[teeray]

> Why they would foster a doom-scrolling experience I really can't really explain

Because regardless of whether or not the business model depends upon it, investors have been trained that “engagement” is inherently good quality for their investments to have. Increase engagement, stonk price go up.

[lotsofpulp]

The most valuable businesses have desirable net income trends, not “engagement”.

[kaoD]

In the ad-tention economy, engagement means more eyes on your ads. Advertisers desire engagement which is therefore a proxy for future net income.

Then investors transposed that proxy to non ad-tention businesses, driving up engagement-rich stocks in a self-fulfilling prophecy.

[teeray]

Also, engagement is a measure of how rich the oil field is for enshittifying the platform to extract ad dollars.