> It used to be that if someone linked something the BULK of the people who saw that link and were interested would click it and if they wanted to engage... I

> It used to be that if someone linked something the BULK of the people who saw that link and were interested would click it and if they wanted to engage... I find myself reading comments more than news articles these days because almost every site is littered with modal popups, floating autoplay videos, dickbars covering most of the screen, consent banners, notification consent, location consent, not to mentioned ads, after every paragraph and sometimes almost impossible to scroll past without clicking. The internet has become extremely user hostile, and the true irony here (I can't believe I'm saying this) is that social media sites are focused on engagement so they're actually motivated to not make their UX a painful experience.