Can't Feel Nothing (2024)

[bunniefuu]

This is me when

I'm feeling nothing.

No joy. No sorrow.

No pain.

Just nothing.

Maybe that's just

what scrolling on your phone is.

But according to my therapist,

the

problem is that the

numbness is spreading.

I have been working with

patients for 20 years now,

and formerly they've come in

to the session rooms,

complaining about

strong emotions.

That they have this anxiety

or depression,

feeling abandoned

and feeling alone,

but now they have the opposite.

They don't feel

anything anymore.

They are, what do you call it...

some kind of flatliner.

What is happening?

It's not just me.

So many people

sense that something

is messing with their emotions.

I want to find out why.

My job is to make

prime-time science and

tech documentaries

for public television.

Can you guys wear these?

Is that like a thing?

For years, I've covered stories

all over the world of tech.

So I decide,

as I travel the world

reporting on stories

about the internet,

I'll seek my own answers.

I'll film how cutting-edge

technology hacks our emotions.

Every single one of them.

The thalamus is not

consciously controlled.

Yes!

Big response in the brain.

Kiss my a*s.

Who are the people

that change the way we feel?

And I'll smash you.

And how can I make

myself feel again?

I don't get why

you're here filming us.

I am a troll, and...

I'm like a low-down,

dirty troll.

And it doesn't make

sense to me why

you'd be here filming me or him.

And I just... I don't get it,

so...

We can do it,

though. If you wanna

come and film me,

talking about this

and let me keep going on and on,

I can do that, too.

But we're not... I don't think

we are what you're looking for.

Unless we totally are,

and I just don't know.

If some scientist told you,

"Hey, go film some low-down,

dirty dude at a video store,

because he's gotten a few people

to fall for his trolls."

Great! But it still just doesn't

make any sense

to me. That's all.

I don't know why you're here.

Why are you here?

At the dawn of the internet,

trolls were some of

the first to recognize

the power of

manipulating emotions.

While other early

users of the web saw it

as a way of exchanging

simple information...

... the trolls recognized

how powerful

pushing emotional

buttons could be.

Andrew is a prime example

of a present-day troll

with an almost scientific

approach to pissing people off.

So I can say something like,

"LOL, kid." Just throwing in the

word "kid" will

get their attention.

Here on the word "baby doll".

"Maybe someday...

... you can cook

breakfast for me...

... in the kitchen..."

You can do this thing.

"... where you belong."

He shows me around the adult

video shop in Orlando, Florida,

where he works as manager.

Andrew's also

a semi-professional wrestler,

which he sees as an extension

of the trolling lifestyle.

Why are all the

world-class trolls

that you know also wrestlers?

When you're a pro wrestler,

you are playing

these psychological

games with people

and their emotions.

And that's what

you do as a troll.

In wrestling, it's the

same thing. It's just...

A lot of it is make-believe,

but you're

making people believe,

basically.

Slam!

Yes! Yes!

Andrew sees himself as something

of an expert in

channeling anger.

To see what this could do

to someone, I meet with Kim.

She had been personally trolled

by Andrew for more than a year.

I met him online in a

Facebook chat room.

He was trolling everyone

and playing tricks on everyone.

Just trying to get a negative

reaction out of the group.

Do you sometimes feel like your

emotions are being

totally messed with?

Yeah,

it's so frustrating the way

that he just has to

engage with people

by pissing them off,

offending them.

"I was thinking,

let's do another women's

march. The last one

was so effective."

"What do you say,

ladies? How about

we go out tomorrow and march?"

"Or are you too

busy drinking wine?"

Trying to get

attention in this way,

almost drawing power

from annoying other people

and keeping himself in your

thoughts almost gives him power,

almost dominating.

This guy did not get

enough attention as a child.

Andrew is an OG internet troll.

He sees himself

as an avant-garde

artist, working pro bono.

But at the same time,

other parties

see the potential capital gains

of messing with

people's emotions.

In China, I see this become

the basis of entire industries.

Our company was China's first to

professionally

produce internet stars.

We are the first company to

specialize in beautiful women...

Let me start over!

I enter a large factory complex.

The hundreds of people working

here are the opposite of trolls.

While trolls master anger, these

workers craft a very

different product.

Shengxi Entertainment is a

live-streaming talent agency.

From a complex

with countless fake bedrooms,

the company's entirely female

talent livestream

their lives 24/7.

Thank you, Mr. Luo,

for the donation!

Is it about to stop?

How did starting this company

become such a

moneymaker for you?

Currently, our office employs

more than 200 livestreamers.

We "manufacture" new

livestreamers in this facility.

They stay here and are trained

for anywhere from 1 to 4 months

and work in the 20+

livestream rooms in our office.

Ultimately, we set them up

to livestream from home

after we mold them into form.

Steps 5, 6,

and 7 are a bit tougher.

Ankle out for 5.

For 6 you need to look

as adorable as possible.

7 and 8...

No, the hands are up higher.

Do you think we can move this a

little bit over

here? Is that okay?

Jin is the biggest star

at the love factory.

No makeup.

She's a master at

making people far and

wide develop strong

feelings for her.

I want to know how she does it,

so I ask her manager, Emma.

Our goal for Jin

He is to develop

her into a top-tier

livestreamer.

So we manage her quite strictly.

Wow!

Thanks so much for the donation.

Mr. Honey!

I didn't see you come in.

It feels so good

to have you guys all here!

When Jin He first came to us,

she was

on our minimum salary

of $120 per month.

Now she receives

$30,000 to $45,000

worth of donations every month.

Look, another one of my

darlings is here. I'm so happy.

Revenue is generated

from direct donations from fans.

Thanks for the

generous gift from

Mr. Honey. You're a great guy.

Thanks for the gift from

Mr. Piao. Yes, give it to me!

The company plans

for you... As you know,

originally it was to

make you a singer,

but the new plan

is focusing more

on becoming a big livestreamer.

Nowadays, livestreamers

are more profitable

than all but the biggest

traditional celebrities.

I don't mind.

I'm OK with anything

as long as I can

still make music.

Today's lesson is a journey into

the world of naive rich people.

I'm sure you all

want to increase profit

by getting rich guys to visit

your livestream

rooms more often.

Some of you have

beautiful features,

so we go the "beauty route".

Others of you

aren't very pretty.

You might opt to go

for a more "innocent" style

to give the user a feeling

of a pure "first love".

Regardless,

it's crucial to determine

which users are big spenders.

Otherwise,

don't waste your time.

Remember, time as

a livestreamer is very valuable.

A real rich guy won't

be bragging about

his money in your

livestreaming room.

Anyone doing

that is full of sh*t.

Here are a few characteristics

of rich users.

They're lonely. They're looking

for a spiritual connection.

He comes in,

and he lurks in the

livestream room for a while.

At first he's just

observing you.

But then you suddenly say the

right thing,

sing the right song.

Then the donations start coming.

Ignore the people

who are all talk.

A real rich guy

won't start small.

Their first

donations will be big.

I want to talk about your

feelings. How does

Jin affect them?

I do think that

virtual relationships

can replace real-life relations.

She makes me feel warm, and

I think the feeling is mutual.

It definitely can replace

real-life relationships.

In South China, I meet another

one of Jin's most loyal fans.

I have a present here that Jin

He gave me. It's a spicy sauce.

Beef and pickled

peppers hot sauce.

It's true that I already ate

all of the sauce.

But I would never throw it away

like some normal hot sauce.

I'm keeping it

preserved in this box.

She isn't even in

my real life at all,

but she still does this for me.

It truly touched my heart.

It makes me feel like she

really looks at me as a friend.

I'm now only $10,000 away

from being a "7th-level fan".

I've already given Jin He

about $75,000. Yeah...

Thanks.

That one's for you, Mr. Long.

Maybe it isn't surprising that

there's a huge

demand to feel loved.

But actually, it seems there's a

market for every

emotion conceivable.

Even the ones we try to avoid.

Veles, Macedonia,

became famous in 2016

as the fake-news

capital of the world.

Some say that the

town played a critical

role in the election

of Donald Trump.

The work done here made local

fake-news kingpins very,

very rich.

Fake news is something

that we engineer

to get maximum

clicks and attention.

It's easy to make

news for people

like Trump voters, for example,

because they are

rednecks in some way.

People who'll click

on almost everything.

Another category of people

who are easy to work with...

... is feminists.

It's easy to manipulate

passionate people

because they truly

believe in something.

The local gold rush was financed

by Google.

They placed ads on

the fake news sites.

And the income was

a lifeline for average

Macedonians struggling

to make ends meet.

Including Elena, Alex's protg.

It's surprising to

learn that Elena is a

doctor and surgeon

at a local hospital.

She's also an activist,

who in the past

protested against

fake news in her own country.

But now she's in debt

and only sees one way out.

Can I sit here? Or not?

- Sit down.

- Or sit down.

Generally,

you need some European states,

Western-European,

definitely America,

because their clicks are

worth more, they pay more.

Fear is the key to choosing

the subject you write about.

You need to consider

human psychology.

People have a long history

of living in fear.

Yes.

The general key is

to exploit this fact.

You find a trending fear...

Let's call it "trending fear".

And you report on it.

And you work on

that subject. Yeah.

You just find a fear out in the

world. Find a fear, that's it.

The more mysterious

you make it sound,

the more paranoia

it will create.

Elena's task is to find

something scary to write about.

But it actually isn't so easy.

Most scary topics already have

fake-news people

writing about them.

I found a Facebook group.

Look at these people, they're

so... How should I put it...

They're so into it. They live

with these thoughts,

these fears.

They believe that

there's a looming

danger,

that something bad will happen.

These people are paranoid,

and that's exactly what I need.

Elena probes the recesses

of people's insecurities.

She finds fear and reinforces it

in the articles she writes.

A trail behind an airplane.

Is it just water vapor?

Or maybe it's a

perilous chemical

c*ck that

controls our brains.

In California,

I meet up with Elana.

She had shared the articles that

Elena in Macedonia wrote online.

This is the air we breathe

that this is affecting.

If you think it's natural clouds

over your head...

If only you knew.

We're breathing it,

and it's going

into our lungs,

messing up our lungs,

and then going into our blood

and then moving to the brain,

where it can,

because of the nanoparticles,

easily

go through the

blood-brain barrier.

Oh yeah,

that looks like a trail.

It's unusual,

because it's just sitting there.

I can say it's scary.

Of course it's scary.

And now they can

use the 5G-6G system

to beam into us

and make us complacent,

make us angry,

make us have certain thoughts...

So they can

affect our emotions?

Emotions,

thoughts and behavior.

That's what they claim.

So the point of

the chemtrails is to

influence our emotions

and our thoughts?

Yeah, the endgame is that,

along with full-spectrum

dominance over the planet.

Full control over

every aspect of

life on Earth. That's

what they want.

Maybe she's a

conspiracy theorist,

but I recognize

what she's feeling.

Even if her theories aren't

the right answer,

it is true that

forces around the

world are messing

with our emotions.

Including some of the most

brilliant minds of our time.

I'm at the Massachusetts

Institute of Technology.

Hate.

To see how the world of computer

science approaches emotion,

I meet with Dr. Rosalind Picard.

Can you show me anger now?

That's not allowed.

She's the founder of the field

of affective computing,

a branch of

computer science that

researches how to

influence human emotion.

She's showing me a sentograph, a

machine that

measures your emotions

based on the way

your fingers touch a button.

It's the very first

machine ever made

for measuring

someone's emotions.

Grief.

And the first one of these

represents anger.

Invented by the scientist

Manfred Clynes,

the sentograph assumed

that the body channeled emotions

in a universal and

measurable way.

Wow!

It was one of

Rosalind's inspirations to

start an entire field

of computer science.

Originally,

I defined affective computing as

computing that relates to,

arises from

or deliberately

influences emotion

and more broadly

affective phenomenon.

And when you are crafting

the computer interactions

so that you are mindful

of the person's affective state,

what it's likely to be

and what you wish it were,

then it's an example

of affective computing,

trying to directly influence

those emotions

with the computing.

What started with the

sentograph has now

evolved into endless

new technologies.

Your pupil would

get a little bit larger.

Billions of dollars

are being invested

in the companies that make them.

The seven core

emotions are joy...

They're building a

future where paying

customers can see

what people are feeling.

At all times.

This is the future. Everybody

is going to read your emotions.

Do you think,

now that people can

measure emotions

with such precision,

that more people will mess

with our emotions?

People did this

before the technology.

They just watch

what provokes people.

Uh, if I pull the girl's hair,

does that provoke her? No.

If I kick her in the shin, that

provokes her. I'll

keep doing that.

There are people

who just like to get reactions.

Now that you can

get them at scale.

I can't help but

think that affective

computing companies

have a curious way

of looking at our emotions.

One that traces

back half a century.

Emotions are centered

in the lower part of the brain.

The thalamus is not

consciously controlled.

In the 1950s,

one of the most famous

psychologists in the world,

B.F. Skinner,

was experimenting

with how to use

technology to condition

people's behavior.

In the process, he created a new

way of seeing human emotions.

An emotion to me

is like a need. Fear is

a heightened probability

of running away.

Anger is a heightened

probability of attack.

Emotion,

as far as I'm concerned,

deals with changes

in the probability of

engaging in certain

kinds of behavior.

And we're going to

try another pigeon

now,

and I will try to pick out...

To Skinner,

emotions were only interesting

when they encouraged

subjects to act.

The bird has been already

conditioned to eat

when the magazine sounds

and the light flashes.

For most of history, feelings

were dark and mysterious.

But what if they were brought

into the world of science?

Perhaps by stimulating

certain emotions

you could control a

subject's behavior.

There we go, all the way around.

I doubt there's a

risk that affective

computing will

induce brainwashing.

There are so many stages

that the brain has to go through

before a decision is made,

that if

those stages are

not lined up and met,

you're not going

to be influenced by this.

And yet,

what social creatures do

all the time is

influence each other.

That's what it means

to be a social creature.

You're embedded

with other members of

your species and

try to influence them.

You know what,

the dogs are actually here.

In Los Angeles, I arrange

a meeting with Dr. Paul Zak.

He's the cofounder of a firm

that helps clients

take advantage

of the insights of

affective computing.

There's the dogs. Hi there.

Look at that.

- This is Dozu. Wanna say hi?

- Sure.

Hello. Oh, look at that.

Paul is about to give

me a demonstration

of his company's technology.

Look at these sweeties.

For this,

he's joined by Loni Edwards,

one of America's leading

dog influencer agents.

So, there's a ton of money

in the industry.

The most high-level way to

bring joy out of a fellow human

is to have something

that makes them happy.

In the industry I'm in,

pets make

people happy. Dogs

make people happy.

So having them in the content

really brings out joy.

- Gracie...

- Good boy. Roxy's here.

Good girl, good boy.

Good girl!

- No, no, no!

- Stay.

- Good dog!

- Good girl.

Perfect, that's it. Gracie.

While Loni and the

team have done well,

they're still

interested in learning

how they can generate

even more views and income.

For this, they turn

to Dr. Zak's technology.

It can help them

figure out which of

their dogs make

people feel the most joy.

And why.

I watch as Loni and Dr. Zak

read results from two subjects

wearing biosensors.

Big peak.

Big response in the brain.

Flight attendants

are holding them.

- Did that impact at all?

- No.

Seeing actually inside the human

is next level. So exciting.

85 out of 100. Outstanding.

We look at the second-by-second

data, 91. It's out of 100,

right?

Your brain is just

working the whole time.

I believe Paul when he says he

isn't trying to

brainwash people.

But still, something seems off.

So here's where

we're seeing nothing.

Curtains are closed,

curtain opens, big peak.

Big response in the brain.

You know, it's like seeing your

infant child or your

romantic partner.

It's that good. We

are in love with these

dogs though we've

never seen them before.

By the end of the evening,

Paul uses science to show

that Gracie Doodle brings people

the most joy.

Whether they like it or not.

That's amazing.

That's so interesting.

I look into the very image

of modern mind control,

and maybe it's not so scary.

I ask myself, maybe there's part

of us that wants

to be controlled.

What's going through your head

right now, Robert?

I'm thinking about

how totally screwed

I am and how I'm at your mercy,

and there's not a

darned thing I can do

about it. This is

something I ask for.

I honestly have no

idea what's gonna

happen,

or what you're gonna make me do.

Oh look,

a camera. Let's turn this on

and see if we can

see his dumb face.

There's his dumb face!

He looks very pensive.

He looks nervous.

He's just sitting right there.

Just sitting and

watching and terrified.

Sometimes you meet

someone who gives you

a new sense of

clarity and perspective.

I'm the one and only Tech Dom,

the mistress of

hi-tech domination.

Mistress Harley

holds the trademark

for the term "tech domination"

along with countless other

iterations of the term.

I'll take care of

this right away.

Yes, you will!

I go to Beverly

Hills to meet her

along with her manservant,

d*ck Jones.

From her home, she shows me

the surveillance footage

of the thousands of men

she controls over the internet.

She says that you

don't need whips and

chains to truly

dominate a human being.

Through using technology

to control their emotions

she can dominate

people on a deeper

level than was

ever possible before.

Starting with her

tool of preference.

I'm Mistress

Harley's sl*ve. I'm a

complete loser,

totally pathetic and weak.

I do anything

Mistress Harley tells me to do.

If she tells me what to eat

or to make a confessional video.

She controls what I wear,

so she doesn't

let me wear clothes

when I'm home.

She makes me wear this collar.

She controls my privacy,

so she can

make me make

confessional videos.

She has cameras in my home.

I have one here in my room. I

have another one in my bathroom.

I'm getting one

for my living room

so I'll have no privacy at all.

The only freedom

I have in my life is

stuff she hasn't

decided to dictate to me.

Otherwise I just do

whatever she tells me to do.

If you think about

the physiological

sensations of

shame or humiliation,

they're very similar to the

physiological

sensations of arousal.

To make somebody feel shame,

you need to get to know them.

Not everybody is ashamed

of the same things.

Some people are ashamed

of being called a sl*t.

Other people are proudly sluts.

So the more you

know about someone,

the easier it is to figure out

what they are ashamed of.

And gathering data

on someone will

give you great

insight into that.

Google knows how

to sell you peanuts.

I know how to make you feel bad.

You're bad,

and you should feel bad.

I want you to go

find something heavy,

because every time I

sink a pool ball in this table,

you're gonna smash your d*ck

with that heavy thing.

Oh, there's goes one.

Punch yourself in the nuts.

Aha?

There's another one.

Another one. Another one.

Are they hurting yet? Are they

all big and swollen and painful?

Oh, keep hitting them.

Punish your nuts.

Punish your nuts.

Punish your nuts.

Because I always win.

You always lose!

I'm trying to

comprehend what I see.

What Harley does doesn't

seem to be much different

from the other

tech stories I film.

She manipulates

emotions in order to

completely dominate

the human being.

She's just a lot

more honest about it.

I can see everything he's doing.

He doesn't know

that I'm watching him,

but I could speak to

him at any moment.

This must be how God feels.

That's fascinating. So...

A lot of similarity

but then a couple

of interesting

individual differences.

Ale had the 4,

the corrugator muscle,

the furrowed

eyebrow plus a little

bit of the upper eyelid raise.

Very strong 23,

which is that tightening

of the lip,

the buccinator muscle.

Facial-action coding

turns emotions and

feelings into a

simple set of numbers.

All discernible through

scanning a face.

It's the cornerstone

of tech that

reads and manipulates

our emotions.

Joy, love, sorrow.

Just a number

that's the same for everyone

in all places and all times.

I think it's heated

because people feel

that emotions are sacred

qualities of their identity,

or what we used

to call the soul.

And they're... that...

I am the only one who can be the

arbiter of the meaning

of my emotions.

There's this feeling like, my

passions are just

uniquely who I am,

and that's sacred.

And it turns out that's wrong.

A machine can

only understand our

inner world by

reducing it to numbers.

But I can't help but think

it can't be right.

If our emotions

are just numbers,

then the right formula

can make us feel anything.

We're going to try

another pigeon now.

And I will try to pick out some

particular pattern of behavior

and make it a more frequent part

of the repertoire.

My thoughts were

turned to B.F. Skinner.

After years of experimenting on

pigeons,

he discovered something.

Behavior can be molded

pretty much any way you want.

You've talked about the need

for a technology of behavior.

Yes, well,

we certainly do need one.

All the great problems today

need a behavioral solution.

How are we going to get people

to stop breeding so much,

to cut down on the

consumption of goods

that we're running out of,

supplies.

Stop glutting the environment.

Stop beating each other up

personally or internationally.

These are all

behavioral problems

and have to be solved

by something like

a behavioral technology,

it seems to me.

He became obsessed

with creating a

machine that could

build a better world

by controlling

everyone's behavior.

A playpen has been selected for

our experimental environment,

because it is one to which

the child is well-acquainted.

The unfamiliar

additions include a

food dispenser

loaded with snacks.

The Skinner Box was meant to

revolutionize the

raising of children.

By keeping a child

confined to this space,

they could be connected at all

times to a powerful technology

capable of molding

their behavior.

It is best to

separately establish

the function of

the light and sound

as stimuli which reliably signal

an upcoming reinforcement.

What if children could always be

connected to a machine?

A device that could

use light and sound

to shape the way they act,

think and feel.

No recurring group of activities

immediately preceding the action

of the light and sound

is singled out for reinforcement

in order to avoid

the building in

of an unwanted form of behavior.

Skinner dreamed

of a day when this

technology would

take over the world.

Maybe Russia wasn't quite what

B.F. Skinner was dreaming of.

The airborne brigade made a big

contribution to

the Soviet Union!

Human emotion is the biggest

battleground in this w*r.

How do you make

the youth of a country

proud of their nation,

of their military?

Well,

with a tool like TikTok, you

can make them feel

anything you want.

Ivan is the fake

name of a social-media

entrepreneur in Saint

Petersburg, Russia.

The hashtag with my name

gets 1.5 billion views.

I'm basically a

household name here.

Our company has a lot of talent.

These guys behind me can sing,

dance.

They're sexy, cool, goth.

Ivan creates TikTok content

funded by the

Russian government.

Like, yeah, Russia!

Awesome!

He shows us some videos

that represent his work.

You're 10,

scrolling through TikTok.

Then you suddenly

see one of your favorite

stars reading lines

we wrote for them.

Russians are the genetically

strongest, most sincere

and most persistent

race in the world.

Don't be scared

now. History shows

everyone else was

always afraid of us.

Strength and justice is rooted

in our superior genetics.

It may seem crude,

but there's an art to it.

Russia is full of

fire and power.

This word is the

flame of victory.

Let's raise Russia's flag.

We also have talent for the

really young target groups.

We're making a public

service announcement

for TikTok. Do you

know what that is?

Of course.

Let me get you

something to stand on.

Who doesn't need a stand?

Who's the tallest one?

- I need a stand.

- Me too.

OK, step up.

- World of Tanks.

- Our poor tanks.

These are all American tanks. In

our video you

sh**t at these tanks.

An average kid is

watching hundreds, even

thousands of videos

on TikTok every day.

Never before have

human beings watched

videos at this speed and volume.

The kids don't even

remember anything they

watch. But they're

left with feelings!

Fire!

Fire! Fire!

We are proud patriots!

Fire!

My own son? I'd never allow him

to touch a phone.

I'd do my best to

keep him away from it.

Because I want my children

not only to have brains -

but also to be

capable of using them.

Why am I showing

you these things?

Maybe I'm just looking

for someone to talk to.

This is our world now, not

just in Russia but everywhere.

This is it. This

is all there is.

I feel like I've hit a dead end.

Everyone I've met

seems to be perfectly

happy living their

lives on the internet.

Am I all by myself?

I think maybe I need to talk

to someone else.

Near where I live in Copenhagen,

Denmark,

I meet with therapist

Morten Fenger.

He's one of Denmark's

leading experts on

how the internet

affects our emotions.

He's passionate and committed to

raising awareness of the issue.

I feel sorry for mankind

and for people, parents,

children, everyone,

because the telephone has

hijacked your brain, your mind.

You're not yourself anymore.

What shall I do? I tell people,

come on, wake up.

But they will not wake up. They

prefer to be on their... phones!

I'm... I'm so annoyed by this,

frustrated.

What shall I do? I keep telling

people,

get away from the telephone.

They will not listen,

they prefer the telephone!

What is happening here?

What shall I do? I still keep

on fighting, but I'm exhausted.

I'm so tired of being this

expert nobody will listen to.

Every day, people come in

and out of Morten's office,

feeling exactly

the same way I do.

Maybe they're better at talking

about the problems than I am.

Is it okay for us to film, or

would you rather we go outside?

I'm okay with

you staying here.

I can stay? Okay. Then,

all right.

Welcome, Jonathan.

I feel sad about

not trying to see

what else the

world has to offer.

One thing that scares me is

that it just feels better to be

on the computer my whole day.

Is there anything in

the real world better

than what a modern

computer can offer?

I can go through the whole

emotional spectrum

in 10 minutes.

I experience everything,

even faster than that.

It's a totally cold

and empty feeling.

I feel the same way,

no matter if I'm happy, angry or

affected by it some other way.

It's like...

... like an addiction.

This feeling that I get.

So, like, how does it happen?

Why are we feeling numb?

So you have this

concentration of the

feeling of joy,

of anger, of anxiety.

Everything is so concentrated.

The internet creates

feelings for people.

They have all the

feelings served to them.

They just have to eat them

and then after a while,

they feel empty again.

They don't create the feelings

themselves. They

don't know how to do it.

It's the first time in history,

they

have experts to create feelings.

So you have experts creating

feelings on the internet.

That's the new stuff.

You aren't accustomed to that.

Do you have some personal reason

for your thoughts

on the internet?

The job or challenge

for me as a father is:

Every day is a struggle

to keep their attention with me.

Getting them connected to me

instead of the internet.

I feel like every day

I lose ground to the internet.

I feel defeated by the internet.

They've taken away

my children from me.

They have abducted them,

or kidnapped them.

So... I'm in great despair.

We're all exhausted.

But what about the people who

exhaust us? How do they feel?

I'm sort of lonely, and...

I'm forced to be independent,

obviously. And I

always have been.

I've known for years that I have

these values and

the strong belief

of having a family and coming

home and taking care of everyone

and having dinner on the table

and feeling love inside and out.

You give what you get.

- Hello.

- Hey, Mom.

I saw the video you

sent the other night

with the eyes popping

out of the head.

I never saw anything

like it before... No.

The other internet things I saw

were very... disturbing to me.

Some of the other... things.

I kind of feel like

maybe sometimes

you guys aren't

looking hard enough.

I have this talent...

I don't even know

your artistic ability.

You've said you've

done all sorts of art.

I've never seen anything

that you've done.

Right.

Do you think there's like

something behind the trolling?

I don't know.

Just maybe part of it is...

... things that I don't

want to confront

about myself or that

I hate about myself.

That does what?

It's hard to explain, man.

I mean,

there's gotta be a reason

for all the trolling, right?

That's the thing,

though. I'm not

necessarily

super-mean to anyone.

I mean, I like getting

attention... I guess.

Not as much anymore. I don't

care as much anymore, but...

This might be what

messing with other

people's emotions

does to a person.

But I'm starting to

see an entire world

that runs on

manipulating emotions.

Yiwu, China, is the

e-commerce capital of the world.

This is the place that brands

and sells the Chinese products

flooding the internet.

People in this part

of China once made

money by making

things in factories.

Now, they work with emotions,

trying to

prod people into

buying stuff online.

Just in.

Order now and get a free case!

Interact with the livestreamer,

and you might get free gifts!

Buy now and get a free

pair of socks. Just do it now.

For a boomtown,

the feeling here is melancholic.

Nearly everyone who arrives

in Yiwu fails at breaking it,

returning home to the

countryside to live in poverty.

Are you ready?

More established streamers help

newcomers learn

the tricks of the trade.

Even if sometimes,

it's a little bit of a struggle.

I'm going to k*ll you!

"What product are you selling?"

No one's hired

me to do that yet,

I'm just opening my account now.

- He just opened his account.

- It's my first livestream.

I used to have a workshop making

purses,

but now the economy is failing

and my business has collapsed.

It's OK to tell them

that you're nervous and scared.

I want to see if I can...

improve my life through TikTok.

You're here because you've heard

about the

opportunities on TikTok.

We all know it's hard to make

money nowadays

in the real world.

It's the same all

over the world.

There's nothing

left in the real world.

Your idea to come over to TikTok

really deserves a thumbs up.

Lee is a seasoned

trainer in Yiwu

with a company that's instructed

hundreds of newcomers.

But to me,

he seems kind of burned out.

Many people come here

with a desire to make money.

People who owe money,

who need money

quick. People who

have run out of options.

Us e-commerce livestreamers...

90% will fail.

These products are quite pricey

if they buy them in a store.

But if they buy

them in your room,

they get a good deal!

So TikTok is a special place!

- What is your own dream?

- My own dream?

Actually...

We all have our own desires.

But I'm tired.

You asking this question...

It's a question that

really affects me.

I've endured one year.

I haven't seen my

son for one year.

If only my life

situation was better,

I could have just stayed home

with my family.

This is the honest truth.

I'm hurting my son.

Yiwu seems like a

city of broken dreams.

But I still want to see

what success looks like.

What about the

people who do land

contracts working

on the internet?

To make it in a place like this,

what special something do

you need to bring to the table?

What I do is all about

making something shocking.

It's about showing

a test of strength.

I got into this because of

problems with internet gambling.

A lot of young people

are doing it now,

often drawn in by

internet scam websites.

I saw it as easy money.

That's why I decided

to enter this industry.

Time to spin the wheel.

Good luck to all of my viewers.

Let's hope it's red, so I can

get more of your donations.

Doesn't look good for me.

It landed on black.

Black is a punishment for me.

Red is a reward for you.

This is how we spinning-wheel

livestreamers are doing it.

3 liters of red wine.

I'm not sure I can

drink this in one go.

Thank you for all the donations.

Thank you, everyone watching me.

Thanks, bosses.

Time to drink.

Mom, Dad, bring a bucket.

- What?

- A bucket.

This isn't enough to floor me.

This is normal.

Today is a special occasion.

It's really special.

I haven't been

streaming for a month.

If you're drinking for us,

please stop.

No, no no. Not at all.

- I do this on every livestream.

- Don't drink any extra for us.

A normal day is

5 liters of liquor.

You're going crazy

with the drinking.

Today, they make you drink

10 drinks. Tomorrow, 50.

- I'm in control.

- The next day, it's 100.

200 drinks,

is that enough for you?

I can handle that.

People are calling me all the

time,

trying to make me stop you.

I say that I've tried,

but you keep livestreaming.

It's not about that.

I know what I'm doing.

No matter what you do,

it's hard to make money.

We can't make it if you're dead.

There's so much left.

My dad says there's 1

liter left. I think it's half.

This is a family operation.

This is my mother

cracking raw eggs for me.

My hard work has resulted in

getting a work contract.

The platform signed a contract

directly with me.

TikTok pays me directly

to livestream for them.

I think I finally

feel something.

I feel despair.

But then I realize

this feeling is shared

by nearly everyone I've met.

In Macedonia,

the fake-news writer

Elena tells me she feels stuck,

navigating between

different lives.

It's sad, because people who

share fake news are earning more

than I could earn as a surgeon.

Everyday life is just a fight

to have a decent life.

You can't just sit here,

thinking

about the meaning of life

if you don't know

if you can afford to

pay for your semester

or feed your family.

After a while, you're just...

You just ask yourself, why not?

I'm just one more

fish in the sea.

I was protesting

against fake news,

corruption and

everything in my country.

Students must wake up to

the problems in civil society!

It was all for nothing.

You see all the politicians

that are just telling lies every

day, and nothing is changing.

After a while you say, I really

love my country,

but I love me more.

I love myself more.

Nobody attends the

real world anymore.

They prefer the

telephone all the time.

They're just like zombies.

What shall I do?

This woman posted

this heinous picture of her

just super-pregnant, alien-like

pregnant with two twins.

And she saw fit to post

a before-and-after pic.

I'll just go right into it.

I wrote, "Oh, f*cking gross."

"You women are

becoming assholes on

this thing nowadays.

Just being honest."

Maybe she'll see it and respond,

or other people

will see it and...

... they'll start...

talking to me.

11 million impressions.

- I can see you're tired

- My heart feels tired.

I know. This is going

to be a tough month.

Actually I'm not giving you a

day off in the coming months.

Once we've earned enough,

we can rest.

Until then it's every day?

Yes, seriously, a day off can't

happen. You'll be

this tired every day.

Welcome, everyone.

Welcome.

Today... No songs today, guys.

No songs.

We can just chat a bit tonight.

I know you're tired

and had a tough day,

but how could you

go on camera like this?

If you're going to be like this,

just sign off now.

We need to talk

about your attitude.

Are you OK, Jin?

Tired.

Morten, you've been treating

internet addiction for 20 years.

Is there a big thing

that you've learned?

The biggest horror for me

in my profession is

when people come

to me for my service,

they actually prefer the

internet to being alive.

When they have to

create their feelings

themselves, it's too difficult,

so they prefer to stay

in the artificial world

with these artificial feelings

making them feel empty.

People want

structure and control.

They want a power and balance.

They don't want to be free. They

want someone to

tell them what to do.

In some ways, there's a

liberation in submission.

I see that people prefer to feel

nothing,

to be left without feelings

because it's easier.

They don't want to

be in the real world

because it's too flat,

too ugly, too gray.

It's a much better

life on the internet.

I can remember

a time when I felt

things stronger than I do now.

Sometimes, when I'm scrolling

away in my bed, I ask myself:

Is this just how it's

going to be now?

Or is there a way out?

Back in Copenhagen, I'm

trying to digest what I've seen.

I go back to my normal job

as a science reporter.

So,

what percentage of Copenhagen's

fecal matter is processed here?

On this plan, it's about 70%

of Copenhagen's sewage water.

What have you

learned through working

here? The most

interesting thing.

How many resources

we can take out of

the water and bring

back into society.

So you can make a lot

of good things of out sh*t.

I decide I want to

make something

nice out of

everything I've seen.

So I invite Morten to my editing

suite to get some advice.

Alright! You did all of these

feelings, all these emotions.

Fascinating. Good movie.

Over there, propaganda, TikTok.

Oh yes. A huge phenomenon,

TikTok.

What's it called,

the Chinese version?

Douyin.

I don't know what I learned,

so much.

I went out to find

all these people,

and I guess all I saw was

that for every emotion we have,

there's someone really good on

the internet at manipulating it.

Yeah,

some kind of wizard out there.

Yeah, there's like a wizard

for every emotion,

completely changing the way

we feel it and overloading us

and warping that emotion.

I saw that.

They crap on our feelings.

They control us completely.

Right, and... you know.

You don't think it would be

practically

and academically sound for me

to give this film

a happy ending,

like a hopeful

ending in some way.

Let me think about it, David.

I think that

there are always two ways to go.

One way is to change people's

understanding of the world,

and the other is

where you tell them what to do.

So, you can be a prophet saying,

"Say no

to the internet because

it will harm you."

The other way is that

we have a much better solution.

You can be with your loved ones.

Go out and have

feelings right now.

Just go out. It's so simple.

The model for a

better world is to be in

real life. It's already there,

for free.

You just have to be with

people you love. Just do it.

I return to Florida to help

Andrew pack up his house.

He's getting ready to drive to

Vermont to move

in with a girlfriend

he met on the internet.

There comes a point in time

where you wake

up next to no one.

So much that it...

becomes like the

normal. It's comfortable enough,

but...

She actually makes me feel like

I deserve somebody so nice.

The curious thing

is that this nice

girl was not just any nice girl.

She was a very

specific nice girl.

This guy did not get

enough attention as a child.

Hey.

- I love you.

- I love you too.

Do you see me as a low-down,

dirty...

No, no.

But I see your social-media

presence and whatnot as...

A slimeball?

No, just sort of

irritating at points.

And it's just like,

come on, man. Just be yourself.

Because I know

that's not who you are.

Oh!

You did it. I'm proud of you.

Is this the hardest thing

you've had to do in your life?

- It's definitely not.

- Exactly. So let's keep going.

But usually the hard

stuff has a reason.

The reason for

this you'll find out.

- So close.

- I just don't care about it.

Well, what do you care about?

That's something to explore.

Can I please not do it?

I'll do anything else.

Feeling terrible is recovering

from surgery.

There's nothing

you can do about it.

There's something wrong with me.

I'm sick or ill. I can't do it.

No, you just let your mind

get the best of you.

That's fine.

And you say,

"I can't do this!"

If you said,

"I can do this," and

took your time and

smiled through it,

it would be more enjoyable,

it would move quicker.

I'm sorry if, "Come on, you

can do it," is upsetting you.

I don't know how

else to motivate you.

I just don't want

to do this anymore.

- Will you do it for me?

- I guess, yeah.

So come on, let's go.