Are we all going to ignore that Instagram is starting to feel how Facebook began to feel in 2016-2018? Still engaging, but somewhat empty and moderately irrelevant? That's because the very experience has changed.

💡
Do not be fooled. Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk are actively tweaking the algorithms for user experience.

Is this a race to the bottom? I can't say for certain. I can say that the general consensus is that human attention spans have cratered due to short term dopamine spikes from "doom scrolling". I actively fight against this phenomena myself.

I imagine that creating an algorithm centered on "engagement optimization for ad revenue" is going to make way for a very passive/detached user experience.