What is the most addictive substance in the world? Heroin? Cocaine? Nicotine? Alcohol? Marijuana? No.
As of 2025, that distinction goes to short-form videos. They are distilled evil—digital Beelzebub. They are the perfect drug ever created.
Short-form videos, though, are not chemical in nature, but they affect the brain almost as severely as any other powerful stimulant or depressant. And that is where the similarities sort of end. Unlike the crude chemical drugs of the 20th century, this 21st-century invention is a slow-release drug. It goes a step further; it is a precision-release drug. It is subtle, too. It interacts with the human brain with such exactness that it tricks the human brain into releasing a constant stream of happy dopamine, just enough so as not to flood the system and force a crash, but also not little enough so as to let the user walk away in search of other ways of dopamine hits.
This drug is far more devious than what I have just told you. You see, all other drugs are mass-produced, but short-form videos are tailor-made. They are not like the brute 1000 kg bombs that flatten cities, but are those perfect precision weapons that can hit a quarter from a continent away.
So how do they work? The trick lies in the sequence of videos that is being shown to you. As you doom scroll, you were led to believe that random videos show up, or maybe the algorithm shows you what it thinks you might want to see. But that is not what is happening. The machine is constantly learning and then adjusting the stream to exact that ‘perfect drip of dopamine’ in your brain. While the definition of ‘perfect drip of dopamine’ changes with each tech giant. Meta has their own formula, while Google and TikTok have their own.
It is now become the most unprecedented global addiction of all time. And it is as if each person has their own personal ‘Heisenberg’ who creates a personal variation of the drug just for them, perfectly adapted to their brain.
This drug is like a parasite attached to the brain, sucking off all human creativity, while constantly telling the brain to secrete dopamine so as not to coagulate the metaphorical wound. Over time, the parasite grows and grows while the human mind and soul shrinks, until there is only a half-alive sack of organs and muscles and bones left, that obeys what the parasite tells it to do. Think last of us, only no physical Cordyceps shooting out of the brain.
And it is already happening. Look around, not on your phone screens but physically look around, and if you are one of those lucky few who are not affected or are mildly infected, you will notice the way the world behaves. It is pathetic to see humans—sentient beings—transformed into puppets, slaves to their own biology.
Okay, now that I have told you what is really happening, you are smirking at your screen, telling yourself that I am just another conspiracy theorist. Give me a chance to prove my hypothesis.
Do this exercise, take someone’s phone, and watch their stream. I advise caution at this because the danger is not as much from the stream but from the person you are borrowing the phone from. Just like addicts of chemical drugs, short-form video junkies are incredibly protective of their stash. But if you do manage to convince a friend, your son or daughter, or wife or husband, or father or mother, and get to see their stream, you will immediately begin to notice how your brain reacts. Your brain will quite literally stutter and shake; the discomfort may even evoke strong feelings of disgust and hate. It will feel as if you have been given the wrong drug.
It may so happen in the future that humans, instead of sex, may develop a new form of sacred intimacy. The junkies, and that will be most people on earth, will sit around and share their streams with each other. It will be like a ritual, or a fetish, or BDSM. Stream Sharing, they will call it. Okay, I am sorry that the last part was more science fiction than actual observations. It was just me trying to be a seer.
But it is not glum and gloom. The antidote for this modern drug is surprisingly simple. The moment you employ it, it begins to detox the brain, and within 12 hours, you start to see the desire to consume dip. Even I am amazed at its effectiveness. Think of this antidote as defanging the snake. You will still watch the videos, but they will no longer produce the same trickle of dopamine as before.
The antidote? Greyscale your screen!
Remove all color from your phone. That’s it, that is the solution. That is the first step to unhooking your brain.
Convinced! Well then here are some tutorials to get you started.
