What the internet does to your brain

Every scroll triggers a tiny reward in your brain. Apps are engineered to keep you chasing it. This experiment shows you exactly how the loop works and how to break it.

You send something to one person in private. Within minutes it has spread to people you never intended. This experiment maps how information escapes and why secrets rarely stay secret online.

The feed never shows you everything. It learns what keeps you watching and shows you more of it. This experiment lets you see the invisible hand shaping what you think is normal.

You join a game and meet Riley, who is instantly your best friend. Gifts, compliments, a secret just between you two. This experiment puts you inside a real grooming pattern so you can feel exactly how it works before it ever happens to you.

You join a group chat and a stranger starts messaging you privately. As the conversation unfolds, a blurred portrait slowly comes into focus. Every red flag you spot makes the picture clearer. By the end you will see exactly who was on the other side, and why your gut was right all along.

You scroll through a simulated Instagram feed and rate how each post makes you feel. After every reaction, the experiment reveals the exact emotional tactic engineered into that post. By the end you see the whole feed in X-ray mode, every string made visible. Calm content never wins. The machine only shows you what pulls.

You play a simple tile-tapping game that gets faster and harder each round. Combo streaks, countdown timers, limited-time events — every mechanic is designed to stop you from quitting. The experiment reveals exactly which tricks kept you playing past the point you planned to stop, and how to use that knowledge next time.

Maya posts her first dance video and the comments turn mean. Dozens watch in silence while the pile-on grows. You are a bystander with four choices: join, watch, defend, or report. See what each one does to the thread and to Maya.

Scroll a simulated feed and tap every ad you see. Check your answers and see the hidden truth: paid partnerships, discount codes, and #ad tags buried in long hashtag chains so posts look like real excitement.

Scroll the feed like you would on any app. Tap "Mark the line" the moment it crosses. Each step looked small. Together they are not. Radicalisation moves one small, deniable step at a time — and the line is not one moment. It is a slope.

A claim is spreading with millions of likes. Trace who shared it before, watch how a joke from a tiny account became "science" to millions, then decide what you would do. Every viral claim has a source. Find it before you trust it. Virality is loud. Loud is not true.

Tap through a safe simulation of a "Free Robux Generator." Each step asks for a little more while a running ledger shows what you really gave. Free currency is always a hook. The Robux were never real. Everything you gave was.

Meet Mia — a stranger who pieces together your life from posts you thought were harmless. One photo is fine. Twenty posts are a map. Learn to read your own profile like a stranger would, and what never belongs online.

You queue into a match with a skilled teammate who hypes you up — then pushes for Discord, gifts, your location, and secrecy. Spot each grooming stage before it crosses the line, and see what happens when you set a boundary or tell a parent.