Conditioning Signals - Whatever gets rewarded gets repeated. Whatever gets ignored disappears. So people adopt. They simplify themselves. They exaggerate themselves. They flatten their entire personality into something that's sharable. So they become more extreme, more predictable, more performative.

People aren't asking "is this how I feel", they're asking "how will this be received by other people?" and over time, something breaks. When your external performance doesn't match your internal experience, there is one universal response - we feel hollow.

You may be experiencing it. This is the death of authenticity.