The screen was built to hold you and the scroll was built to keep
The algorithm reads your eyes and learns the way you sleep
The dopamine was borrowed from a future you can’t see
And the thumbprint on the surface is the lock without a key

The slot machine mechanic lives inside your favorite app
The variable reward is just a scientifically built trap
The notification badge is red because red triggers the response
The UX designer built compulsion — not convenience — at once
The infinite scroll has no floor because the floor would set you free
The autoplay decides the next before you choose to leave or be
They A/B tested every pixel for the maximum amount of stay
And the average user touches their device two thousand times a day

The child who held a phone before a book has neural paths rewired
The attention span contracted to what the algorithm desired
The blue light suppressed the melatonin and the sleep was sold for more
And the teenage brain was handed to the highest bidding floor

HOOKED — the screen is not the window it’s the wall
HOOKED — the scroll is not the choice it’s the protocol
Every swipe is a transaction and the currency is you
The feed was never free — the product was the view
HOOKED — the notification is the leash they never show
HOOKED — the algorithm knows you better than you know

A fourteen year old girl who used to paint and ride her bike
Now measures every morning by the numbers and the likes
The filter is the face she shows — the real one stays inside
And the comment section taught her that her worth is something to decide
The boy who couldn’t stop the game — who played until his hands went numb
The dopamine was dry but still the fingers wouldn’t come undone

HOOKED — the screen is not the window it’s the wall
HOOKED — the scroll is not the choice it’s the protocol
Every swipe is a transaction and the currency is you
The feed was never free — the product was the view
HOOKED — the notification is the leash they never show
HOOKED — the algorithm knows you better than you know

Delete the app — the hand will shake — the habit is that deep
The phantom buzz inside your pocket interrupts your sleep
But the morning without the screen is the morning you remember first
And the silence after the notification is the cure for the thirst
The book the walk the conversation and the eye contact returned
The analog is the antidote for everything the digital burned

Tristan Harris pulled the curtain back on every trick they used
The Center for Humane Tech exposed how every mind was bruised
The Congressional hearings showed the data on the teenage cost
And the executives who testified knew exactly what they’d lost
Cal Newport wrote the roadmap for the digital detox plan
And the people who unplugged rebuilt their lives with their own hands
The screen time dropped the anxiety dropped the clarity returned
The mind that left the algorithm is the mind that finally learned

HOOKED — but the hook can be removed if you decide
HOOKED — the algorithm only works on those who stay inside
Delete the feed — reclaim the morning — put the phone across the room
The screen was never sunlight — it was never meant to bloom
HOOKED — the child deserves a childhood that is not a product line
HOOKED — the adult deserves a mind that is entirely mine
HOOKED — they built the trap but they forgot one ancient thing
The human mind was never meant to live inside a screen
The book the garden and the silence are the oldest forms of free
HOOKED no more — the mind that left the feed is the mind that learned to see

Put the phone in another room tonight.
Watch what happens to your hands.
Watch what happens to your thoughts.
The withdrawal is proof of the design.
And the clarity on the other side
Is proof that you were never broken.
You were hooked.
And now you’re not.