COVID restrictions have pushed us into getting our social fix through platforms like Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. And boy do they also incentivize some bad behavior.

The less disciplined among us have had those endless phone-checking days. Or, worse, you need to do something else but find yourself glued to the computer screen, cycling between tabs, opening and closing social media sites as you desperately try to get away. And everybody knows that, after months at home, the pre-pandemic numbers on our online habits don’t even scratch the surface.

“What do you really think is going to happen?” I sometimes ask myself after spending more time than I’d like to admit online. Will there be some pot of gold at the end of the rainbow-flagged adverts on Instagram? No—just the cheap thrill of a dopamine hit at minor validation from a group of people I’m loosely acquainted with. You’re not going to miss any major life events from people you last spoke to 10 years ago—and if you do, will you really care? There will be no key to life’s mysteries in a college classmate’s gratuitously self-reflective status update. There’s only the meaningless affirmation that somebody “liked” your thoughtless content.