By skyforbes 
My brain is now just trending sounds and I’m at peace with it
It’s 2:47 AM. I’m watching a man in Arkansas explain why his chickens are Democrats. I have a presentation due at 9 AM that I haven’t started. I have no chickens. I don’t live in Arkansas. I’m not even American. But I need to know where this is going.
This is my life now.
Remember when you could read an entire book? Remember when you could watch a movie without checking your phone seventeen times? Remember when you had, what do they call it… sustained focus? Yeah, me neither. TikTok killed that guy and buried him in a shallow grave of dance trends and life hacks that don’t work.
The Descent Into Madness
It started innocently enough. “I’ll just download it to see what the fuss is about,” I told myself, like every addict in every D.A.R.E. program video. “I’m stronger than an algorithm. I have a degree.”
The algorithm laughed. It had been optimized to keep me watching videos between 21 and 34 seconds long — the perfect length to hijack my dopamine system without me even noticing.
Day one: “Ha! This is silly. Why would anyone spend hours watching random people — oh, that’s a cute dog.”