The Algorthmic Overload Loop

1  Capture -> Personalized Hook:  Algorithms track your behavior and offer content that matches your interests, fears, or anger triggers. It’s tailored *just* enough to make you stop scrolling.

2  Escalation ->  Emotional Spike:  Once you engage, the system shows you progressively more extreme, dramatic, or divisive content—because high emotion = longer engagement.

3  Overload  ->  Cognitive Flood:  The feed mixes information, opinions, gossip, conflict, novelty, and imagery in a nonstop stream, overloading your processing capacity.

4  Fragmentation  ->  Context Collapse:  Content is disconnected from source, context, or credibility. You see headlines, memes, half-truths, personal takes, all smashed together. Your brain can't sort signal from noise.

5  Short-Term Reward ->   Dopamine Hit:  The system rewards engagement with likes, views, suggested content. Your brain’s reward circuitry fires even when you're stressed or angry. You keep scrolling.

6  Exhaustion  ->  Reduced Critical Capacity:  After enough time, your executive function (focus, discernment, self-regulation) weakens. You start defaulting to emotion, groupthink, or habitual patterns.

7  Reinforcement  -> Algorithm Adjusts:  The more you engage, the more the algorithm "learns" to feed you similar content, reinforcing whatever reaction kept you scrolling. It amplifies your existing biases or fears.

8  Behavioral Shift  -> Changed Baseline:  Your attention span shrinks. Your stress increases. You become habituated to distraction, craving novelty and emotional spikes without even realizing it.