He looked at his reflection in the black mirror of his phone. For the first time in his life, Leo had all the likes he ever wanted. And absolutely nothing to say.

Then his phone buzzed. His mother had tagged him in a post on her wall. It was the same photo—Leo holding the white box. The caption: “So proud of my son’s new venture! Check out 500 Likes Auto Liker!”

She has no idea that one of those likes came from a dormant account named Leo M.—a man who hasn’t touched a phone in months, but whose digital corpse still clicks “Like” on command, forever chasing a number that was never enough.

The caption wrote itself: “Best decision I ever made. Join me.”

The Geometry of Validation

57 likes. 3 comments (“cool,” “nice,” and a flame emoji).

He woke up to a notification: “Your post has 2,500 likes.”