Your Brain on Social Media: Three Thinking Patterns Influenced by Your Algorithm
One of the major pieces of work in cognitive-behavioral therapy is identifying automatic negative thoughts. These are the thoughts that you may not even be aware of because they are so reflexive, and the goal is developing metacognition: thinking about your thoughts.
Recognizing your automatic thoughts—and where they came from—can improve your mood; once you start to notice common negative themes within those automatic thoughts (for example, “I’m a failure”), you can start to shift them with new and more affirmative core beliefs.
One thing I notice often as a psychiatrist is social media’s fascinating, and powerful, ability to influence our thought patterns. This occurs in even subconscious ways; the reflexive thinking we have toward what we’re consuming becomes more and more automatic as we consume algorithmic-driven content.
Basically, the algorithm notices even subtle lingering of our attention (despite when it’s negative), and fuels more of that content that permeated our thoughts.
Those thoughts, then, become stronger synaptic connections. Think of it like a paved road—smoothed out by more frequent driving, it becomes the most efficient route. That’s the one your brain takes.
In the past, core beliefs and automatic negative thoughts were often influenced by individual families, peer groups, and the broader culture. But in more recent years, our sphere of interaction has broadened and tipped most heavily into the virtual domain, and so our thoughts now are much more influenced by what we see online.
Heavy social media use, in particular, can negatively influence your thought patterns in a few common ways:
1. Intensifying the tendency toward self-comparison
The human psyche is naturally pre-disposed to self-comparison. Competition drives survival. We are used to benchmarking ourselves against others.
But with how much content is out there now, and the endless niches we can find, we have access to millions of people who are doing fascinating, interesting, and unique things—and they look just like us.
It naturally raises the question, “Why can’t I be like them?”
Over time and over consumption, this becomes an automatic thought: “I’m not good enough [compared to everyone else I’m seeing].”
2. Feeding an unrealistic sense of perfectionism
Perfectionism and self-comparison also go hand in hand; comparison being the enabler of perfection-seeking.
Because what flies through the algorithm more often is aesthetically-pleasing content, our senses get accustomed to a certain kind of perfectionism: clutter-free living, soft lighting, neutral colors, exotic locales, warm but not too effusive affects, and a more one-dimensional beauty standard (colloquially, “Instagram Face”).
We then view our world through those sensitized eyes, with that perfection-seeking brain wiring, and wonder why our homes, children, parenting style, vacations, etc. fall woefully short.
Because the content looks real, it’s hard to truly internalize that by its very curation, it’s imaginary. Its authentic appearance makes the attainability of a similar perfection feel possible—so when we can’t, the automatic thought becomes: “I’m inadequate.”
3. Weakening your own intuition
This is one of the most understated but negative effects on our psyche from heavy social media use: all the constant intake of information makes us habitually prone to consuming, and dulls our intuitive ability for producing.
It becomes harder to listen to our own inner voice when there’s a thousand others. We can easily seek manuals, multiple of them, for every parenting hurdle, but then feel confused by the conflicting information.
All the intake dampens our instinct to quiet the noise and tune in to our own compass. A strong inner voice is replaced with self-doubt, and the belief that develops is this: “I can’t trust myself.”
Social media is designed for maximum engagement, accomplished by keeping you scrolling, not reflecting. The end outcome? We stop thinking for ourselves. We become automated and distracted.
To reclaim your intuition requires a quieting of outside stimuli. It requires getting off the portal that is a hyper-stimulating open window into everyone else’s voice.
What Do I Think Instead?
Let’s go back to some of the automatic thoughts created by the algorithm and consider new internal messaging:
Self-comparison: “Why can’t I be like them?” → “It’s natural to compare myself, but I’m exposing myself to too much of the outside world and not recognizing the wins in my own world.”
Perfectionism: “I’m inadequate.” → “I’m benchmarking everyday reality against a small window with a curated image.”
Intuition loss: “I can’t trust myself.” → “I need to tune back into my own instinct. What do I think is the right path forward?”
The goal of CBT is to ultimately improve your mood and lower your anxiety by shifting the thoughts you have that are depressing your mood and increasing your anxiety. This is the work of therapy, which is one of the most effective investments you can make in developing self-awareness.
But putting down the phone—limiting the consumption—is the first step needed to even have physical space to listen to your own thoughts. Only then can you develop metacognition: knowing what you’re thinking.
From there, you can start to explore those automatic synaptic connections: the paved road your mind has been tracking along in reaction to what it’s seeing in the online world. To shake off the negative influences on your thoughts.
So if you’ve wondered about your social media use, remember: the algorithm intensifies comparison, fuels perfectionism, and weakens your inner voice—but you can reclaim your thought patterns.
What have you noticed about social media affecting your thinking patterns? Leave a comment below:
Definitely felt the loss of intuition. I've constantly been questioning my ability to make judgements based on what other people are sharing. And the impact it has had on my ability to write is disturbing. As if it's a consistent loop.