Sometime in 2024, I started getting ads in my Instagram feed from a supplement company called Thesis. The ads generally featured good-looking, fashionable people telling neat, 30-second stories about how the supplements had solved their chronic procrastination, indecision, or distractibility. Many of the evangelists were identified as high-achievers in their respective fields — a Ph.D. neuroscientist, a CEO, or a surgeon.
I’d be lying if I said that the ads weren’t compelling. As a digital journalist, my working life is constantly mediated by my computer screen. That same screen is a gateway to a functionally infinite amount of information, news, and entertainment. And, over the years, the internet has slowly harnessed more and more of my waking hours on and off the clock. It’s a reality that, at times, leaves me feeling overstimulated and paralyzed.
Many other people have had a similar experience. Over the past decade, young people have experienced an increasing amount of psychological distress, and people have been diagnosed with ADHD at higher and higher rates.
Nootropic supplement companies pitch an attractive solution. What if you could take a pill (or powder or gummy candy) that would make your brain function better in our technology-mediated world? Something that would help you focus on what is important, remember the right details and block out the noise. The nootropic industry is already worth more than $2 billion and is expected to double in size in the next decade, according to one report.
But, unlike prescription nootropics like Adderall or Ritalin, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration doesn’t highly regulate nootropic supplements. In many cases, American consumers must rely on the companies they buy from for information.
