You open your phone. Scroll for ten seconds. See a headline that makes you angry. A clip that makes you laugh. A take that confirms what you already believe. A product you were just talking about yesterday.

None of that is accidental.

Your feed isn’t a window into the world. It’s a product. Engineered, tested, optimized. And the raw material it’s built from is you. Your attention. Your emotions. Your behavior. Your time.

You’re not the customer. You never were.

Every free platform runs on the same deal. You get access. They get data. Your clicks, your scrolls, your pauses, your watch time, your location, your contacts, your messages, your searches. All of it feeds a profile that gets sold to advertisers who want to reach someone exactly like you.

This isn’t a secret. Everyone knows it in theory. But knowing it and feeling it are different things.

When you spend 45 minutes on a platform and can’t remember what you saw, that’s not a accident. That’s the product working. You were the raw material being processed. The output was ad impressions. The profit went somewhere. It wasn’t to you.

The best products feel like they’re serving you while extracting from you. That’s the design.

This is the part most people haven’t internalized.

Your feed is not curated for accuracy. It’s not curated for relevance. It’s not curated for your wellbeing. It’s curated for engagement. And engagement is driven by emotion. Outrage. Fear. Desire. Validation.

The algorithm doesn’t care if a post is true. It cares if you react to it. A lie that gets 10,000 angry comments performs better than a fact that gets 200 calm reads. The system rewards provocation. It punishes nuance. Every platform works this way because the business model demands it.

This is how misinformation spreads faster than corrections. How outrage cycles dominate over analysis. How your worldview narrows without you noticing because the algorithm keeps feeding you what it already knows you’ll engage with.

You’re not exploring the internet. You’re being guided through a funnel.

We call it the attention economy like attention is a currency you’re spending. It’s not. It’s a resource being extracted from you.

There’s a difference between spending and being spent.

When you choose to read a book, you’re spending attention. When an algorithm holds you in a scroll loop through variable reward patterns designed by behavioral psychologists, you’re being spent. Your attention is being extracted, packaged, and sold. You’re the mine. Not the miner.

The language matters because the language shapes how you think about the relationship. If you believe you’re a user, you feel in control. If you recognize you’re a resource, you start asking different questions.

Like who profits from your time. And whether the exchange is fair.

I’m not going to tell you to delete all your accounts and live off the grid. That’s not practical and it’s not necessary.

The platforms are useful. I stream on multiple platforms simultaneously. I publish on Substack. I post on X daily. I use these tools. The point isn’t avoidance. The point is awareness.

Awareness means understanding that every platform interaction is a transaction. You’re giving something. The question is whether you’re getting enough back.

Opting up means building systems where you own the output. Your email list is yours. Your website is yours. Your courses, your templates, your community, those are assets you control. The platform is distribution. The owned property is the foundation.

It also means being intentional about consumption. If you’re scrolling without purpose, you’re being processed. If you’re searching with intent, you’re using the tool. Same platform. Different relationship.

This connects to something deeper.

In a world where every feed is optimized to manipulate your attention, the most valuable skill isn’t more information. It’s better filtering. The ability to recognize when you’re being guided versus when you’re choosing. The discipline to close the app when the value stops. The habit of asking who benefits from what you’re seeing.

No algorithm will develop this for you. No AI assistant will think critically on your behalf. The filter has to be internal.

The people who thrive in this environment won’t be the ones who consume the most. They’ll be the ones who are hardest to manipulate. Not because they’re cynical. Because they’re intentional.

Your attention is finite. Your time is non renewable. Every minute you give to a platform is a minute you could spend building something you own.

The feed is a product. You’re the raw material.

Unless you decide to be the architect instead.

Software should serve people. Not harvest them.

You open your phone. Scroll for ten seconds. See a headline that makes you angry. A clip that makes you laugh. A take that confirms what you already believe. A product you were just talking about yesterday.

None of that is accidental.

Your feed isn’t a window into the world. It’s a product. Engineered, tested, optimized. And the raw material it’s built from is you. Your attention. Your emotions. Your behavior. Your time.

You’re not the customer. You never were.

Every free platform runs on the same deal. You get access. They get data. Your clicks, your scrolls, your pauses, your watch time, your location, your contacts, your messages, your searches. All of it feeds a profile that gets sold to advertisers who want to reach someone exactly like you.

This isn’t a secret. Everyone knows it in theory. But knowing it and feeling it are different things.

When you spend 45 minutes on a platform and can’t remember what you saw, that’s not a accident. That’s the product working. You were the raw material being processed. The output was ad impressions. The profit went somewhere. It wasn’t to you.

The best products feel like they’re serving you while extracting from you. That’s the design.

This is the part most people haven’t internalized.

Your feed is not curated for accuracy. It’s not curated for relevance. It’s not curated for your wellbeing. It’s curated for engagement. And engagement is driven by emotion. Outrage. Fear. Desire. Validation.

The algorithm doesn’t care if a post is true. It cares if you react to it. A lie that gets 10,000 angry comments performs better than a fact that gets 200 calm reads. The system rewards provocation. It punishes nuance. Every platform works this way because the business model demands it.

This is how misinformation spreads faster than corrections. How outrage cycles dominate over analysis. How your worldview narrows without you noticing because the algorithm keeps feeding you what it already knows you’ll engage with.

You’re not exploring the internet. You’re being guided through a funnel.

We call it the attention economy like attention is a currency you’re spending. It’s not. It’s a resource being extracted from you.

There’s a difference between spending and being spent.

When you choose to read a book, you’re spending attention. When an algorithm holds you in a scroll loop through variable reward patterns designed by behavioral psychologists, you’re being spent. Your attention is being extracted, packaged, and sold. You’re the mine. Not the miner.

The language matters because the language shapes how you think about the relationship. If you believe you’re a user, you feel in control. If you recognize you’re a resource, you start asking different questions.

Like who profits from your time. And whether the exchange is fair.

I’m not going to tell you to delete all your accounts and live off the grid. That’s not practical and it’s not necessary.

The platforms are useful. I stream on multiple platforms simultaneously. I publish on Substack. I post on X daily. I use these tools. The point isn’t avoidance. The point is awareness.

Awareness means understanding that every platform interaction is a transaction. You’re giving something. The question is whether you’re getting enough back.

Opting up means building systems where you own the output. Your email list is yours. Your website is yours. Your courses, your templates, your community, those are assets you control. The platform is distribution. The owned property is the foundation.

It also means being intentional about consumption. If you’re scrolling without purpose, you’re being processed. If you’re searching with intent, you’re using the tool. Same platform. Different relationship.

This connects to something deeper.

In a world where every feed is optimized to manipulate your attention, the most valuable skill isn’t more information. It’s better filtering. The ability to recognize when you’re being guided versus when you’re choosing. The discipline to close the app when the value stops. The habit of asking who benefits from what you’re seeing.

No algorithm will develop this for you. No AI assistant will think critically on your behalf. The filter has to be internal.

The people who thrive in this environment won’t be the ones who consume the most. They’ll be the ones who are hardest to manipulate. Not because they’re cynical. Because they’re intentional.

Your attention is finite. Your time is non renewable. Every minute you give to a platform is a minute you could spend building something you own.

The feed is a product. You’re the raw material.

Unless you decide to be the architect instead.

Software should serve people. Not harvest them.