[monkmartinez]

To your point b... so it's all about bubbles? A race for eyeballs before they disappear to the next "new, cool" thing?

Because advertising isn't working for the people that sell "things." If social networks are supposed to create spending/buying in retail (both online and meatspace) they are not doing a very good job. Google: Retail sales 2016.

[avn2109]

Fair point re: connection to the actual economy. But remember - the point of advertising is mostly not to increase sales overall, it's to steal sales from your competition in a zero sum game.