A recent observation on social media captured a profound truth about modern humans:
"How strange it is that centuries ago people changed their lives to please the church. Today they change them to please social media. The place changed, but the need for approval stayed the same."
This reflection, shared by someone with few followers but immense value, shows us something we prefer not to see: in our minds, we are exactly the same human beings we were 400 years ago, we just seek approval in different places now.
Social Media as the New Religion
For centuries, churches told people how to live. People organized their public lives to look good to their religious communities. They admitted certain mistakes and acted in ways they knew would be well received.
Today, this same human impulse has moved to digital platforms. Social media functions as new religions, with their own rules (algorithms), rituals (posting every day), and punishments (being ignored or canceled).
The difference is not that we have evolved as humans, but that we now have more sophisticated systems that use our basic needs to belong and be accepted.
When Life Becomes a Show
Something notable happens in today's digital behavior: we have inverted the natural process between living and sharing. Before, people lived experiences and sometimes shared them. Now, many live experiences specifically to share them.
This is seen in daily decisions: choosing restaurants that look good in photos, planning trips thinking about perfect stories, and making important decisions influenced by how they will look in posts.
Real experience has been gradually replaced by performing the experience, creating a society that lives for external narratives instead of internal growth.
Now, We're All Experts
Digital platforms have made it so any person can seem like an expert, but haven't necessarily given them the real knowledge that backs it up. Professional networks have become theaters where anyone can act successful. Short-content platforms function as improvised schools where people without real credentials can say they are experts.
The result is a world where people without real experience consume content from others who also lack real experience, but who have perfected the art of sounding convincing.
Algorithms amplify this content not because it's true or useful, but because it generates clicks and keeps people hooked.
This creates something that should worry us: it's much easier to find 100 guides on "how to build a business empire" than an honest reflection on why most businesses fail. The first sells hope; the second requires humility and willingness to share real failures.
Personalized Information Bubbles
Algorithm systems have perfected something that took traditional institutions centuries to develop: creating completely personalized information worlds where each person feels validated in what they already believed.
These "confirmation worlds" work by showing content that reinforces perspectives you already had, creating the illusion that everyone thinks like you. The result is that we no longer have a shared reality, but multiple parallel realities, each feeling completely justified.
This division not only affects what content you see, but gradually destroys our capacity to have constructive conversations and grow intellectually.
The Cost of Wanting Everything Now
Digital platforms have trained us to expect everything instantly. This has created unrealistic expectations about how personal and professional growth work. Users seek instant validation, quick learning, and immediate results in areas that historically have needed patience, deep reflection, and being comfortable with discomfort.
This culture of "I want it now" is seen in the amount of content that promises quick changes: "learn programming in 30 days," "build a business in a week," "change your life in 21 days." These promises exploit the human desire for progress without effort, ignoring that real growth requires time, failing repeatedly, and persistence.
Human skills essential for real development - deep concentration, processing emotions, independent critical thinking - are being destroyed by systems designed to capture momentary attention.
Signs of a Deeper Search
However, signals appear that people are intuitively recognizing these problems. Analysis of searches on platforms focused on authentic growth reveals interesting patterns:
- Searches related to personal honesty and self-reflection
- Growing interest in discipline and long-term consistency
- Search for meaningful versus superficial connections
- Curiosity about internal processes and growth that isn't seen
These searches show that there's a growing population that feels a fundamental disconnect between what traditional social media offers and what they really need to develop as people.
Ironically, at the moment when we most need tools for authenticity, we are about to be flooded with AI-generated content that will make distinguishing between real and fake experience much more difficult.
Human Skills in Danger
The transition toward digital worlds has put basically human skills in danger:
Sustained attention: The ability to maintain concentration on one thing for a long time is systematically deteriorating.
Processing emotions deeply: The space and time needed to process complex experiences are being compressed toward immediate reactions.
Being comfortable not knowing: The capacity to exist comfortably with questions without answers is being replaced by the need for immediate conclusions.
Independent thinking: Forming your own opinions without constant validation from digital communities has become increasingly rare.
Genuine presence: The experience of being completely present without the need to document is practically extinct.
The Paradox of Change
If these patterns are recognizable and problematic, why do they persist? The answer suggests a fundamental paradox: the same systems that have created these problems have also weakened the skills needed to solve them.
Acting digitally is much easier than being authentic. External validation gives quicker gratification than internal growth. Confirmation worlds are more comfortable than facing complex realities.
We have built together systems that satisfy primitive human impulses disguised as progress and connection.
Share authentic experiences. Fuel collective growth.
Deeditt is a community where real stories —successes, setbacks, choices, and lessons— are documented to inspire, teach, and connect. It’s a space free from filters and performance, where what you’ve lived can help someone else find their way.
