02/10/2026
Before you read, remember this. As an adult, you have come a long way, and your brain is mostly developed and can comprehend right from wrong, truth from lies, and real from fake. Remember watching horror movies growing up? As a small child, my brain couldn't comprehend if that was real or fake, and it terrified me to the point where I had horrible nightmares. Look at what we're seeing on these phones today! Now imagine what your little children are looking at when you give them one of these phones and don't monitor them! This stuff quietly shapes what people think all day 👀. What is clickbait? Clickbait is content designed primarily to make you click, not to inform you. It usually uses emotionally charged language, withholds key information, exaggerates or twists reality, and overpromises and underdelivers. Examples include: “This ONE thing will DESTROY your faith”, “They don’t want you to know this truth”, and “WATCH before it’s deleted”. The goal isn’t truth or clarity—it’s engagement. How clickbait changes your algorithm: your algorithm is basically a mirror of your behavior. Here’s what happens step by step: 1. You click, even if it's out of curiosity, anger, or disbelief; the platform reads this as interest. 2. You pause, comment, or react; the algorithm says: “This content keeps them engaged.” 3. The algorithm feeds you more of it, including similar topics, more extreme versions, more emotionally charged creators, and more polarizing content. This is called engagement amplification. The hidden effect is that over time, clickbait trains your feed toward outrage or dopamine hits, reduces nuance and thoughtful content, creates an illusion that “everyone thinks this way”, and keeps you emotionally activated instead of grounded. That’s why people feel more angry, more divided, more anxious, and more convinced the world is worse than it actually is. Not because reality changed—but because their inputs did. Why platforms love clickbait is because emotion equals longer screen time, anger and fear outperform peace and wisdom, and engagement equals ad revenue. The algorithm doesn’t care if something is true, healthy, or wise—it only cares if you react. How to protect your algorithm: think of this like guarding your mind. Do more of this: scroll past outrage, watch calm, thoughtful content longer, engage with wisdom, teaching, solutions, and follow creators who explain, not inflame. Do less of this: hate-watching, comment wars, clicking “just to see”, and sharing rage content “to expose it”. Silence is often the strongest signal. One-liner to remember: the algorithm doesn’t shape your mind first—you train the algorithm, and then it trains you.
