Am I Guilty of This, Too?

 

by Julie Telgenhoff

The social media feed scrolls by like a slot machine now. Headlines screaming collapse, prophecy, secret plans, and divine warnings—each one written to spike the pulse before a person has even read the first paragraph.

Recently I noticed a certain publication that presents itself as Christian news. It’s only one example among many pushing the same emotional bait used by every other outrage-driven media outlet. Fear sells. Panic spreads. Truth becomes secondary to engagement.

But the click-bait machine isn’t limited to one corner of the internet. Mainstream media does it. Alternative media does it. Political pages do it. Sensational headlines have become the currency of the modern information economy. Fear spreads faster than facts, and outrage keeps people scrolling.

When a publication claims a Christian identity while using the same tactics, however, the problem takes on another layer. Faith carries an expectation of honesty, humility, and accountability. When those values are replaced with dramatic headlines designed to trigger emotion and drive traffic, it feels less like journalism and more like exploitation.

There was a time when the alternative media space existed because people sensed something was wrong with the corporate narrative. The idea was simple: question authority, verify claims, and think independently.

Somewhere along the way, a large part of that movement became the very thing it once criticized. Sensational headlines. Zero verification. Anonymous “sources.” Prophecy stretched to fit the news cycle.

It isn’t discernment anymore.

It’s theater.

The tragedy is that attaching the word Christian to this kind of content drags faith into the mud. Christianity was never meant to be a marketing category. Scripture repeatedly warns about false teachers who manipulate fear and curiosity for influence. When a website slaps a Bible verse next to a headline designed purely for clicks, that is not ministry.

That is branding.

The more uncomfortable truth, however, sits with the audience.

Clickbait only works because people share it.

A headline flashes across the screen: Global Event Imminent. Thousands hit the share button within seconds. Few pause to ask the most basic questions.

Who wrote this?
Where did the claim originate?
Is there primary evidence?
Does another source confirm it?

Discernment used to mean testing information before spreading it. Now many treat information like a viral chain letter. If it feels dramatic enough, it must be important.

It isn’t wisdom.

It’s intellectual laziness.

The internet has given humanity access to more information than any generation in history. Verifying a claim often takes five minutes. Yet many refuse to do even that. Rumors, speculation, and half-truths are pushed through the same pipeline where facts are supposed to travel.

Eventually the signal gets buried under the noise.

And the loudest voices win.

The real damage shows up quietly. When every week brings a new “end-of-the-world” headline that turns out to be nonsense, people stop taking serious warnings seriously. When every political rumor becomes “breaking news,” credibility evaporates. Truth seekers end up looking like caricatures because too many people refused to do the basic work of thinking.

Discernment is not just about spotting deception from governments or corporations.

It is also about recognizing manipulation inside communities that claim to be fighting deception.

Real truth doesn’t need theatrical headlines.

It survives scrutiny.
It welcomes verification.
It stands even when the emotional drama is removed.

So the next time a headline demands an immediate reaction, the most radical act might simply be to pause.

Read.

Investigate.

And ask yourself who benefits from the story being shared.

Because clickbait and sensationalism were never meant to travel at the speed of a share button. They don’t just mislead the person reading the headline—they damage the trust others place in the person sharing it.

And that means discernment and wisdom should come before we click that share button.

The Vampiric System and the Path to Sovereignty

 

by Julie Telgenhoff

One evening you open your phone just to check something simple. Within seconds a headline flashes across the screen: White House Lockdown. Another claims a leader has been secretly hospitalized. The comments are already exploding. People are arguing, predicting collapse, demanding answers. Your pulse jumps even though you have no idea if any of it is real.

It’s strange how quickly the body reacts. A jolt of anxiety. A need to know more. Your thumb scrolls faster, clicking one post after another, trying to understand what’s happening. Yet after twenty minutes you realize you are no closer to the truth. You only feel drained.

That sensation—like something quietly siphoned off your internal battery—is the hidden engine of the modern internet.

Information today is not just data. It is emotional currency. Platforms do not primarily reward accuracy; they reward reaction. The systems that run social media are designed to detect what captures attention and keeps people engaged. Over time they have discovered that the most reliable trigger is intense emotion: fear, outrage, tribal conflict.

Some people call this emotional energy “loosh.”

The word sounds mystical, but the experience is familiar. A story appears that provokes panic or fury. Thousands of people feel compelled to react immediately. The post spreads faster than verification can ever catch up. Every comment, share, and argument becomes a small transfer of attention and emotional charge.

It isn’t truth that travels fastest.

It’s adrenaline.

That is why the internet often feels less like a library and more like a battlefield. The headlines that rise to the top are not the calm or careful ones. They are the ones that trigger the strongest nervous-system response. The platform senses that response and amplifies it because engagement is the product being sold.

The cycle becomes self-reinforcing.

First comes the fear reflex. Someone sees a shocking claim and feels the need to warn others. They repost it immediately, not because they’ve researched it, but because anxiety wants company. Fear shared is fear diluted.

Then comes the reward. Notifications begin to appear—likes, comments, people thanking them for “spreading the word.” Each small interaction releases a burst of dopamine. The brain registers it the same way it registers a slot machine win.

Soon the person is checking their phone every few minutes, waiting for the next spike of attention.

A system designed around engagement quietly becomes a system designed around emotional extraction.

But this pattern is not limited to social media.

It exists in human relationships too.

In many families there is a figure who controls the narrative through influence, money, or personality. They subtly direct how others perceive events and people. When conflict arises, one individual—often the most perceptive or independent—becomes the designated problem.

The scapegoat.

Rumors circulate. Small distortions accumulate over years. The story about that person becomes fixed in the family mythology. And just like a viral headline online, the narrative spreads faster than correction ever can.

Every time the scapegoat tries to defend themselves, the system feeds on the energy produced by the conflict. Arguments create new material. Explanations become evidence against them. The emotional storm sustains the narrative that created it.

The internet didn’t invent this dynamic.

It industrialized it.

Both systems run on the same fuel: attention, reaction, emotional charge. And both systems weaken when that fuel disappears.

Eventually a realization arrives.

The battle cannot be won inside the arena where the rules were designed to drain you. Every attempt to prove the truth to someone committed to misunderstanding it only feeds the machine further.

The real leverage point is simpler.

Stop providing energy.

When a headline appears that is clearly engineered to provoke panic, let it pass. When someone insists on a distorted version of events, resist the impulse to correct every accusation. The moment you stop reacting, the mechanism loses its power source.

This is the beginning of sovereignty.

Sovereignty is not dramatic. It doesn’t look like defeating enemies or exposing conspiracies. Often it appears almost boring from the outside. A person simply stops participating in the emotional economy that once consumed them.

They develop a quiet filter.

If something demands immediate outrage, it probably isn’t worth the energy. If someone insists on misunderstanding, no explanation will change their mind. If chaos wants a reaction, silence is the most disruptive response.

Gradually life shifts back into the present moment.

The ghosts of old arguments stop sitting at the table. The noise cycle continues somewhere else—on screens, in comment threads, inside other people’s dramas—but it no longer determines the rhythm of your days.

You wake up, make coffee, step outside.

Maybe you rake leaves.

The world is still noisy. Headlines still compete for attention. People still argue endlessly about stories they barely understand. But the system only works on those who keep feeding it.

True sovereignty is the quiet that arrives when you no longer need a witness to your truth.

You are no longer pulled into every storm of outrage or every manufactured emergency. The system still spins, the headlines still shout, and people still rush to feed the noise—but it no longer has access to your energy.

You know what you know.

And for the first time in a long while, your attention returns to where it was always meant to live: the present moment.

The wind moves through the trees. Leaves gather across the yard. A rake scrapes softly across the ground.

Life, the real one, is still here.

And now you are finally free to enjoy it.