When did 'I like it' become a substitute for self-awareness?

Or: the religion of the "like" button and the dopamine Christianity of taste

Once upon a time, at the dawn of time, man's pleasure was still a process was. Observation, maturation, interpretation. Taste: based on experience. Value judgement: an internal dialogue. Saying the word "like": was the final act of a reflection, not the first reflex.

Then came the digital world. And reflex became the new idea. Like lasts a button-push. A flick of the ego. And you can already feel it: something has worked. But what? And where to?

The age of social media does not tolerate complexity. There, the truth is 1 bit: like it or dislike it. It works - it doesn't work. And if something works, it's immediately becomes self-identified. You share it, you own it, you label it, "This is me." Because you feel it. Because it's instant. Because it releases dopamine quickly.

But this is where the trouble starts:
emotional appeal and inner understanding are not the same.
The first is the pleasure reflex.
The second: self-awareness.

And the modern age: voted for the first. Totally.

Incoming = familiar = safe

Most of what we call "liking" today is actually answer to familiarity. If you've seen it somewhere before, if it reminds you of something, if it doesn't upset your cognitive balance - you like it. It's mental comfort disguised as taste.

That's why a truly new, deep, formative experience doesn't "hit home", but is first disrupt. Real beauty does not greet you politely - but also upsets, asking questions, silencing, creating tension.

What first "works" is often only fits in with your existing expectations.
What is really valuable - is hanging out. And that doesn't always make it convenient.

The like ceremony replaces self-awareness

More and more people do not understand themselves from the inside - they build themselves from their preferences.
- "I'm a visual person."
- "I like music like that."
- "That book is very me."
- "This film is my world."

In fact, it's not an identity - just identity mask layered to taste. True self-awareness does not ask, what you like - but that: who is it that pleases you?
And why?

But this is too much. It's too deep. Too slow. More like a quick like. More like a post about "this quote changed my life". For a day.

If something feels good, right?
If something is nice, is it good?
If something works, is it important?

This question has long been mooted. Because taste - once the compass of the soul - is now dopamine meter app. It's not looking for resonance, it's looking for reinforcement. It does not open, but reflects.

And that is why more and more people feel lost. Because "liking" does not lead inwards. Only around.
The like button is not a door.
Just a revolving door around your own mirror.