Chapter 1

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DEDICATION For every teenager who has ever wondered why scrolling makes them feel worse — and decided to find out.

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Ezra Hoffman built his first algorithm at fourteen, and it ruined his social life.

He called it MoodLens, and he built it in three weekends using Python and a basic sentiment analysis library.

The problem was that MoodLens worked. Really well. It started flagging content — posts from friends, news articles, viral videos — with alarming frequency. Ezra's own feed was roughly 68% mood-negative. Two-thirds of what he consumed online made him feel worse.

"That can't be right," he told his friend Nia, showing her the data.

Nia ran MoodLens on her own feed. Seventy-two percent.

"That's horrifying," she said.

"That's the algorithm working as designed. The platforms are optimized for engagement, not well-being. Anger and anxiety keep you scrolling. Peace and contentment make you put the phone down."

"So the internet is literally making us miserable?"

"The internet is a tool. The companies that run it are making us miserable. Because miserable people scroll more."

Ezra and Nia were both members of a Bahá'í junior youth group, and the next time the group met, Ezra presented his findings. The response was immediate and heated.

“Verily, Thou art the Most Generous, the Lord of grace abounding.” asked Devon.

"I'm not saying that. I'm saying we should understand what it's doing to us. 'Abdu'l-Bahá talks about the independent investigation of truth — well, this is it. I investigated, and the truth is that our feeds are designed to manipulate our emotions."

"What's the alternative? Living without the internet?"

"The alternative is choosing what you consume instead of letting an algorithm choose for you. The alternative is being a conscious user instead of a passive one."

The junior youth group decided to run an experiment. For two weeks, they would all use MoodLens to track their social media consumption. They would keep journals documenting how they felt before and after using their phones. And they would meet twice to discuss what they learned.

The results were sobering. Every single participant reported that their mood worsened after more than twenty minutes of social media use. Several discovered that specific accounts — not strangers, but friends — were consistently sources of anxiety. Two participants quit social media entirely for the duration and reported sleeping better, worrying less, and having more face-to-face conversations.

"We're addicted," Nia said at the final meeting. "Not to our phones. To the emotions they trigger."

"But the Bahá'í writings say we should use every tool available for the betterment of humanity," Devon pushed back. "Social media could be a force for good."

"Could be," Ezra agreed. "But right now, it's a force for profit. And until we design platforms that serve human beings instead of exploiting them, we need to be conscious consumers."

He didn't save the world. He didn't defeat the algorithm. But he gave people a lens — a small, clear, honest lens — through which they could see what the algorithm was doing to them and choose differently.

That, he decided, was enough for now. The independent investigation of truth, one feed at a time.

THE END

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR Crimson Ark Publishing creates fiction about the intersection of technology and the human soul.