When platforms are deliberately engineered to capture attention, shape emotions, and influence behavior, can users reasonably be blamed for staying hooked? Or does personal agency outweigh algorithmic design?
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Users, not platforms, are ultimately accountable. Emotional influence has existed long before social media—through advertising, entertainment, religion, and politics—and society has always expected individuals to develop discernment rather than demand insulation from persuasion. Platforms provide tools and content, but they do not remove a user’s capacity to choose, reflect, or disengage.
To claim platforms are responsible for emotional manipulation risks denying personal agency and replacing self-regulation with paternalistic control. Algorithms respond to user behavior; they amplify what people actively seek, reward, and engage with. Logging off, curating one’s feed, or rejecting certain content remains a real and available choice. Accountability, therefore, lies with users to manage their attention, emotions, and boundaries in a digital environment—just as they do in every other sphere of life.