One common theme I saw on Twitter and LinkedIn is people saying how much better they felt after taking a break from those platforms. It’s sad though because they don’t seem to realize why they need a break in the first place…

Algorithmic feeds hone in on very specific types of content that on a larger scale over millions of people boil down to a handful of formats. Because people mimic success, content rarely changes in terms of the “script” it follows.

These users who need a break are essentially looking over the same type of content day in, day out. To stay relevant they must also feed the algo with new content to make it happy and show their posts. It’s a never-ending hamster wheel of working for the algo.

Most of these people are also there to build up their followers. Since this metric drives everything, people are modifying their own behavior to act in ways they don’t typically act. This is especially true on LinkedIn where you want employers to think positively of you. This is mentally fatiguing and people are burning themselves out without giving much thought as to why.

The never ending hamster wheel of always trying to reach for more likes and shares has another negative effect when you don’t achieve your desired goals to grow the following or hit an X number of likes / shares on your post. People start judging themselves and wonder why their stuff is not doing as good as this other person. It’s human nature to compare to others. If they stepped away and thought about this for a moment they would notice the pathetic nature of this meaningless endeavor.

Finally, the fakeness of it all, the constant self-filtering and putting on a face tires them out. People become slaves to the algos, slaves to people they don’t care about and slaves to their own fake behavior. It is no wonder they burn out and require breaks.

The saddest part is once they are back from feeling good, they go right back to it.