Why You Should Keep Away from Social Media

I largely avoid social media. But every now and then, I indulge in doom scrolling.¹

It usually starts on Instagram. While scrolling, I get Threads recommendations. If I’m not paying attention, one tap punts me into Threads — and the scrolling continues. Different platform. Same habit.

Recently, I’ve noticed social media being flooded with AI-generated videos. Some are heart-melting. Others are disturbing or outright abusive. Almost all of them are designed to trigger emotion quickly.

AI has become incredibly good at generating videos. Unless you’re actively looking for the signs — unnatural transitions, strange movements, subtle inconsistencies — it’s easy to believe what you see.

The real danger isn’t AI itself. It’s consuming AI-generated content in a distracted, dopamine-driven state.

Doom Scrolling and Dopamine

Doom scrolling isn’t about thinking. It’s about dopamine.

Swipe. Watch. Swipe again.

Thirty seconds or less per video. Depth isn’t the goal. Stimulation is.

And when you’re in that state, you’re not exactly in detective mode.

With AI content flooding every feed, you either interrupt your dopamine session to think critically — or you passively consume and risk being misled.

Most of the time, we choose the latter.

The Moment That Made Me Pause

I experienced this firsthand on Threads.

It was a heartwarming video of someone trying to save a deer being attacked by a monitor lizard. The emotional hook worked instantly. I felt invested.

But something was off.

The transitions felt unnatural. The pacing too perfect. Real life rarely looks that cinematic.

I checked the comments.

It was AI-generated.

What bothered me wasn’t that it was fake. It was how easily I almost believed it.

For a few seconds, I didn’t question it. I just consumed it.

The Bigger Issue

Social media is no longer just addictive — it’s becoming indistinguishable from synthetic reality.

When content is optimized for speed and emotion, and we consume it in a distracted state, critical thinking quietly disappears. Misinformation doesn’t need to be political to be harmful. It just needs to feel real for 30 seconds.

Doom scrolling used to cost us time.

Now it might cost us our ability to tell what’s real.