December 16, 2025
Doomscrolls vs sourdough souls
Thin desires are eating your life
Readers say we’re full yet starving: apps serve empty calories
TLDR: The piece argues our devices feed quick-hit “thin desires” while real meaning comes from slow, effortful pursuits. Commenters mostly agreed, citing Buddhism’s hungry ghosts and tanhā, quoting T.S. Eliot, and pushing bread-baking over notification binges—framing this as a mental health wake-up call about empty digital habits.
An essay calling out our age of thin desires (quick hits like notifications) versus thick desires (slow, life-changing pursuits) lit up the comments—and the vibe was “finally, someone said it.” One reader cheered it as a “concrete description to a vague notion,” while another dropped T.S. Eliot like a mic: “the stillness the dancing.” The mood swung from poetic to pleading, with simple “Thanks for this” posts signaling a lot of quiet agreement. No one arrived to defend the dopamine buffet; instead, the thread turned into a mix of philosophy club and group therapy.
Then came the big twist: the Buddhists rolled in with receipts. Commenters linked the idea to the “hungry ghost”—the insatiable spirit of craving—via Lion’s Roar and to tanhā (craving) on Wikipedia, basically saying, “ancient problem, modern packaging.” The only “drama” was debating whether this is fresh critique or wisdom we forgot. Jokes popped up about the “doomscroll diet” and swapping screen snacks for sourdough, echoing the article’s rallying cry to literally bake bread because yeast won’t follow your push alerts. Verdict from the crowd: tech sells the feeling of connection, sex, and productivity without the messy, meaningful parts—and it’s leaving people hungry.
Key Points
- •Defines thick desires as transformative pursuits and thin desires as non-transformative, immediate gratifications.
- •States that consumer technology often isolates and delivers reward without obligations, turning thick desires into thin, scalable experiences.
- •Provides examples: social media simulates connection, pornography simulates sexual satisfaction, and productivity apps simulate accomplishment.
- •Claims surveys show rising anxiety, depression, and loneliness despite increased digital connectivity.
- •Argues infrastructure for thick desires has diminished while thin-desire infrastructure is pervasive; suggests engaging in slow, non-optimizable practices like baking bread.