[Nevermark]

> I'm starting to view social media more and more negatively over time. Maybe I'm just getting old.

Not appreciating deception and manipulation have nothing to do with age. Engagement goes up, but quality of experience goes down.

The problem is these sites do deliver some value, and are the major hubs for that value.

But having achieved that, they are now carefully increasing the amount of value they can extract from each of us, using every psychological hook to increase people's tolerance for crap. While using the healthy content from contributors hostage to avoid defections.

People shouldn't just be able to opt out of being tracked and targeted ads. But also opt out of any content they didn't requiest.