Facebook - where Zuckerberg monetized humanity’s laziest instinct: feeling social without being social.
The Product: Not connection - containment. A feed algorithmically designed to keep you scrolling, reacting, never leaving. Your aunt’s minion memes, uncle’s conspiracy theories, high school acquaintances you’d cross the street to avoid. Content so mediocre your brain processes it half-asleep.
The Business: You’re not the customer - you’re the product being sold to advertisers. Every scroll, every like, every rage-comment feeds the machine. Meta prints billions while you get dopamine crumbs and birthday notifications from people who forgot you existed.
The Trap: Can’t leave because “all my photos are there.” Can’t delete because “how will I know about events?” Hostage to your own digital history. Sunk cost fallacy as a business model. Three billion users trapped in the world’s largest skuf congregation.
The Trade: Gave up Sunday dinners for news feed. Actual presence for digital performance. Real friendship for clicking “like” on vacation photos. Easier to scroll lives than live your own.
When did watching strangers from high school have babies become more important than doing something worth watching yourself?