Your Social Media Algorithm is Harming your Nervous System

Emotional Badass

Nikki Eisenhauer

Health & Fitness, Self-improvement, Mental Health, Education

4.8 • 2.2K Ratings

🗓️ 9 November 2025

⏱️ 55 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Rage bait pulls your strings and your nervous system pays the price. Social media algorithms thrive on making you angry, fearful, and activated because those emotions keep you scrolling longer, but most people can't spot when they're being manipulated. The internet runs on manufactured outrage that tricks your brain into thinking extreme opinions are everywhere when they're actually held by tiny fractions of people. Your caveman survival instincts make you hyper-focus on threats and problems instead of solutions, which is exactly what content creators exploit for engagement. Dead internet theory reveals most online traffic isn't even human anymore, it's bot farms flooding comments to sway opinions and create artificial division. Learning your personal "tells" when rage bait hooks you, like forming an angry response or that frustrated sigh, gives you the pause needed to respond from wisdom instead of activated emotions. Time boxing your apps, curating ruthlessly by blocking anything that activates you, and the 48-hour rule help protect your nervous system from being puppet-mastered by algorithms designed to keep you in fight-or-flight mode. Resources: WORK WITH NIKKI 1:1: EmotionalBadass.com/coaching THE BI-WEEKLY WELLNESS NEWSLETTER EmotionalBadass.com/newsletter SUPPORT US ON PATREON Patreon.com/emotionalbadass 30 Days to Peace Course EmotionalBadass.com/peace 00:00 How social media algorithms manipulate your emotions 00:55 What is rage bait and why it works 03:15 Why content creators use fear-based engagement tactics 06:40 How to recognize when you're being rage baited 09:55 The psychology behind doom scrolling and hypervigilance 12:10 Why being informed online actually manipulates you 17:00 How fear makes you seek more fearful content 18:40 Stoic perspective on staying informed versus powerless 20:50 Why information addiction feels like a drug hit 22:50 The parasocial outrage cycle explained for HSPs 25:10 How extreme opinions appear more popular online 27:45 Dead internet theory and bot farm manipulation 30:35 Recognizing bot farms in your own content 32:20 How to protect your nervous system online 34:20 Time boxing apps to maintain digital boundaries 35:20 Curating ruthlessly by blocking rage inducing content 36:45 The 48 hour rule for manufactured outrage 38:20 Physical boundaries to stop mindless phone checking 40:30 Replacing scrolling with healthier activities instead 41:35 Dear Internet relationship advice loyalty test drama 47:35 George Orwell's 1984 book recommendation 51:05 Finding beauty in your plan B life Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello, welcome to the show.
0:02.4	This is Emotional Badass, where Moxie meets Mindful.
0:05.6	I'm your host, Nikki Eisenhower, live coach and psychotherapist.
0:09.0	And I'm your co-host, Chris Iacono, producer, and husband.
0:12.9	And on today's episode, we're discussing rage bait, doom scrolling, and managing our nervous system online.
0:20.7	On to the show.
0:32.6	So this is a topic that I really wanted to speak about, and I kind of brought it to you a few weeks ago.
0:38.4	I think it is so important right now.
0:42.0	When the internet has permeated every single aspect of our lives and we are inundated with media,
0:49.3	AI driven media, influencers, and all of these things that are kind of bombarding us online. I think it's
0:56.6	very important that we really examine how the internet is affecting our nervous system, how it's
1:04.7	making us feel, how it's misleading us and tricking us and making us angry. Because I've dedicated so much of my career
1:14.0	to helping people unravel and understand manipulation, I've realized how many people don't see
1:22.1	the manipulation of advertisement, of media, of the ways the social media algorithms work. I know you and I having the show,
1:33.4	gosh, we're getting close to nine years. In that time, we've really learned, been forced to learn
1:41.1	the manipulation of the algorithms and how really every algorithm out there
1:46.8	runs on rage bait. It's been a real dilemma. When you see some of your favorite podcasters or
1:55.6	content creators increasingly doing clickbaity things, it's because we are under this constant dilemma of
2:04.0	how do we do this? If the algorithms work with outrage and pissing people off, creating
2:12.1	controversy, how do we actually just have a conversation about anything when the algorithm wants what is salacious,
2:19.7	what is poking people in hate and disdain and anger and fear when everything about the work
2:29.9	that I do and the work that we've done together on this show is about the opposite of all of that.
	...

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