The Engagement Illusion: How Design Hooks You on Nothing

Hi I’m Angela 🧸A product growth marketer who exists in the space between caffeine highs and retention lows.

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The User in the Loop

You open Substack and check the view count on your latest article. It’s gone up by one or two since yesterday. Sometimes you’re pretty sure those views are just you refreshing the page or accidental clicks.

You start wondering if anyone’s actually reading your stuff, or if these numbers are just there to keep you hanging on.

Then you log into LinkedIn.

A red dot pops up: “You’ve been searched three times.”

You click, hoping for names or real connections.

But there’s nothing. No leads, no interactions - just a prompt: “Upgrade to Premium.”

You swipe through Twitter. It recommends a post you don’t care about.

Facebook’s Memory Nudges“Three years ago today…” It shows you something sentimental, unasked.This is nostalgia gamified - recycling the past to spark micro-engagement.

Instagram flashes a new Story from someone you follow out of politeness.

You open an app and immediately see a notification: “Someone viewed your profile.” You click, expecting a name or a sign of real engagement.

The screen is empty. More alerts follow: two people highlighted your post, your content is getting noticed. None have subscribed. Numbers pile up - counters, badges, meaningless signals designed to hold your attention.

You scroll, click, linger. Trapped in a loop that feels like progress but is just noise.

In this loop, the user role dissolves. The product frames you as the illusionist. Every tap, swipe, and open rewards you not with real value but with simulation. Metrics, not meaning. You think you’re moving forward. But you’re just spinning in place.

You think you're progressing. But you're only spinning.

The Sisyphean Metaphor

Art by Franz von Stuck - Sisyphus (1920)

In Greek mythology, Sisyphus was condemned to roll a huge boulder up a hill - only for it to roll back down every time he neared the top. An endless, pointless task.

If Sisyphus had a smartphone, this is what he’d look like. An endless feed, nonstop numbers, and hope that never quits. He’d keep chasing likes, opens, karma points. But the rock? It never makes it to the top. It just refreshes.

Today’s product design swapped “finishing” for “keep going.”

Engagement is basically a treadmill with a shiny interface.

Sisyphus didn’t fail because of the rock. He failed because the whole system made progress impossible.

And honestly, so do we.

Nothing accidental here. The loop follows a script - like the myth of Sisyphus all over again. Just like him pushing that boulder uphill only to see it roll back down, we push through endless notifications and empty numbers, only to end up right where we started. It feels like effort, but it goes nowhere.

I feel the void. Like, the endless, bottomless void.

Cognitive Traps Behind the Illusion

Designers build dopamine loops - carefully crafted cycles of small rewards and signals that keep users hooked.

Look at social proof illusions: “You’ve been viewed three times,” but no idea who. Or “You might like this post,” with zero context. These ghost signals stir up FOMO, not real connections.

Manipulation sits at the core of the design.

You open Instagram. The Story ring around your profile is glowing, nudging you to check who’s viewed it. You tap in, not for the content, but to scan the viewer list. It always shows the same few names near the top - exes, colleagues, people you haven’t talked to in months. It feels like they’re watching. Maybe they are. Maybe it’s just the algorithm messing with your head.

Take Substack telling you “one visitor today” - even if it’s just you. LinkedIn says you’ve been searched three times but won’t say who. These fake signals trick you into thinking you’re moving forward. The platform wins; you get little in return.

Duolingo tells you you’re on a 12-day streak. You open the app, tap a few words, and close it. It barely counts as learning, but the streak stays alive. And somehow, that feels like progress.

These loops don’t create real progress. They create the illusion of movement. You feel like you’re doing something that matters, but there’s no real out