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this post was submitted on 23 Apr 2026
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Privacy
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Privacy has become a very important issue in modern society, with companies and governments constantly abusing their power, more and more people are waking up to the importance of digital privacy.
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You don't have to share anything that you don't want to, what you've described is enough.
On the Internet, a lot of content is selected for its ability to provoke that kind of mental distress. Algorithms that optimize for 'engagement' and content is selected by that algorithm is typically things that produce strong emotional responses like fear and disgust.
If you end up consuming a lot of that content your perceptions, behaviors, and reactions change so that you're extra sensitive to the messages that you're exposed to. This manifests in things like being more aware of specific phrasing, words, concepts or imagery in your thoughts. This can be uncomfortable. Being upset and angry all the time is not pleasant.
A ways to mitigate this include to avoiding using any online source/phone app that selects which content that you see for you. Things like Facebook, YouTube, TikTok, Reddit, Lemmy, etc. The types of content that surface on these places are the kind that appeals to our worst impulses and instincts. Especially on charged topics where there is a lot more content to select from.
Stick to searching for things that you want to see and not going to places that allow you to passively consume content which is selected for you.
More specifically.
Age verification is a topic that is heavily charged at the moment. A lot of content is being created on the topic and so the 'best' content out of this pile is the content that "pushes your buttons" the best. As a result, when you're consuming a lot of 'high engagement' content on emotionally charged topics, you're exposing yourself to highly refined psychological triggers.
That isn't to say that these topics are not important, age verification has serious implications that should be discussed. The issues that it is trying to address are also serious and need to be addressed.
The issue is that, in these passive viewing environments, the selection method is biased against you seeing that kind of content. Reasoned debates are not as fun to read than a rant on the topic, after all. The hot takes and angry image macros get all of the upvotes and so the nuanced takes and reasoned arguments are pushed out of your sight. So, you become conditioned towards hot takes and angry images and that sucks.