Social media doesn’t exist to connect us. It exists to keep us engaged. My argument is that it doesn’t nourish—it engineers craving. Like snack food designed for compulsive consumption, digital-social platforms are calibrated for maximum addiction, offering endless empty calories of interaction.
Real social connection is fulfilling. It has depth, nuance, moments of silence. But the social media experience is something else entirely: an infinite loop of notifications, likes, and updates that mimic connection without actually satisfying the need for it. It’s social interaction stripped of its substance, reformulated to keep us scrolling, responding, and craving more.
And like junk food, the more we consume, the less fulfilled we feel. A deep conversation with a friend leaves us energized. An hour of doomscrolling leaves us drained. Yet we return, not because it nourishes us, but because it’s been designed to make stopping difficult.
This isn’t an accident. Platforms measure engagement, tweak algorithms, and fine-tune dopamine hits to ensure we stay locked in. We’re not choosing connection; we’re being conditioned to need it—on their terms, in their spaces, at their pace.
The real question is: when does a tool stop serving us and start using us? And how long before we realize we’re still hungry?
