Last week, I published an essay about the so-called Great Lock In of 2025, a TikTok challenge that asks participants to tackle self-improvement goals. I argued that this trend was positive, especially for Gen Z, because the more you take control of your real life, the easier it becomes to take control of your screens.
In response, I received an interesting note from a reader. “The biggest challenge with this useful goal Gen Z is pursuing,” he wrote, “is they don’t know what to do.”
As he then elaborates:
“Most of them are chasing shiny objects that others are showing whether on social media or in real life. And when they (quickly) realize it’s not what they want, they leave and jump on to something else…this has been a common problem across generations. But Gen Z, and youngsters after it, are making things worse by scrolling through social media hoping to find their purpose by accident (or by someone telling them what they should do).”
Here we encounter one of the most insidious defense mechanisms that modern distraction technology deploys. By narrowing its users’ world to ultra-purified engagement, these platforms present a fun-house mirror distortion of what self-improvement means: shredded gym dwellers, million-subscriber YouTube channels, pre-dawn morning routines. Because these “shiny” goals are largely unattainable or unsustainable, those motivated to make changes eventually give up and return to the numbing comfort of their screens.
By alienating its users from the real world, these technologies make it difficult for them to ever escape the digital. To succeed with the Great Lock In, we need to resolve the Great Alienation.
~~~
At the moment, I’m in the early stages of writing a book titled The Deep Life. It focuses on the practical mechanisms involved in discerning what you want your life to be like and how to make steady progress toward these visions.
At first glance, this might seem like an odd book for me to write, given that my work focuses primarily on technology’s impacts and how best to respond to them. When we observe something like Gen Z’s struggles with the Great Lock In, however, it becomes clear that this book’s topic actually has a lot to do with our devices. Figuring out how to push back on the digital will require more attention paid to improving the analog.
