Paris Demetriades
How valid could a comparison really be between the frenzy that has erupted over the past week around the so-called brookies from a well-known bakery chain in Cyprus and the long-range missiles that have been launched over the past month between Israel and Iran, affecting almost every country in the region, either directly or indirectly, with incalculable consequences for security, the worsening humanitarian crisis, and the global economy?
The obvious answer would be that such a comparison is completely invalid, since it sounds misplaced and absurd. And yet, as strange as it may seem, I would argue that these two situations might share a single, meaningful starting point. That starting point is the mental erosion caused by our collective dependence on our mobile phones, and more specifically, by the hysterical, algorithm-driven environment of social media.
Take something simple and seemingly harmless from everyday life, like the collective obsession with a dessert that, because it spread on TikTok, led to long lines forming outside the branches of a well-known Cypriot bakery. Now compare that with the shocking absence of even basic restraint in the massive military conflict unfolding in our region. These two cases could not be more different, yet they share something important in common. What they reveal is the gradual disappearance of rational thinking from our lives, a shift that is closely tied to the way social media and their algorithms operate.
Is it not a form of willful blindness to deny that algorithmic dominance now shapes nearly every aspect of our personal and professional lives? Reason is fading, meaning is eroding, and exposure to unfiltered, shallow, and often irrational information has become the norm. From the most trivial moments of our daily lives to the most consequential global events, everything now interacts and influences everything else. The brookies phenomenon may be harmless and forgettable within a week, but the war currently underway has the potential to set us back decades in the worst possible way.
Someone might reasonably ask whether something as serious as an ongoing conflict can really be linked to the scientifically documented phenomenon of declining cognitive capacity caused by prolonged exposure to social media. But it is hard to ignore the connection when figures like Donald Trump have risen to power through democratic processes. That alone reveals the scale of the problem. And it is not just Trump. Across the world, incoherent and extreme populists are gaining ground and attracting followers. It is difficult to believe that this trend can be explained only by the institutional crises we are experiencing.
No matter how many challenges ordinary people face, and no matter how understandably frustrated we may feel with modern life, one fact remains. For years now, we have been absorbing an overwhelming amount of useless and misleading information every single day through the small screens of our phones. That constant exposure inevitably shapes our judgment. It shows up when we rush to the nearest bakery to try the latest viral dessert, and it shows up, just as seriously, when a manipulative demagogue appears on that same screen, asks for our vote, and ultimately persuades us to give it.
