@taz I'd argue a more significant issue is The Algorithms' discovery about humans. Not because it's wrong, they are actually quite good at what they do: show things that will keep people scrolling. The problem is what most motivates people.

Negative emotions are significantly more effective at motivating human behavior than positive ones are. Not witnessing negative emotion - being triggered to feel a negative emotion. That has a spiral effect because we humans are fairly good at settling into new norms. To keep that drip of negative motivation going, the negative inputs need to get (slowly, but consistently) stronger.

And so, the most efficient solution for keeping you scrolling is to introduce you to your own personal hellscape where all you can feel is negativity driving you to seek/create/feel more negativity.