How social media prepared us for AI, and how to get off the algorithmic junk food diet

3 Feb 2025

In the past two decades social media has reshaped how we think, feel, and connect. It has also unwittingly prepared us for the next seismic technological shift: artificial intelligence. But this preparation has been more cautionary than celebratory.

Social media has not just been a tool but a mirror, reflecting our unconscious relationships with technology, one another and, most crucially, ourselves.

As we stand on the precipice of an AI-driven future, the question is not just whether we are ready but whether we are even awake.

The invisible strings: how social media manipulated us

Over 25 years, I have led and owned three companies in media and marketing, child online safety and social media policy, and now AI.

This 20,000+ hours has made me certain of one thing: social media has operated as a dopamine-driven experiment on human psychology.

Platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok capitalised on our neural architecture, keeping us scrolling, liking and sharing. This was no accident – our brains are hardwired for novelty, rewards and social validation, all of which were delivered by algorithms designed to maximise engagement.

I know; I experienced burnout 11 years ago, which led me to master self-regulation and critical thinking and to open an education company to share this with teens and pre-teens.

I am pro-technology but caution that Big Tech is so very smart. Look around you, and it’s a fact that we have largely become hostages to our own dopamine receptors, consuming what can only be described as an algorithmic junk food diet.

These platforms served up content tailored to our desires, fears and biases, trapping us in echo chambers and polarised realities.

The cost?

Critical thinking gave way to reactive behaviour, relationships thinned into digital connections, and collective progress stalled in a mire of misinformation and outrage cycles.

To understand this manipulation is to confront the uncomfortable truth that we were willing participants. We allowed ourselves to be numbed and distracted, often in ways that reinforced our unresolved pasts. Trauma, biases and unconscious experiences shaped not just our online behaviour but our susceptibility to these systems. Social media didn’t create these vulnerabilities – it exploited them.

AI: The next frontier of control or liberation?

Now, AI is poised to take the reins, and its potential influence dwarfs that of social media. It can make decisions faster, scale manipulation wider and predict human behaviour with even greater accuracy.

If social media was the laboratory, AI is the field test.

But AI doesn’t just inherit social media’s playbook; it amplifies it. Algorithms once designed to recommend content are now capable of driving decisions in hiring, healthcare, education and law enforcement. The stakes are higher, and the ethical dilemmas are sharper.

Yet the lessons of social media offer a roadmap, if we are willing to learn. To avoid repeating the mistakes of the past, we must wake up from what has been, in many ways, an induced two-decade slumber.

Seeing. Owning. Advancing

True progress begins with awareness. To navigate an AI-driven world responsibly, we must first understand the unconscious relationship we have with ourselves.

Social media’s greatest revelation wasn’t about technology, it was about us. It showed how unprocessed trauma, unresolved experiences and limited perspectives make us vulnerable to external control.

Without this self-awareness, we remain easy targets for manipulation. Our decisions – whether influenced by an Instagram ad or an AI-generated recommendation – are not truly ours until we understand the forces shaping them.

This self-awareness must extend to recognising the role of dopamine in our digital lives. Every notification, like, or recommendation triggers a neurological reward. This is not inherently bad – dopamine fuels motivation and learning – but overexposure hijacks our systems, making us dependent on the very tools that exploit us.

We need to see it. Own it. And, with awareness and education, advance from it.

Breaking free from Big Tech’s junk food

Breaking free requires more than just individual willpower – it demands systemic change.

Big Tech’s algorithmic junk food diet, designed to keep us hooked, must be replaced with technology that respects our autonomy and promotes balance. Knowing all that I know and have seen, the lure of the screen can pull me from a soccer game with my child or require a “sharp” drink at the end of the day to pull off the roller coaster. I am highly skilled in regulation, but that doesn’t mean the magnetism doesn’t still exist.

This means divorcing ourselves from the platforms and tools that prioritise profit over people. It means pushing for transparency in AI systems, demanding ethical design principles and educating ourselves about how these technologies work.

It also means prioritising alternative narratives, encouraging diverse perspectives and fostering environments where critical thinking can thrive.

But do we want to wake up? This is the critical question. If offered the chance to wake up – to alert from an induced slumber – would we take it?

Waking up requires effort, discomfort and confrontation with inconvenient truths. It means recognising that the problem isn’t just Big Tech; it’s also our complicity. But it also offers immense rewards: autonomy, balance and the ability to engage with technology on our terms, not theirs.

Towards a human-centric future

To reclaim our humanity in the age of AI, we must prioritise the mastery of self. We need to understand how our minds work, how our past shapes our present, and how our biology influences our behaviour. This is not about rejecting technology but about engaging with it from a place of strength and self-awareness.

By mastering ourselves, we gain the clarity to see technology as a tool, not a master. We can mentor the next generation, teaching them to navigate the prizes and pitfalls of Big Tech with awareness and education. We can demand technology that enhances our lives without exploiting our vulnerabilities.

This is the promise of a human-centric future: one where we work with technology, not against it; where we engage with screens, platforms and AI systems while staying connected to ourselves and each other.

The answer lies not in the technology, but in us. Throughout human history we have been driven by our genes, biology, environment, generations before us and the influence of leaders, monarchs, politics and media.

Media now give us access to see that, to take a journey of harnessing more control over these factors by examining them and making new choices. The fruits are there for those who are willing to step outside and dig.

The choice is ours. Will we wake up? Or will we remain tethered to a system that thrives on our slumber? Once you’re awake, you can see, and when you can see, the insight calls you to grow. DM

Dean McCoubrey is the co-founder of Humaine and founder of MySociaLife.

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