times they broke out of the median distribution of human behaviour and displayed their uniqueness.
If you’re hiding your weird individualism to make the tribe like you, remember: They’ll soon forget everything you did or said.
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Low agency has a series of traps that act like a prison of the mind. Unlike a 3rd world prison, there are no physical guards or walls. They don’t even exist in physical reality.
If you’re stuck in a low agency trap, you’re both the guard and the prisoner of the jail cell. The self-imposed prison exists purely in how your imagination frames reality.
Countless low agency traps can occur. I’ve listed the five most common ones and potential escape plans.
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Vague Trap Escape Route: Define the problem in simple words --out of your head
Write your thoughts down. Draw the problem. Use a whiteboard. Create a spreadsheet. Talk out loud to a smart person. Go for a walk or run with a specific question.
The act of transforming out of your head to another medium acts like a filtration system, removing the vague mud from your thinking.
Each time you transform your thoughts out of your head, keep trying to refine problems and solutions in the simplest, clearest, most specific language possible.
As you transform out of your head, remember: The vague trap is often downstream from vague questions.
Vague question: What career should I choose?
Specific question: What does my dream week look like hour by hour? What does my nightmare week look like hour by hour? What’s the gap between my current week and the dream/nightmare week?
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A wealthy man walks into a bank in New York.
"I’m going away to Europe on business for two weeks and need to borrow $5000”
The bank officer says the bank will need some security for the loan.
The man hands over the keys to a new Rolls Royce, which costs $250,000.
The bank officer is shocked but agrees to accept the car as collateral for the loan.
After the man leaves, the loan officer, the bank's president and all their colleagues enjoy a good laugh at the man for using a $250,000 Rolls Royce as collateral against a $5,000 loan.
One of the employees drives the Rolls into the bank's underground garage and parks it there.
Two weeks later, the wealthy man returns, repays the $5000 and the interest, which comes to $15.41.
The loan officer says, "Sir, I must tell you, we’re all a little puzzled. You’re a multi millionaire — why would you need a $5,000 loan?”
The man replies, "Where else in New York City can I park my car for two weeks for only $15.41?"
A change of perspective is worth 50 IQ points.”
18.4
The Achilles Heel of Antibiotics - Heather Heying
“Why is there so much reported overlap in presentation and subjective experience of what we collectively and clinically refer to as ADHD, Autism and Giftedness? Here are my thoughts.
Gifted Kid
The story of neurocomplexity often begins in childhood when the individual is identified as “gifted” or exceptionally “talented” in the school system or in another assessment via some sort of cognitive testing battery. “Gifted” kids are then separated from mainstream classrooms to some capacity to explore a combination of more accelerated, expansive, independent and/or creative learning options (this was my experience—yours may differ).
There is often little to no discussion or education on the unique challenges of being more complex than others as it pertains to relational/sensory/emotional/existential differences in systems, environments, and relationships. Instead, there is commonly a message that gifted kids will flourish, with few challenges, due to their advanced ability in a certain area of academic measure so parents/caregivers will often miss opportunities to offer scaffolding for these upcoming challenges and even dismiss gifted children as “little adults.”
My thoughts are that “giftedness” is a colloquial label for the presentation and interpretation of adequately-resourced neurocomplexity. This leads to my current hypothesis:
Neurocomplex wiring, when well-resourced, takes on a similar presentation and, for some, subjective experience of what education psychology refers to as “Giftedness”. When under-resourced and/or in a period of "burnout", neurocomplexity takes on a similar presentation and subjective experience of what the DSM refers to as Autism and ADHD.
Thus, a neurocomplex individual may not meet criteria for Autism and/or ADHD until later in life after or during a period of extensive burnout that has impacted (temporarily or permanently) their nervous system functioning in areas of executive functioning, verbal capacities, sensory processing, and social abilities—exposing these traits of complexity in a new way.
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Adult Burnout
After years of excelling in these career/early life endeavors (often with increasing career-related responsibilities) plus relationships, pets, financial responsibilities, homes, perceived pressures, trauma, hormone changes, children and/or other caretaking responsibilities, ongoing masking stress, these once “gifted” neurocomplex young adults now feel anything but and begin to experience symptoms of burnout.
Burnout symptoms may include (but not limited to): executive functioning skill regression, anxiety, nervous system activation, sleep issues, worry, GI issues, restlessness, social withdrawal, sensory sensitivity, low self worth, apathy, chronic pain, chronic illness, lack of interest in things that once brought joy, depression, suicidal ideation.
Just as an apple tree that is experiencing life-threatening situations will proliferate its production of apples (seed-bearing life parts) to the exclusion of leaves, I’ve found that neurocomplex individuals tend to preserve energy for the areas that align with purpose and meaning, at the cost of many other aspects of functioning (executive functioning, physical health, sensory processing, etc.), with even greater velocity when they are sensing the approach of burnout (consciously or subconsciously). In these cases, others rarely see a need for intervention due to the individual’s ongoing successful “fruit bearing”.
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No matter what the diagnosis, it is essential that neurocomplex adults begin the process of introducing an environment that suits its specific needs for survival and ongoing adequate nourishment.
Why? Because the neurocomplex individual is wired with an innate drive to produce and/or embody meaningful and purposeful living while simultaneously must navigate the ongoing unique balance of the needs of their complex body-mind (rest, movement/stillness, input/output, connection/alone time, stillness) to support all aspects of functioning in addition to the sustainability of a meaningful existence.”
18.5**
Why We Doubt Everything - Freya India
“It’s often said that my generation has lost faith. We are losing faith in God, losing faith in love, losing faith in the future. But I’m not sure that’s entirely true. Closer to the truth, I think, is we never learnt faith to begin with.
The psychologist Erich Fromm saw faith and doubt as character traits. Rather than having faith in something specific, faith for him was a way of seeing the world, a disposition of the soul, a temperament. For Fromm, faith meant not only religious belief, but a feeling of deep trust in ourselves, in others, and in life itself. This is what my generation did not develop. We are a chronically doubtful generation.
Understandably, since we live in a culture of doubt. Generations before us had it harder, at least materially, but in their world, even as it sometimes fell apart, something beneath stayed intact: customs, understanding, a shared floor and foundation. Ours is one where all that underneath has been destroyed. We have everything, except anything that holds humans together. Whatever we try to have faith in is mocked, destroyed, or disappears too fast. And so we doubt. We question everything. We doubt what it means to live, what it means to love, what it means to be a good person, why any of that matters. Nothing is certain. And so, no, we aren’t so much in doubt as to whether we will live tomorrow, but whether there is any point to.
What is it like, to grow up this way? It’s hard to do justice to it. It’s a feeling of constant confusion and indecision. Never knowing the right choice, always unsure of ourselves, checking with others over and over. Immediate distrust of everyone. Suspicious of anything good; hardly surprised by hurt. Heart never fully in things, always holding back. Some of us are stronger in defending ourselves against doubt; others are completely consumed. They doubt everything: who they are, what they want, what they think, what they feel, what they are supposed to feel. Doubt shadows over anything good. Doubt clouds promises or proof. It is draining, exhausting, to exist in disbelief.
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So young people haven’t lost faith, but have been trained to doubt. Not only by culture, but by companies that profit from our uncertainty. Industries designed to introduce and indulge doubt. Social media, dating apps, the mental health industry—all promise to solve the very doubt they depend on. For every uncertain feeling the medical industry has a diagnosis, an explanation, an expert at hand. For every doubt about who to be with, dating apps present a new person, a premium package, a faster algorithm. But it is all a devil’s bargain. These industries feed exactly what they promise to fix. The mental health industry promises peace of mind while making us question everything we feel. Dating apps help us find the one while making us doubt they will ever be enough. Clickbait promises the real truth so often we lose faith in truth itself. And now add AI: machines giving us all the answers while making us doubt our ability to reach them ourselves. Doubt your decision. Doubt your wording. Doubt that what you wrote sounds like a normal human, so ask a machine. Without faith we have to depend on these things to think for us, write for us, decide for us, matchmake for us. And it’s the faithless who feel they have to obsessively arm themselves with boundaries and red flags and dating checklists, who retreat from relationships or demonise the opposite sex, not because they are empowered but because otherwise everything feels so hopelessly out of control, so painfully ambivalent, because in a world without faith doubt is our only defence.
We have agency, of course. We aren’t controlled by these companies. But I think we buy into this because we have this delusion that doubt keeps us safe, somehow. That by staying doubtful about relationships, about ourselves, about right and wrong, we are safer, more protected, better prepared for betrayal or abandonment. So we keep our options open, our possibilities endless, our doubts alive. We doubt because to have faith would be terrifying.
And we want everyone else to be uncertain, too. We delight in each other’s doubt. If you have a strong moral conviction people try to talk you out of it, want you to water it down, get you to give in. If you stand up and tell the truth people will start saying there is no truth. If you are sure about your relationship, excited about your marriage, people will worry for you, ask if you have thought it through, help you search for red flags. They will call your hope naivety, your faith in the world privilege, your convictions an agenda, because faith in a world of doubt is threatening. Chronic doubt is contagious. The modern world wants you to delay and question; it wants you to waver and hesitate; it wants you to be anything but sure. Doubt that commitment; doubt that promise you made; doubt the good path you are on; doubt your behaviour is really so bad; doubt that it would matter if you threw it all away.
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I worry because young women like me were raised with only one vision of hell. Now our only nightmare is being restricted by religion, by a relationship, or burdened by responsibilities. But what if hell is also the opposite? What if hell isn’t the faith that makes you stay, but the doubt that makes you leave? What if sometimes the devil is not the voice keeping you trapped, but the one whispering that you are being restricted, wronged, held back—deserve a fresh start? Have we ever considered that the most dangerous ideology might not be the one asking us to have faith through hard things but the one training us to doubt what is good, to see something that should be treasured as a trap?
We made a generation afraid of being controlled by faith but not nearly enough of being controlled by doubt. Especially in romantic relationships, where many young women were taught to be terrified of one outcome only: being trapped in an unhappy marriage. But sometimes I wonder if by being raised to never settle, never back down, and always put ourselves first, we have become a generation only good at giving in. Girls grew up being told that an empowered woman is always willing to walk away, until this is the only habit we have, until we only learnt how to leave, and have forgotten that sometimes the strongest people are the ones who know how to stay.
Because the truth is, doubt is far more restrictive than faith. Those without faith can’t be selfless or decisive or sacrifice, because they can’t commit to anything, not fully. They are suspended in doubt. And maybe doubting everything and everyone means you don’t get betrayed as badly or walked all over, but you also can’t be good, can’t be generous, can’t be grateful, can’t be patient, can’t love or fully be loved, because doubt gets in the way of doing anything real. Why be good when you could still get betrayed? Why care for this person when they could abandon you someday? Why sacrifice when they could stab you in the back? Why have children when you might regret it? Why get married when you might change? Why learn this skill when the world will change? Why be honest, why be humble, why have integrity?
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And we have to ask ourselves, who is it we admire? Who do we want to be? Does anybody really admire doubtful people, or love stories of hesitancy and holding back, yet that’s exactly what we encourage? We celebrate lifelong marriages, we praise decades of determination, but keep telling young people not to do that. Don’t commit too young, don’t compromise at this age, you can never be too sure. We admire the milestone but discourage what it takes to actually get there. And this is cruel, I think, to warn young people away from the very thing we respect. What is love, if not faith and devotion when it seems safer to doubt? What is life, if not risk and courage when you have reasons to hold back? In romantic relationships you don’t commit when there are no obstacles, you commit because there are obstacles, because anything that lasts a long time will come with reasons to leave, because we are all hard to love, you commit to kill the doubt and start the adventure. And the people I admire most in my life are those who were dealt one tragedy after another, but even when the whole world conspired against them, when the cards were stacked, did not fold their hand but had faith. And it’s not luck to be that way, not fortune or privilege, but a disposition, an orientation, a habit, practiced, day by day, in the face of every reason to doubt.
We have not learnt how to live like this. Our doubts and demands get in the way. And this is a very hard thing to admit, how hard it is to be selfless. But I find that to be the case, and I am convinced it is harder for this generation, with the least encouragement, the least stigma and shame about straying, the fewest examples to follow. We are expected to learn loyalty in our late twenties, to teach ourselves the value of compromise and sacrifice or find out the hard way, we are left to learn it from podcasts. And while we seem to accept that this generation hasn’t had the community to practice social skills, we forget that we haven’t had the culture to practice selflessness either. No neighbours to try kindness with. No bonds we can’t easily break. No obligations to learn loyalty. We live in a world of strangers, with so few expectations. Our ancestors put customs and traditions and reminders in place because they knew how hard it is to be selfless, to commit to other people. Now some of us are trying it for the first time in our twenties and it feels terrifying.
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Life has always been a battle between faith and doubt. But this might be the defining battle of our age. We have to keep deciding to have faith. And it is terrifying. But we can practice, deliberately, the opposite of doubt, we can try devotion, see how trust feels, attempt certainty, again and again. We can practice faith in ourselves, faith in other people, some cosmic faith that if we act in the right way, if we are honest and good, the world will order itself around us. As Christopher Lasch put it, this is not “a blind faith that things will somehow work out for the best”, but a “disposition to see things through even when they don’t.”
We need to teach the next generation not to fear faith but to watch for doubt. That walking away is not always courage but sometimes cowardice. We distrust each other enough now; we don’t need any more red flags or reasons to be suspicious. What we need to learn now is loyalty. We need to work on something more than our capacity to doubt, more than our exhausting ability to detect red flags, to draw boundaries, to criticise and to call out. Now is the time to work on our waning ability to love, to depend, to forgive, to stick with it, to have some hope.
Doubt is a dangerous thing, more dangerous than we think. Doubt is the first feeling before the fall, the beginning of destruction. It is what calls us away, tempts us to turn back. So we have to get up every day and kill our doubts. They are not making us safer, or less vulnerable. The devil comes in doubt. And the only weapon we have in this world is faith.”
18.6
Dopamine to Dysfunction: Social Media and the AuDHD Experience -Lindsey Mackereth
“In our hyperconnected era, social media serves as a digital lifeline, offering avenues for communication, learning, and self-expression. For many neurodivergent individuals—especially those with traits of Autism and ADHD (AuDHD)—these platforms can provide a sense of belonging and access to information that might otherwise be elusive. Yet, as social media becomes increasingly entwined with our daily routines, one must ponder:
Could our constant interaction with digital platforms be exacerbating the burnout and executive functioning struggles commonly seen in AuDHD individuals?
The Dopamine Dilemma
A notable intersection between ADHD and social media lies in the realm of dopamine. Individuals with ADHD often exhibit dysregulated dopamine systems, prompting them to seek high-stimulation environments to achieve a sense of engagement. Social media platforms are meticulously crafted to exploit this neurochemical loop: likes, comments, and rapid content delivery offer immediate gratification and microdoses of dopamine.
This design fosters a feedback loop that, while momentarily satisfying, can ultimately lead to overstimulation, dysregulation, and fatigue. For those with AuDHD traits—particularly those prone to hyperfocus or task initiation difficulties—time can slip away unnoticed in the digital scroll. The aftermath? Mental exhaustion, disrupted executive functioning, and remorse over "wasted" hours, all mirroring symptoms of burnout or amplifying existing challenges.
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Sensory and Cognitive Overload
Autistic individuals often experience sensory processing differences, and social media can be a sensory tempest. Flashing lights, autoplay videos, overlapping sounds, and notification pings demand cognitive attention and sensory processing resources. The brain must swiftly transition from one type of content to another—often with vastly different emotional tones—creating a kind of "cognitive whiplash."
Over time, this overstimulation can resemble the sensory overload commonly reported by AuDHD individuals in physical spaces like malls, classrooms, or noisy gatherings. What distinguishes this scenario is that it unfolds in an environment often perceived as "safe" or "low-impact"—your phone.
The Cellular Aftermath of Scrolling
What if our social media use, while connecting us to valuable resources and communities, is also impacting our neurocomplex body-minds in ways that are not consensual and largely outside our awareness?
What if the cellular aftermath of consistent exposure to the untested "e-bomb"—scrolling, doom-scrolling, digital overload—is one of the root causes of the rise in burnout, executive functioning challenges, social discomfort, and sensory overwhelm?
What if we are, in real time, living the long-term consequences of chronic media consumption—effects we haven't even fully mapped yet?
These questions linger, unsettling and unanswered. I sit with them, and perhaps you do too. Because I desire to live in this connected world. I yearn for the community. The validation. The learning. The creative exchange.
Relate?
And yet, if this is a body-mind battleground, then we owe it to ourselves—especially those of us who are neurocomplex—to defend our systems with intention. To not be complacent in our media use. To increase our awareness of what we are letting in, and to create boundaries around what we are not.
This is how we protect ourselves: by moving from unconscious consumption to conscious connection.
Social Media-Induced Burnout
While social media alone may not cause AuDHD, its design and constant demands can mimic many of the symptoms associated with neurodivergence, or exacerbate existing traits. For example:
Executive dysfunction: Difficulty transitioning off the app or initiating non-stimulating tasks. Studies have shown that social media use can impair executive functioning, which includes cognitive processes like working memory, decision-making, and inhibitory control. Research involving college students demonstrated that after using social media, participants exhibited increased activity in the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), indicating heightened cognitive effort, while showing decreased activation in the dorsolateral and ventrolateral prefrontal cortices, areas critical for working memory and response inhibition.
Increased irritability and mood swings: Exposure to negative content can lead to emotional disturbances. A study focusing on young adults found that social media addiction was linked to emotional disturbances and poor sleep quality, which in turn negatively affected executive functioning.
Trouble sleeping due to late-night scrolling or blue light exposure: The impact of social media use on sleep quality is well-documented.
Emotional dysregulation triggered by overwhelming or polarizing content: Research has identified a phenomenon known as "doom-scrolling," where individuals compulsively consume negative news, leading to worsened moods and increased feelings of anxiety and depression. This creates a feedback loop that can be challenging to break.
Difficulty sustaining attention on long-form content or in-depth tasks offline: The rapid consumption of information on social media can impair the ability to focus on more demanding tasks.
These are all burnout indicators and, coincidentally, common expressions of ADHD and autism spectrum traits.”