The Koe Cast – Social Media Keeps Getting Worse (How Your Dopamine Is Being Hijacked)

Host: Dan Koe
Date: September 7, 2025

Episode Overview

Dan Koe explores the evolving, often unsettling landscape of social media, focusing on how platforms intentionally hijack our dopamine systems. He traces the roots of this phenomenon, discusses its societal consequences (including risks to civilization), and offers a practical framework for using social media more meaningfully—especially relevant to creators and those seeking to extract real value from their online presence. The conversation is deeply philosophical, featuring references to thinkers like Daniel Schmachtenberger, and balances critique with actionable advice.

Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. Why Social Media Feels Worse Than Ever

[00:00–05:20]

• Decline in Excitement & Increase in Fatigue:
  Dan reflects on how social media once felt fresh and exciting but now exhausts many, leading to frustration, anxiety, and compulsive scrolling.

  “We can’t seem to pull ourselves away from our screens… you are getting tired of it. Tired of the cute dances, tired of the immature pranks. Tired of being robbed of your attention 10 seconds at a time.” (Dan, 00:22)

• The ‘Attention Hijacking’ Loop:
  Platforms are designed like digital slot machines to maximize time spent, using our hardwired reward circuits against us.

  “You just check Instagram, then find yourself an hour later having opened every social app at least three times—your attention was hijacked.” (Dan, 01:08)

2. Fast Food for the Brain: Dopamine and Social Media

[05:21–10:45]

• Instant vs. Delayed Gratification:
  Social media is compared to fast food—it’s the “fast food of socialization,” delivering fleeting dopamine hits with little long-term value.

• Human Evolution Misalignment:
  Our brains, built for hunter-gatherer survival, haven’t caught up with an era of digital abundance and hyper-stimulation.

• The “For You Page” & Algorithmic Traps:
  Dan describes how, inspired by the fast food industry’s pleasure optimization, tech companies use similar tactics to engineer addictive content feeds for profit.

  “Fast food companies had already been testing combinations of fat, sugar, and salt to maximize pleasure... Internet companies could also study this reward mechanism in our heads.” (Dan, 07:53)

3. The Metacrisis & Civilization’s Risk

[10:46–18:00]

• Introduction of the “Metacrisis”
  Dan brings in Daniel Schmachtenberger’s concept, emphasizing that our problems are interconnected and stem from deeper structural patterns—"generator functions."

• The Three Generator Functions:

  1. Rivalrous Dynamics: Win-lose scenarios drive conflict (arms races, social media content wars).
  2. Substrate Consumption: Foundational resources (like attention, trust) are depleted faster than they regenerate.
  3. Exponential Technology: Tools evolve faster than our wisdom or ability to keep up (AI, algorithms).

  “...think of them as root causes to problems. When you treat symptoms without addressing the root cause, it's like mopping water while the faucet runs.” (Dan, 14:11)

• Civilizational Outcomes:

  • Catastrophic collapse (nuclear war, AI).
  • Dystopian control (total surveillance, digital authoritarianism).
  • A “third attractor,” a hopeful alternative path.

4. Three Levels of Social Media Content & Creators

[18:01–40:45]

Dan proposes a practical typology for creators and content consumers—exposing the ecosystem’s pitfalls and potential.

Level 1: Trend Jackers ("Fast Food Content")

[18:10–26:40]

• Creators chasing trends, optimized for viral dopamine hits, with no lasting value or connection between posts.
• Masters of clickbait, "thought McNuggets," and surface-level ideas.
• 99% of this content is “entropic”—disordered, addictive, and disconnected from real knowledge.
• Actionable Advice:
  • Pursue difficult goals, share authentic journeys, broaden interests, set a mission for your content.

  “They are content factories… thought McNuggets—fast food for the mind.” (Dan, 20:31) “It just goes in your head, bounces around, causes a lot of trouble. Like you just had a party going on in your head… your mental room is so messy.” (Dan, 25:00)

Level 2: Brilliant Nobodies ("Hidden Value")

[26:41–34:10]

• Smart, original creators who resent the algorithm and refuse to play the game—wonder why superficial content goes viral while theirs languishes.
• Possess deep insights but struggle to communicate or market effectively.
• Need to adapt messaging for broader accessibility, embrace value exchange, and study direct response marketing.
• Actionable Advice:
  • “Dumb down” ideas as a challenge; create offers, face money taboos, and deliver value at people’s current understanding.

  “They complain about idiots going viral and are just like, why am I not going viral?” (Dan, 29:01) “Shallow content has the point of educating people to the point of receiving the depth or wisdom or value.” (Dan, 29:35)

Level 3: Value Creators ("The Meaning Economy")

[34:11–38:50]

• Intentionally deliver content with a clear throughline, mission, and transformative aim.
• Use social media as a tool to pursue their life’s work, not as an end in itself.
• Examples: James Clear, Naval Ravikant, Andrew Huberman.
• “Syntropic” content—order-bringing, purpose-driven, and clarity-creating.
• Actionable Advice:
  • Dedicate yourself to continuous improvement, solve real problems, tell your unique story, and provide educational products or tools.

  “Their short form content all has a meaningful aim towards something that they're helping people achieve.” (Dan, 37:12) "Everyone’s niche is self actualization... The uniqueness stems from their story." (Dan, 39:00)

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On the Allure and Trap of Social Media:

  “The problem is everyone with an internet connection can access social media… Most people have not developed themselves or improved themselves to any meaningful degree… The Internet becomes filled with level one thinking and low consciousness thinking.” (Dan, 22:30)

• On Civilization’s Existential Paradox:

  “When you treat symptoms without addressing the root cause, it's like mopping water while the faucet runs.” (Dan, 14:11)

• On the Creator’s Purpose:

  “Do something great. Document your path. Solve your own problems, sell the solution. Find a crevice of reality that you deeply care about and dedicate your life to helping others learn, grow and actualize. Take your weird interests and make them interesting to other people. In other words, become a node.” (Dan, 39:41)

• Daniel Schmachtenberger (quoted by Dan):

  “The written word as the primary type of media was probably required for democracy to work—because it required people to think well enough and they were reading, which meant increased attention span of non-dopaminergic stuff, which also meant enough working memory to hear multiple perspectives.” (Dan, quoting Schmachtenberger, 35:44)

• On Course Creation & the Meaning Economy:

  “If you are a developed person, creating a course or some form of education… that is one of the greatest goods you can do. Create with intention. Create to serve.” (Dan, 43:00)

Key Timestamps

• 00:00 – Opening thoughts on why social media feels worse than ever
• 05:21 – Dopamine, reward circuits, and evolutionary mismatch
• 10:46 – Daniel Schmachtenberger’s metacrisis and its generator functions
• 18:01 – Three levels of content and creator types
• 26:41 – The "Brilliant Nobodies" problem (Level 2 creators)
• 34:11 – Level 3 creators and the meaning economy
• 39:41 – The call to action: become a node, make meaning, create impact

Summary & Takeaways

Dan Koe delivers an incisive critique of how social media exploits human psychology—but, importantly, he pushes beyond mere criticism. He introduces a nuanced framework (three levels of creators/contents) that both indicts the current system and highlights a path forward: shifting from chasing viral attention to building lasting meaning.

• Major tech platforms optimize for profit by weaponizing our brain’s dopamine system, leading to surface-level chaos and distraction.
• These systems represent root crises (metacrisis) that threaten society, but individual and cultural change—especially through meaningful content creation—offers hope.
• Aspiring creators (and users) should aim for level 3: fusing practical attention-getting skills with life-changing, mission-driven content.
• Ultimately, Dan champions self-actualization, unique storytelling, and genuine value creation as the antidotes to social media’s entropic ecosystems.

For listeners and creators alike, the episode functions both as diagnosis and prescription—laying out where civilization is going wrong (and why), and how to reorient your digital life for purpose, depth, and long-term impact.