Doomscrolling and Its Consequences

Why I am walking out of the digital dopamine casino

While I enjoy covering the esoteric and conspiratorial as much as you all enjoy reading about it, the main theme of this publication has always been to actively revert back to previous states by rejecting the influence of the world. It is not only to expose the religious motivations that the "controllers" are attempting to impose upon us, but also to demonstrate how we always need to be taking action to turn the other way from their influence. That is what I mean by "reversion". So this is me simply reverting back to not having Twitter be a part of my life.

My time as a niche Twitter personality, or whatever you want to call it, was short lived. Having an account that exploded from 300 followers to nearly 16,000 in a matter of 5 months, perhaps contributed to my rapid realization that overall, the platform had more of a negative impact than a positive one on my life. Now before I explain further, I want to make an important clarification. I am entirely grateful for the audience I grew, especially for those who are reading this, because it means you have invested your time, attention, and, in some cases, money, into my work. I do not take that for granted at all, and I’m extremely thankful for it.

The reason I’m leaving is not because of the connections and friendships I’ve made. In fact, I’m primarily keeping my account up so I can stay in contact with mutuals and my broader following. Although the best way to contact me is old-fashioned email.

Now, to answer why: When I wrote while carefully observing the differences in my mental state during a 40-day social media detox, I had come to the conclusion that I could continue using Twitter as long as I stuck to a carefully crafted system to limit my usage. This worked for a few weeks, but only added another more complicated layer of willpower on top of simply refraining from posting and doomscrolling.

So I have revised the conclusion of my original article, leaving up the ad hoc hacks I crafted and just noting that I have changed my conclusion. Besides the end where I listed these hacks along with my cope for continuing to use Twitter, I stand by everything I wrote in the original article regarding my observations on Twitter’s negative impacts. Here I will include some additional reasons why I no longer find any value compared to the cost of time spent on Twitter.

The Engineering of Digital Addiction

Addiction, as defined by psychologists, is not exclusive to substance abuse. It is defined as repeatedly engaging in a behavior even though it causes psychological harm. These platforms have perfected the distribution of intermittent positive reinforcement through the unpredictable release of dopamine. This is why tech companies design everything after the slot machine model. Posting on social media is a form of gambling to see how many engagements you get; even opening the apps themselves releases dopamine and was designed to do so. Just like with casinos, the goal is to keep you there as long as possible, eliminating the concept of time.

Silicon Valley whistleblower Tristan Harris noted that Facebook's notification badge was originally blue, but it didn't inhibit an increase in activity. Once they changed it to red, the color of an alarm, activity skyrocketed. During this 60 Minute interview titled "Brain Hacking", Harris explained in detail how these companies are programming people, not just apps.

"There is nothing fundamental about the unpredictable feedback that dominates most social media services…its a social validation feedback loop that exploits a vulnerability in human psychology." -Sean Parker

f you are addicted to Twitter or other social media apps, do not feel ashamed, weak or stupid. These companies literally hire neuroscientists who specialize in addiction to ensure social media is as addictive as possible. It is not entirely your fault, addiction has been programmed into the platform after many years of fine tuning. But it does need to be treated like an actual addiction so obviously the first step is confronting it as one. While many are willing to admit they spend more time than they should on social media, taking action is more than what the rest of the population is willing to do.

Try a digital detox for at least 30 days and see how you feel; a few days here and there isn’t enough to reformat the Twitter brain. You need to actually reset your thinking to the point where sharing things or consuming content on social media isn’t even a thought that enters your mind.

The Physical Molding of a New Transhuman Brain

Excessive social media usage literally changes your brain structure. Neuroplasticity occurs when the brain is rewired to function in a way that differs from how it previously functioned. Examples of neuroplasticity include circuit and network changes that result from learning a new ability, environmental influences, and practice, but can also be due to psychological stress.¹ Just like how good habits can change your brain wiring so that they become routine, so do bad habits. You will notice this to be the case the moment you get bored you start mindlessly scrolling and checking your feeds. This needs to be understood as an important phase of the shift towards the mass normalization of transhumanism.

Once you’ve allowed technocrats to restructure your brain wiring, you are being biologically controlled by algorithms programmed by people you wouldn’t even invite inside your home.

It doesn’t matter how radical and counter-culture the ideas you are espousing on the timeline are, whatever ideas are inside your head are irrelevant to the transhumanists, as long as you are part of this new neurological paradigm. We would not even think to consider installing a Neuralink in our brains, yet we have already allowed the technocracy’s algorithms to change our brain structure. Elon Musk formed a new AI company called X.AI back in April, and as I’ve been saying since his acquisition of Twitter, his push for more “free speech” on the platform is not idealogically motivated, but because free speech is a necessity for optimal machine learning.

Doomscrolling as an Obsessive Compulsion

Our willingness to participate in using apps that were engineered to exploit us is disturbing. Ever find yourself scrolling away and asking yourself why do I keep doing this? This is the point where your brain recognizes that it isn’t getting enough dopamine and it becomes something closer to OCD behavior. I would attribute this to the feeling of FOMO (fear of missing out). Not only missing out on being up to speed on the current outrage, drama and feedback loop, but missing out on the potential dopamine rewards that come with it. This ties into both the addiction and neuroplasticity factors.

If you notice yourself doing this, it is your brain reminding you that it has formed a negative habit that is causing you emotional distress. The compulsive checking of the feed is driven by a manufactured anxiety that did not exist before using the platform.

The Problem of Diminishing Privacy

Another reason I’m leaving is a personal one which I cannot go into much detail about publicly, but I’ll just mention that it’s due to an entrepreneurial endeavor that requires being more mindful of my digital footprints, even as an anon. This means I will be more careful with what content I post here as well. The more attention I gained, the more privacy I lost, and that was not something I was prepared to even consider until it became a reality and was met with some consequences that even effected my personal life. So if I do end up archiving anything elsewhere, I will share it with paid subscribers so they can still have a reference of my work. This reason certainly accelerated my departure, which I knew was inevitable for some time now, by motivating me to take action. All the previous reasons I stated have been building up over time while I continued to cope.

I should also mention that I do not think that leaving the platform for any of these reasons makes me feel superior or like I’m in a better position than those who remain hooked. In fact, I assume I am worse off and unable to actually control these impulses that come with using it, and that everyone else has more control than I do, which is why it’s bad for me personally.

So what is Twitter actually good for?

I believe Twitter can meet a certain criteria for me to consider using it in a way that would be more positive than negative, which is for marketing purposes. Twitter can be a great source of traffic to funnel to newsletter signups where you offer some kind of monetized service, or to sell digital products. Because social media platforms are “free” for the user, the money is being made on the advertising side. Nobody uses the platform for free, you pay with your attention. In order for it to meet the criteria where it offers more value than negative impact, the tradeoff of time spent on the platform vs money gained from it would have to be well worth it. Otherwise it’s like continuing to pull the slot machine lever as it slowly drains your money, time and attention, the dopamine reward value is minimal vs the time spent getting rewarded.

One of the positions I’ve changed after reading a very insightful and wise comment from an anon in reply to my previous article. It stated that Twitter does not glorify God because that can only be done by actions, not words. In my stubbornness, I knew it was true. Any viral post I made where it was about some great patristic quote or piece of content about a saint, was met with the same dopamine reward as a viral shitpost. Dopeamine rewards are not the result of actions that glorify God.

I’ll continue to post any shorter form content to my Telegram, but moving forward, my Twitter will be used for the occasional promotional post and to remain in contact with friends I’ve made.

Thank you for actually reading this far. In the age of increasingly shorter digital attention spans, I truly hope that the value of this content was a positive tradeoff for the time you invested in reading it.

God be with you, friends.

1. Wikipedia contributors, "Neuroplasticity," Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Neuroplasticity&oldid=1148795816 (accessed May 31, 2023).