A Diet of Slogans

People who get all their news from social media are stupid. I mean this not as an insult but as a precise description of what happens to the human brain when subjected to these information conditions.

Look, I know that's a harsh opening. Your fingers are probably already twitching toward the comment button to tell me I'm an elitist asshole. Fair enough! But hear me out before you start composing that righteously indignant response.

I'm inclined to agree with Sam Harris, who speculated on his podcast that Elon Musk was driven insane by his own capture by the Twitter algorithm. Harris quit Twitter himself and claims it dramatically improved his mental health. Watching Musk's transformation from eccentric innovator to digital shitposter-in-chief, it's hard not to wonder if the world's richest man fell victim to the very algorithm he would eventually own.

Let's consider a delightfully bizarre parallel: Ketamine is known to have neuroplasticity-enhancing effects on the brain, which is why it's effective at treating PTSD and depression. But this is a double-edged sword. If you're going to put your brain into “reprogramming mode” with the use of a drug, you might want to consider what you're reprogramming it with. And I'm not sure the Twitter algorithm and doom scroll is the training set you should use!

Seriously, imagine your therapist saying: “This ketamine will make your brain highly receptive to new patterns. Now, while it takes effect, please scroll through the most divisive, emotionally manipulative content we can find, curated by an algorithm designed to maximize your outrage. Also, please form instant opinions on complex geopolitical situations based on 280-character fragments. This will definitely improve your mental health!”

You'd find a new therapist. Yet millions voluntarily subject themselves to this cognitive hellscape daily.

The devastating reality is that most people don't even click into the articles that get posted on social media. They respond to the headlines. And headlines contain scant information! They are not summaries. They are topics. Pretending otherwise is stupid!

I've started telling friends I'm just going to phone them when I want to talk to them, and they're free to do the same to me. I tell them, I just won't answer the phone if I'm busy. They don't have to text me first. I want to hear their voice! This social media era sucks! So I'm trying to protest it in my daily interactions.

You should see the reactions. Some friends act like I've suggested we communicate via carrier pigeon or smoke signals. “You mean... just call? Without scheduling a call via text first? What if I'm busy?” Well, then you won't answer! Remember voicemail? That technological marvel that lets people leave messages when you're unavailable? It still exists!

“Stupid” is exactly the right word for what happens to brains on social media—not as a permanent condition but as a specific cognitive state. I know this because I was stupid too. Years ago, I fell into the trap of getting most of my news from Twitter. My thinking became reactive rather than reflective. My arguments grew more performative and less substantive. My attention span shortened. My tolerance for complexity diminished.

Now I watch formerly thoughtful people become Musk and DOGE enthusiasts, unable to distinguish between genuine governmental waste and performative spectacle masquerading as reform. These aren't different political views—they're different cognitive processes altogether. Their capacity for nuanced thought around political affairs hasn't merely shifted; it has degraded.

Elon wants X to be the “everything app,” so you have to go nowhere else on the internet to do anything, apparently. But here's the question we should all be asking: Why do we want this? Is there anybody who honestly can say that they feel happier having spent any reasonable amount of time being exposed to some of the worst aspects of human nature, amplified by bots, and accentuated by stupid memes? Is this the rich texture of life that people want?

It's like if someone said, “Good news! I've created a restaurant where the food is mediocre, the other patrons are mostly screaming at each other, and occasionally someone will walk up to your table and show you something deeply disturbing. Also, you'll leave feeling worse about humanity than when you arrived. We're open 24/7, and we've designed everything to make it difficult for you to leave!”

Would you eat there? Because that's essentially what the “everything app” offers.

Here's the thing: I still like social media for conversations, for connecting with others, for the occasional substantive exchange. I do a lot of posting to be in the conversation. But my consumption is very minimal compared to the long-form reading I do and the video content I consume to keep me informed.

The tragedy is that we aren't inherently stupid. We're being stupefied by technological environments hostile to the cognitive processes that constitute wisdom. Given a different information diet, many could recover their capacity for nuance, for doubt, for intellectual curiosity. I did. But first we must name the condition accurately: social media as a primary news source makes people stupid.

Two plus two equals four. There are twenty-four hours in a day. And if you're going to reshape your neural pathways—whether through intentional practices or passive exposure—you might want to consider whether doom-scrolling through algorithmically selected outrage is the cognitive training program you want to enroll in.

Oh, and call your friends sometimes, without texting first. It's not weird. It's human.