> Zuckerberg at least partly justified when he called Facebook a tool for “extending people’s capacity to build and maintain relationships.” In this newly passive, docile consumption model, content is fittingly delivered to users in a livestock-adjacent “feed” — an idea presaged by M.T. Anderson’s 2002 dystopian novel of the same name. Human agency and volition are becoming more and more difficult to locate, as people’s tastes and desires dissolve into the algorithm and its authoritarian prophecies.

My view is that big "social media" sites have turned to channels where you can only react, but are so overwhelmed by other participants, notably "influencers" that you feel powerless to contribute.

A site like HN allows real participation, if not the (bogus) illusion of connecting with the whole damn world, or sharing your facts and opinions like a celebrity.

It's more like a college discussion group. Less the coffee and cookies.