Chapter 26

Between 2021 and 2022, I fell victim to a TikTok addiction.

Quitting TikTok was hard for the occasionnal times it did contribute positively to my life: learning sourdough, blow drying, spirituality, Emilie Mariko’s salmon bowl, protein breakfast, the Eras Tour community, travels, and life with ADHD.

I scroll once a month and report on what I find for the sake of entertainment, and to remind myself how dreadful being chronically online can be. Here’s what I found this month:

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1. Neuro-aesthetics to improve your life

When you see something aesthetically pleasing in your environment (an object, art, an outfit, a collor palette), your brain activates your reward system, creates dopamine and helps you regulate. It affects mood, confidence and behaviour. Exposing yourself to an environment or things that you find beautiful can bring more joy, inspiration and confidence.
(Content creator: Ellsb3lls8)

2. Successfull people often believe in themselves to the point of delusion

The CEO of Chat GPT was asked about a trait successful people shares and answered that it’s the ones who believe in themselves to the point of delusion. If you believe it, your body language will follow.
(Content creator: gainsbyken)

3. ADHD brains are undestimulated

The creator recommends to have the reward first, make your brain feel like a boss before you start, create fake deadlines, engage multiple senses while working, have mini-wins here and there.
(Content creator: Julias.healing)

4. Joe Alwyn is about to out Taylor Swift as a lesbian

According to a blind item, Joe Alwyn is about to cause major confusion by outing Taylor Swift as a lesbian, and among other things, that her current relationship is PR.

This was hilarious to hear because Joe Alwyn makes a point of staying out of drama.

People in the comments joke that the Kardashian or Charlie XCX are at the source of the item.
(Content creator: celebritea.blinds)

5. The Analog Renaissance

It’s about time! I wrote a yet-to-be-published article about bringing back digital cameras, buying newspapers, magazines, cookbooks, CDs, printing pictures, sending mail…

One month away from TikTok and people are apparently chaining their phone to a wall and printing their instagram feed? That is AWESOME and hilarious!

The creator points that internet used to be an escape from the real world, and now the real world in an espace from internet, but people in the comment rant that we’re making the analog renaissance a trend by creating content about it. Some are begging for Instagram to go back to its glory days with chronological feed.
(Content creator: carmscrolls)

6. Your entire life is an occasion

A girl went to pilate and her instructor asked what’s the occasion for the blowout on a wednesday morning. The creator explained how she gets to wake up and go to her favourite class, grab a coffee, go home to make lunch, work on her dream job, text her amazing friends, and that her life is the occasion.

Yes to that!

Don’t keep your best things for special occasion!
(Content creator: Karly.bailey)

7. If you have ADHD you need to understand norepinephrine

The creator explains what balanced and unbalanced dopamine looks like (and people in the comment are ranting that she’s taking too long to explain and they lost interest). She then explain that a balanced norepinephrine is linked to regulated emotions, alertness and calmness, and is very connected to dopamine: dopamine is the spark, and neuropinephrine is the fuel that keeps you going.

If you get your dopamine from cheap sources like scrolling, binge eating or low effort tasks, you’re not going able to finish or stay hooked.

She suggests cold exposure, moderate to intense exercice, sunlight, L-tyrosine, novelty, consistent sleeping schedule, small wins, reduced processed food, limited stimulants, meditation and gamifying tasks.

*sigh*

The hard thing about ADHD is that we know all of this damn well but consistency is not our forte.
(Content creator: selfexperimenting)

8. Perspective is everything

The creator gives example of how something random and casual for you like going to a restaurant, buying an outfit or your health are things that you take for granted but are what someone else wishes for, and how perspective and mindset is everything. Perspective comes from practicing gratitude every day.
(Content creator: prixcillalifehacks)

9. People with ADHD knows what to do but just can’t

A French speaking creator rants about how people in her entourage gives her advice for her ADHD such as getting an agenda, creating a routine, putting reminders, and she gets frustrated because she knows all that, and states that people with ADHD actually gives the best advice in life but can’t follow them.

How I agree with her!

We all know that if we eat protein at breakfast, stay away from caffein and processed food, exercice regularly, socialize, bring novelty in our life, practice mindfullness, stimulate ourselves and keep a consistent sleep schedule, our ADHD symtpoms will be much improved, but we cannot hold such habits consistently.
(Content creator: khaoula_tdahpi)

10. A Court of Thorn and Roses is a great book

TikTok has been bullying me into reading it for years, saying it would be life changing but I could not finish it nor understand the hype. Sadly.

11. The life you want will cost you embarassment

Whether it is asking someone out or starting a business, every succesfull person risked looking like an idiot. Stop protecting your pride.

Will I stop keeping my blog anonymous? Certainly not.
(Content creator: mynamesberto)

12. Rich girl habits

Pay yourself first by automating transfers to savings accounts, investing accounts and pensions. Look polished because your appearence is your first impression. Knowledge is currency. Have boundaries over how you spend your time.
(Content creator: destinydalion)

13. Neuroplasticity is the way to discipline

The creator explains how the brain creates pathways by repetition, and you can hack it that way through neuroplasticity.

She recommends the following:

• Force yourself to do hard things to rewire your brain and making it automatic.
• Ask yourself what would a disciplined person do.
• Act like the best version of yourself.
• Decide that discipline is not something you do, it’s something you are.

→ Now as a neurodivergent person myself, productivity advice used to make me feel like I was not good enough when I could not live up to that standard. TikTok can be harmful into giving you advice that are not tailored for you, or giving you a false idea of what productivity looks like.
(Content creator: bella.dane)

14. (Unrealistic) morning routine

An influencer go through her morning routine where she lights candles, make a coffee, decorate her coffee table with aesthetically pleasing books, notebooks and objects to inspire her, journals, reads, does a Sudoku and then goes on a 10min morning walk wearing eye patches.

She proceeds to promote the candles, patches and books in question.

I’m sure the content creator would argue that she’s not encouraging anyone to follow her routine, but I find unrealistic morning routines harmful. First because it’s common in the influencers’ world to film aesthic lifestyles while they don’t actually live that way. Secondly because it’s making people desire a routine that is not achievable. If it takes an average working person 30 to 60 minutes to make breakfast and get ready, how does an unemployed person have time for a Sudoku, journaling, reading and a morning walk?

15. Journaling is not about what you’ve done with your day

The creator states that people are journaling wrong as you’re supposed to unlock the subconcious side of your brain and write down what your brain is telling you about your day, or how you feel, and you need to let it be a mind scribble and a thought dump.
(Content creator: florrietylerrr)

16. “There’s no big happiness your life is leading up to, you have to find joy in every moment, everyday, or you’ll forever be waiting for a big happiness that won’t come” 
(Content creator: idontbelieveinmilk)

17. How to get out of ADHD slumber when nothing sounds good

The creator explains that you must first acknowledge that your brain will lie to you about what feels good or sounds good so you should not trust it. She says people always say to go for a walk, but it feels like “hell no, it’s not gonna feel good”. Do not listen to your brain, your priority is to move.
(Content creator: ana.vaamonde)

18. If you are neurodivergent, you should not work hard

The creator suggests that because your brain filters and works through more information and have a higher energy demand, it’s unrealistic to work hard, and we must come to terms about how much can we do and stop.

This advice is in complete contradiction with the one provided in point 15. If they’re both valid, it just show to how many perspectives, advice and mindset the algorithme exposes you to.
(Content creator: alchemybykailee)

19. Hollywood is cosplaying poverty because their Masters told them to, knowing our economy was collapsing and it would be normalized to look starved.

Here’s to my FYP testing if I’m interested in conspiracy theories.
(Content creator: aja-babi)

20. Queen Camilla has apparently worn a tiara too good for her

I love that tiara, Eugenie wore it at her wedding.

The creator reports that Queen Camilla is wearing everything she can from the jewels vault, and probably took a chance because the main royals were not there to stop her.

Ah well!
(Content creator: matta_of_fact)

21. You might be miserable because you aren’t doing anything

The creator explains that if you stay home too much, you might start feeling miserable. You need to be active, move, stay busy, because most likely you are spending too much time sitting and thinking.
(Content creator: laurenaligned)

22. Talking about your problems all the time is making them worse and making them grow

The creator believes that repeated focus on negative thoughts makes the brain expect negativity. By talking about trauma frequently, how and why you are that way, you force your brain to relieve it, and create neuro-pathways as the brain loves reinforcing pattern. She states that it’s only useful if you discuss them with an intention to think of solutions.

It reminded me of Eckhart Tolle who said in the introduction of The Power of the Present Moment that he rarely think of the past, and I could not even understand how that would be possible.
(Content creator: Bella.Dane)

Conclusion

If I sometimes miss scrolling, doing it reminds me of how stupid and damaging the content is, and what we make our brains endure.

• Addiction: I scrolled for longer than I planned even though I was very aware that the content was poor, but I didn’t want to stop!
• Exposure to different personalities, lifestyle and aesthetics: I’ve seen advices from highly productive women, spiritual folks, trad wives and gym gurus. Even armed with my critical thinking, I felt tempted to start a new gym routine, climb the corporate ladder and bake bread in the same hour. Imagine the confusion if you’re on there daily and the consequences on people’s mental health, personality and societal values.
• Unrealistic morning routines: Hannah Alonzo on Youtube loves debunking the fake lives of influencers. Creators have been caught filming fake aesthetic routines for content that they don’t follow in real life, making TikTok one big endless commercial. In the unlikely case that these routines are real: they’re unrealistic unless you’re unemployed, childless or retired. You do not need to start your day lighting candles, making a matcha, spending 15min getting dressed for a 15 min morning sunlight walk, journal, medidate and read, when the bare minimum for a normal person already takes 30 to 60 minutes.
• Brain rot: I feel so unspired, sluggished, and confused by all the ideas I’ve heard and seen.
• Did I learn something? Nothing deep, only surface level information, probably received more than 300 hundreds advice from strangers on the internet on how I should live my life.
• Constant pressure for self-improvement: I’ve heard rebrand, rebrand before 2026, habits to adopt in 2026, how to glow up, why you’re missing out on life, how to be feminine, how to keep a provider man obsessed, how to be busy, why you need to lose weight. Uh? So damaging?! A constant pressure to improve and start fresh.

Chapter 26.