I've been thinking about why the internet feels so exhausting lately.
It's not the content. It's the architecture.
Every major platform you use today was, at some point, actually good. Twitter was chaotic and alive. Facebook connected you to people you actually knew. YouTube surfaced things you actually wanted to watch. Reddit felt like stumbling into a community that got you.
Then, slowly, invisibly — the feed turned on you.
The algorithm stopped asking "what does this person want to see?" and started asking "what keeps this person scrolling?" Those are not the same question. One is service. The other is extraction.
Top comments (1)
The shift from serving users to extracting engagement is a subtle yet crucial distinction, and I've seen this play out in my own experience with social media platforms. The author's point about the algorithm prioritizing "what keeps this person scrolling?" over "what does this person want to see?" resonates with me, particularly in how it relates to the rise of infinite scrolling and endless recommendations. This phenomenon reminds me of the trade-offs we make as developers when optimizing for user engagement versus user experience - do we prioritize metrics like time-on-site or focus on delivering value to the user? I'd love to explore more about how we can design systems that balance these competing interests.