Hacker News Reader

The whole world seems to be hooked on TikTok, reels and shorts for entertainment.

Reversing that would take some doing.

It's quite dystopian. Seeing people in your family, and friends, just mindlessly consume that shit, for hours upon hours - and many of them are completely oblivious to the fact that these reels and shorts are engineered to keep them engaged.

Using ML/Data to keep people hooked on content - I'd be embarrassed to be an engineer at any of these companies actively destroying our society.

TV had the same effect before the internet. It just had to use less effective Nielsen instead of AI/ML. People make this complaint about all new media when it appears, including books even (well, that kids and adults would spend their time reading trashy novels rather than study the Bible), and later serial articles (which were designed to keep readers hooked with literary cliff hangers so they would buy the next issue).

"The dose makes the poison."

Comparing modern algorithmic/addictive social media to print articles with cliffhangers isn't a serious argument.

There will definitely be hellish withdrawal symptoms.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com