Social media has taken the same slide from helping people communicate and find information to being skinner boxes that serve streams of addictive filler. The p

Social media has taken the same slide from helping people communicate and find information to being skinner boxes that serve streams of addictive filler. The pattern I keep seeing repeated is that things start out with positive intent but fine after a while discover that there is not only more money but more engagement and popularity to be had in making increasingly stupid and destructive material. We seem to consistently surprise ourselves with just how low our tastes actually are. Like if you took me from the late 1990s (college years) and showed me todays TikTok or YouTube I’d have laughed and thought there’s no way anyone would want to spend much time watching that schlock. It’s so low effort, dumb, boring… but human beings really do seem to just want our minds numbed. Same thing drives the opioid epidemic I assume.