Algorithmic Collective Slumber: Mesolimbic Manipulation and the Assimilation of Will within the Realm of Digital Inertia

This article investigates how modern technological platforms confine individual volition into a state of "digital inertia" through design interventions conceptualized as "Creative Architecture," utilizing a framework of interdisciplinary conceptual analysis and theoretical synthesis. Creative Architecture denotes an engineering approach that deliberately integrates principles of behavioral psychology, cognitive biases, and neurobiological triggers into digital interfaces to steer users toward specific behavioral patterns. By cultivating an illusion of free choice, this architecture bypasses human decision-making mechanisms in alignment with algorithmic objectives. Digital inertia is characterized as a collective slumber—a state in which the individual is relegated to inaction, cognitive processes are decelerated, and a "wakeful yet unconscious" trance is induced via Infinite Scroll mechanisms. Within the scope of this research, alterations in the mesolimbic dopaminergic pathway, reductions in the synthesis capacity of the bilateral putamen, and the erosion of executive functions in the prefrontal cortex are critically examined. Extant literature and current 2025 field data indicate that social media consumption engenders a compulsive cycle through "variable-ratio reinforcement," resulting in the collective dissipation of approximately 548 years of human lifespan daily. Defining this process as an asymmetric power struggle, the article offers an original contribution to the literature of philosophy of technology and neuropsychology by proposing "cognitive friction" and "context-aware interventions" as catalysts for individual emancipation.