Early understandings of level-of-interest on the internet have led us to disproportionately favor the numerical value of likes over the quality of those interested or their depth of interest. But in a sense, this has always been happening—i.e. think movie ticket sales or even the printing press’ ability to more widely/rapidly disseminate—and there have always been those who chase that number and then those who deliberately disregard it, and then everyone else. And with every new iteration of how to consume media (and how fast), there’s always an initial (and often sustained) period of putting a particular and superficial emphasis on number of viewers.