[chess19]

Does anyone else think technology has a lot to do with this?

Recall the experiment where a rat is placed in a cage with a "pleasure button" that stimulates reward centers in its brain. The rat proceeds to never stop pressing the button.

I believe that things like social media act in the same way. Not to mention smartphones, "clickbait", video games. Machine learning algorithms that increase a service's abilities as a pleasure button.

The philosophy behind HN is that popular community websites have lower quality content. In my view, this is simply a "regression towards the mean" of people wanting a dopamine rush.