The EU isn’t kidding around anymore.
Ursula von der Leyen laid it out in Copenhagen Tuesday, a litany of digital horrors that read less like policy brief and more like a horror movie synopsis. Sleep loss. Depression. Anxiety. Self-harm. Grooming. Suicide.
“They are not accidental.”
Those aren’t the byproducts of an internet gone rogue. They are the receipts for business models that monetize attention. Specifically, the attention of kids. The new Digital Fairness Act targets this head on. Addictive design isn’t just unethical to them—it’s illegal.
TikTok took heat recently, too. The Commission ruled their “For You” page breached EU law. Meanwhile, over in California, a jury agreed with a twenty-year-old named KGM. Her verdict? Google and Meta wrecked her mental health. Meta wants the verdict thrown out. Probably.
But here is the rub. Is the app designed to trap you?
The Slot Machine In Your Pocket
Natasha Schull of NYU puts it bluntly. It’s gambling mechanics without the money. Unpredictable rewards. Dopamine hits from a “like” or a comment. It is the same neural circuitry as pulling a lever on a machine in Las Vegas.
Christian Montag, a professor in Macau, sees the hardware of the addiction.
- Infinite scroll.
- Algorithmic recommendation feeds.
- The “like” button.
Getting that hit feels good. You want the hit again. So you post again. You check again. A habit forms.
Then TikTok enters the chat. They added autoplay and fifteen-second videos. Novelty spikes.
“Even if the current video is not great… I’m always in expectation mode that the next one could be.”
The European Commission called this “autopilot mode.” You stop watching and start absorbing. Passive. Zombie-like. Daria Kuss of Nottingham Trent University links this state to loneliness and fear of missing out. Social isolation masquerading as connection.
TikTok says their findings are “categorically false.” They offer screen time limits. As if putting a seatbelt in a car means the driver won’t crash if they drive into a tree.
Pay To Play?
The root isn’t the feature set. It’s the money.
Experts like Schull and Montag note a simple truth. Social media companies succeed by measuring time. More minutes mean more ad views. The system rewards engagement, period.
Do they intend to addict you? Probably not. They intend to optimize. Same outcome. Different intent.
The fix might be boring. Subscriptions.
If you paid a dollar a month, you aren’t the product. You’re the customer. Tracking could drop. Aggressive algorithms might dial back. Montag found people skeptical of paying for free services until they understood the benefit—less screen time. Then? They were in.
Public funding is another route. The EDPS launched EU Voice and Video in 2022 for institutional discourse. Shut down in 2021? No. 2024. Lack of money kills the dream again.
Other experiments exist. CBC Canada tested a “public square view.” Live video. Real-time comments like “changed my mind” or “respectfully disagree.” Nuanced interaction instead of binary rage-clicks.
Did it scale? Hard to say. Schull doubts alternatives matter unless laws change. Hard limits. Age caps. Time locks. Cold and hard regulations are the only way to stop designers who are paid to keep your thumb scrolling.
Is There Another Way?
Enter the Fediverse.
It is decentralized. No ads. No data sharing. It includes:
– Mastodon (think X without the chaos)
– Pixelfed (Instagram light)
– PeerTube (YouTube lite)
Fifteen million accounts. Sixty-six percent on Mastodon alone. A boom happened when Musk bought Twitter in 2022. People wanted out.
But convenience is king.
Montag warns it’s a tough hill. Build something useful? Great. But make it less sticky? People hate friction. The battle between convenience and safety is never a clean fight.
Beat The Algorithm Yourself
If you want to stop doomscrolling tonight? Make it annoying.
Schull’s trick is brute force. Move the apps to the last screen. Hide them in a folder labeled “social media.” Add friction. If you have to walk three screens to check Instagram, maybe you won’t.
Better yet? Delete them from your phone.
Access from a desktop. It is clunkier. It demands intention. Montag suggests swapping out your smartphone habits entirely. Use a manual alarm. Wear a watch. Look away from the device in “everyday situations.”
Disable notifications. Silence the buzz.
Montag doesn’t say quit entirely. Just make it hard to stay.
But let’s be clear. Both experts agree the burden shouldn’t sit on the user’s shoulders.
Why fix the symptom when you can treat the disease? Responsibility lies with the platform. The question isn’t if we can beat the algorithm. It is whether we are willing to demand a new game.
Until then? The next video is waiting.
