Emotional Adtech: How to Mute Manipulation

“If your feed decides how you feel, your feed owns your day.”

Your phone doesn’t sell facts. It sells feelings on tap—rage, doom, fake awe—because sticky emotions print money. Adblock for Feelings isn’t kumbaya; it’s governance. Block the bait (outrage, performance, catastrophe), whitelist the signal (curiosity, compassion, action). Buy back enough quiet to make one real choice on purpose.

The business model of your mood

Engagement engines don’t care what you feel; they care that you can’t stop feeling. Rage is sticky. Shimmering “wow” is sticky. Grief with a backbeat? Sticky. If it spikes cortisol or dopamine, it earns autoplay.

So your day becomes a puppeted weather system: micro-storms of outrage, hailstorms of novelty, sunshine of “10 life hacks you’ll never use.” None of it asked what you came for.

What “Adblock for feelings” actually means

Not numbing out. Not “good vibes only.” It’s an intent filter:

Block: outrage bait, performative awe, catastrophic doom, parasocial drama.

Allow: curiosity, compassion, actionable concern (things you can do, not just feel).

If a post can’t pass the “what can I do now?” test, it’s spam for your nervous system.

The three knobs (turn them, don’t negotiate)

1) Input friction
Make it harder for bad feelings to hit your eyeballs. Turn off autoplay. Kill infinite scroll. Mute hot-button keywords you never act on. Follow fewer “takes,” more sources.

2) Attention rituals
Open with a question, not a feed. “What am I here to learn / decide / make?” Set a 20-minute timer. When it dings, do one offline action.

3) Exit ramps
Write two default moves for when content tries to hijack you:

Rage → Write a letter or log off.

Awe → Bookmark and replicate (can I try this today?).
If no action, no time—close.

A 24-hour experiment (cheap, brutal, effective)

Morning: uninstall one app from your home screen; browser only. In your remaining apps: disable autoplay, hide comments, turn off notifications except DMs from real people.
Midday: when you feel the tug, ask: What emotion is this selling me? If it’s not curiosity or compassion, mute the source for 30 days.
Night: list three things you did because of what you consumed (not felt—did). If the list is empty, tomorrow’s inputs change.

Run it once. You’ll never unsee the difference.

Build your personal filter list

Keep it short, keep it savage.

Blocklist (bait): manufactured outrage, vague “inspirational” awe, doom with no agency, drama with no proximity.

Allowlist (signal): explainers with receipts, local problems you can touch, art that makes you make, weird ideas that demand a response.

Tape it to your monitor. When in doubt, default to allow curiosity.

Scripts for when the timeline pokes you

Outrage script: “Name the harm. Can I help? If yes, pick one action. If not, close tab.”

Awe script: “Recreate it in 15 minutes or it doesn’t count.”

Doom script: “What’s the smallest circle where this touches me? Who do I call?”

Drama script: “Would I care if no one was watching?” (If the answer requires an audience, it’s content, not care.)

Tooling without turning this into a hobby

No new app required. Use the knobs you already have:

Mute words/users aggressively. That’s not ignorance; that’s governance.

RSS or newsletters for sources you trust; let you decide when to check.

On-device reading lists instead of “save to later” platforms that sell your later.

If a platform removes your control, that’s the signal to remove the platform.

For creators: stop shipping cortisol

If you make things, choose stakes over spikes. Replace cheap provocation with useful tension. Make leaving easy. If your piece needs rage to travel, it’s a product recall with a headline.

Final word

Adblock for feelings isn’t about building a bunker. It’s about buying back enough quiet to think, choose, and act like a person again. Filter the bait. Feed the signal. If it blends, it ends—especially inside your head.