Nowadays, platforms prioritize engagement over genuine self-expression. To please the algorithm, people become perfectionists, alter their identities, and compete fiercely for attention.
As a result, this leads to more extremist views, dopamine loops, conforming to narrow distorted personalities, and a range of negative effects—including serious impacts on mental health and losing attention span and contributing to the current epidemic of depression, self-worth issues.
People should express themselves authentically create their own expressions as a way to express themselves using platforms. They can consider the consequences, overall, they shouldn’t have to change who they are.
Companies often start with good ideals, but over time they become the opposite of what they originally stood for. To expand their company, they raise investments and gradually fall under the influence of investors, who shift the company’s direction away from the founders’ original vision.
In most cases, it’s nearly impossible to scale a company without investors—and that’s where the core problem lies. Investors and hedge funds typically operate with a focus on short-term profit over long-term consequences.
Creators now self-police their content to keep the algorithm happy. Authentic posts get sidelined, and the situation only worsens because attention spans have shrunk to just a few seconds.
Unconsciously, creators become part of the very narrative that social media platforms promote. Their essence is extracted, turning them into tools for what amounts to digital slavery while glamorizing dehumanization.
We need to change the decisions these platforms make so they serve us—not random investors. This is how a minority captures and dictates terms for the majority. People should recognize this dynamic and reclaim their power.
If platforms prioritized authenticity and real self-expression, there wouldn’t be nearly as much content. People wouldn’t need to fight for likes, comments, or trending status. Instead, we would have meaningful discussions about what truly matters, and those topics would shape public discourse.
Right now, distraction, upholding the status quo, and dehumanization are packaged as entertainment. We’ve become pawns instead of co-creators.
These creators are being used to more attention capturing, also the consumers also being sold themselves behavioral profiles for ads. More engagement means more more accurate and more ability for platforms to alter their behaviors.
Both sides people are getting dehumanized. One sides users are being sold themselves and for advertisement as a behavioral unit and other side, creators getting dehumanized for more distraction / engagement.
All of this what, for platform growth and short-term profits, which means more extremism, less attention span. Current attention span is 3 seconds. Does this sound more civilized and more advanced or barbarous?