"Today, only a fraction of time spent on Meta’s services – 7% on Instagram, 17% on Facebook – involves consuming content from online “friends” (“friend sharing”). A majority of time spent on both apps is watching videos, increasingly short-form videos that are “unconnected” – i.e., not from a friend or followed account – and recommended by AI-powered algorithms Meta developed as a direct competitive response to TikTok’s rise, which stalled Meta’s growth"
Meta's recent earnings report was great partially because AI was used to boost engagement on ads by 5% to 10%, which was enough to get investors on board for the massive capex. ("Datacenters the size of Manhattan" as per Zuckerberg).
Datacenters the size of Manhattan and dedicated nuclear power plants, for an 8.5% boost in advertising engagement. The world is in a very sad state in some respects. The ideal end state of this optimization process is quite literally zombie consumers. I would think that heading off outcomes like this is partly why we create rules and guardrails as a society, but despite the occasional pushback, I do think that for now we are generally embracing this dystopia. I'm a positive person and think AI is incredible and will do many great things, but Meta's earnings report got to me.
I still don't understand how the general public trusts anything Mark says. Investors, I understand, they only care about money, and perhaps rightfully so. But the community, why?
He just doesn't seem particularly untrustworthy. I don't agree with his vision for humanity, but given the amount of money he's tossing at AI researchers, it seems clear that he genuinely believes it and is genuinely pursuing it.
Staying off of social media is the best idea ever, followed by not watching TV/movies, not reading the news, and staying off of... oh, I guess I’m on HN.
I got off instagram after the great capitulation and it’s done wonders for my mental health. The hardest part was accepting the fact that I’ll probably never interact with the couple hundred acquaintances I’ve met over the last 10 years or so ever again.
If the social media app is optimized for profit, and the owner measures and does not care about the harm to your health and the health of society if it even slightly impacts profit, do not use it.
>Scroll down 2 screens consisting or 1.7 screens worth of ads.
>The ad-video I scrolled past becomes a sticky party of the header and consumes 30% of the screen real estate. Despite this a new static ad enters my screen before the last one is out of it.
Oh yeah it's totally Zucks vision that is the horror here.
Social media itself has become pretty bleak.
"Today, only a fraction of time spent on Meta’s services – 7% on Instagram, 17% on Facebook – involves consuming content from online “friends” (“friend sharing”). A majority of time spent on both apps is watching videos, increasingly short-form videos that are “unconnected” – i.e., not from a friend or followed account – and recommended by AI-powered algorithms Meta developed as a direct competitive response to TikTok’s rise, which stalled Meta’s growth"
"Social" media is just media now.
It is addiction media, or dopamine hacking media.
Meta's recent earnings report was great partially because AI was used to boost engagement on ads by 5% to 10%, which was enough to get investors on board for the massive capex. ("Datacenters the size of Manhattan" as per Zuckerberg).
Datacenters the size of Manhattan and dedicated nuclear power plants, for an 8.5% boost in advertising engagement. The world is in a very sad state in some respects. The ideal end state of this optimization process is quite literally zombie consumers. I would think that heading off outcomes like this is partly why we create rules and guardrails as a society, but despite the occasional pushback, I do think that for now we are generally embracing this dystopia. I'm a positive person and think AI is incredible and will do many great things, but Meta's earnings report got to me.
https://stratechery.com/2025/meta-earnings-meta-turns-the-di...
I still don't understand how the general public trusts anything Mark says. Investors, I understand, they only care about money, and perhaps rightfully so. But the community, why?
Zuckerberg doesn't think he should be trusted. He thinks Meta users are dumb fucks for trusting him:
https://www.theregister.com/2010/05/14/facebook_trust_dumb/
He just doesn't seem particularly untrustworthy. I don't agree with his vision for humanity, but given the amount of money he's tossing at AI researchers, it seems clear that he genuinely believes it and is genuinely pursuing it.
I still don't understand how the general public trusts anything the media says or what the general public says...
Critical thinking is not what most of the population is taught.
Meta being Meta is nothing surprising. Why do people even bother using Instagram and Facebook?
Public opinion doesn’t matter anymore, thats why billionaires like him are building doomsday bunkers on remote islands.
Their plan is to watch the world burn.
Mark Zuckerberg is terrifying.
The irony is that Zuck is trying to solve problems created by his own apps.
Make a social isolation app and attention sink, sell virtual friends to fill the void.
The best advice is to delete your Meta accounts and meet people in real life.
Staying off of social media is the best idea ever, followed by not watching TV/movies, not reading the news, and staying off of... oh, I guess I’m on HN.
I got off instagram after the great capitulation and it’s done wonders for my mental health. The hardest part was accepting the fact that I’ll probably never interact with the couple hundred acquaintances I’ve met over the last 10 years or so ever again.
If the social media app is optimized for profit, and the owner measures and does not care about the harm to your health and the health of society if it even slightly impacts profit, do not use it.
Mark became an expert at catering to investors' ears to pump the stock: buybacks, dividends, metaverse, AI...
Its the only job hes ever had.
Hes a professional sociopath whose entire existence revolves around building the most advanced social engineering platform that has ever existed.
World would be a better place if he drowned the next time he went surfing at his private beach.
[dead]
>Deny cookies
>Deny signups
>Notification blocked.
>Scroll down 2 screens consisting or 1.7 screens worth of ads.
>The ad-video I scrolled past becomes a sticky party of the header and consumes 30% of the screen real estate. Despite this a new static ad enters my screen before the last one is out of it.
Oh yeah it's totally Zucks vision that is the horror here.
Then stop listening to him?
I hope the implication here isn’t that if you ignore extremely powerful people, they can’t affect your life.
What do people propose?