A Field Report from Inside the Attention Economy’s Slow-motion Implosion
aka the state of the algorithmic union
There’s a special kind of absurdity in the air right now.
On one end of the internet, a man is pounding his keyboard declaring that AI is destroying humanity and should be banned like asbestos. On the other end, Kim Kardashian is teaching a MasterClass called “Learn to Dominate the Feed.”
Because clearly not knowing how to dominate the feed is the problem we all have and she alone has the answer. I wonder if a cat o’nine tails is included with tuition?
Between those poles sits the rest of us — dazed, caffeinated, and trying to remember the last time we had a thought that didn’t come pre-chewed by an algorithm.
Hmm. Maybe I better ask ChatGPT?
Welcome to the State of the Algorithmic Union.
The Old Contract Is Dead
For years, I, like millions of other hopeful and starry-eyed creatives, lived under a comforting illusion:
Make good work → Build an audience → The platforms reward you.
I bought into this illusion. It was nearly the end of me.
As 2025 turns to holiday lights and too much eggnog, that contract has dissolved.
Google stopped sending organic traffic long ago to solid ethical people who worked for years to build their ranked sites.
Social media turned into a third rate casino.
And AI arrived like a drunk houseguest who wasn’t invited but has already started rearranging your furniture and offering unsolicited life advice.
The digital landscape feels less like an ecosystem and more like a psychological obstacle course with no prizes or exit.
No wonder everyone’s twitchy.
The Three Kinds of People Emerging From This Chaos
The Rage Economist
Red in the face, certain AI is the villain of the human story. Talks about “war” and “evil” and “destroying tech before it destroys us.” Rage feels like agency. It isn’t.
The Performance Industrialist
Wakes up optimizing. Becomes an avatar. Turns their personality into content. Lives by metrics, dies by metrics. Their humanity has been reduced to a brand asset.
The Conscious Dabbler
Knows something is deeply off but refuses to collapse into rage or cosplay as a machine. Wants meaning, not metrics. Wants to think again.
These are the people you’re seeing everywhere, and possibly the person looking back at you in the mirror.
They are tired of surviving by performance.
They want an actual life, not the feed’s version of one.
So Why Does AI Feel So Existential?
Because AI didn’t create an identity crisis — it just ripped the curtain down.
For decades we’ve quietly outsourced:
attention to the apps
confidence to engagement
time to the feed
sense of worth to metrics
imagination to templates
thinking to whatever was loudest
AI merely accelerated the exposure.
And to be clear: it’s not that the machines are too powerful; it’s that humans have drifted too far from their own minds.
I’m not convinced the masses fear AI, but I suspect the hollow feeling that arrives when you realize how much of yourself you’ve already handed over keeps plenty of people up at night.
The Real Battle: Attentional Sovereignty
Forget the headlines.
Forget the influencers.
Forget the “AI is going to save us” crowd and the “AI is going to kill us” crowd.
The real issue is your attention — the rarest, most valuable currency in the world.
And right now, the algorithm is over-drafting your account.
This shows up as:
Scrollnesia — forgetting your own thoughts because 3 second dance videos on TikTok hand them to you
Performative Intimacy — relationships staged for optics because neener neener, look at my hot husband/wife/boyfriend/girlfriend and, aren’t you just so impressed and jealous and longing and ready to buy something to soothe the ache in your heart? Just click the link in my bio and I’ll send you my free report on how this can be your life, too
Algorithmic Identity Distortion — becoming what the feed rewards because I’ve always dreamed of being “the no-makeup makeup girlboss neurospicy productivity unicorn everyone keeps remixing”
Cognitive Offloading — letting machines think so you don’t have to because your brain has unionized and refuses to work without snacks, emotional validation, and three hours of “resetting the vibe” first
We’ve mistaken convenience for wisdom and frictionless living for meaningful living.
And collectively, it’s not working so well.
A Path Forward (Thankfully, It Exists)
I’m not here to tell you to smash your phone or become a tech ascetic or abandon your secret shoe influencer dreams for something more practical and steady.
I’m not anti-tech.
I’m anti-autopilot.
There is a different way to live alongside the machines without becoming one:
1. Attention Clarity
Notice what’s stealing your mind. Especially if it involves cats jumping on Christmas trees or Pygmy hippos getting baths or buying the same holiday hoodie in 5 different colors just because the influencer said they all go with everything.
2. Creative Sovereignty
Your creativity is the one thing the algorithm can’t generate on demand. It’s worth getting to know it really well.
3. Agency in the Age of AI
Use AI to expand your thinking, not delete it. The goal isn’t domination or destruction. It’s discernment.
A quiet, steady return to center so when your head hits the pillow and the blue light of that tiny blue screen is finally off, you sleep through the night.
The New Social Contract
You may not control the algorithm.
But you can absolutely control how you show up in its world.
The State of the Algorithmic Union is messy, loud, contradictory, and often ridiculous.
But it’s not hopeless.
Because once you see what the machine is doing to your attention —
once you understand the real game —
you can start playing a different one.
You can start choosing differently.
Thinking differently.
Using differently in several sentences in a row.
And most importantly, living like you mean it. Which may or may not include the occasional baby hippo dance video.
And that, frankly, is the one move the algorithm never saw coming.
⭐️
PS: Want more essays like this?
If this hits you in the right place — the “I know something’s off and I’m ready to pay attention again” place — you’ll love what I’m building around It’s Not You, It’s the Algorithm.
More soon. Stay tuned. Subscribe and share.