I agree with Alex Beattie here. The problem is ad-based media and the bidding marketplace around it. It rewards platforms who deliver volume (time spent), with no value attributed to quality (at least no short or medium-term value).
Time spent is an easy thing to measure and optimize. We need a metric that measures (and rewards) knowledge and human growth, and a system for rewarding it. We need a way to find a way to quantify quality, so that data scientists everywhere can go about growing it.
I think people are ready to pay. In a capitalist system, it has to come by voting with dollars. Our value to Facebook as targetable entities is about $2 month each. If a platform delivered me guaranteed value and information, I would easily be willing to pay $10/month for a higher quality source, if it delivered the breadth of content that Facebook does while bringing more meaning to my life. That’s one way it can change.
I’m ready…
