Regarding the example of people mindlessly scrolling. This is also in part a result of the measured objectives/metrics by the company. When a company like Faceb

Regarding the example of people mindlessly scrolling. This is also in part a result of the measured objectives/metrics by the company. When a company like Facebook over optimizes for likes and shares, as opposed to say depth of interpersonal connections or something else, then the product evolves to treat users as if they’ve no personality beyond engagement on the feed. That happens even if there is no explicit judgement passed on the users. Source: I used to work on the algorithmic newsfeed of a social media, not Fb. If you optimize for sheep, you get sheep