"Scrolling media" is pretty good. It sounds enough like the existing term to catch on.
ML-curated distraction-entertainment feeds and surveillance services
With their algorithmic feeds designed to maximize engagement, they're just Skinner Boxes: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operant_conditioning_chamber
I don't want Facebook to show me anything that isn't posted by one of my friends... are there any settings that allows that? Sure it's kind of interesting to look at a bear being washed by a human, but who cares.
Is there now a gap for a new social platform that goes back to chronologically ordered content from those you choose to follow/friend rather than algorithmically curated content from other sources designed to lure you in?
Cancer. They are cancer. Pure and simple.
I think they are not social anymore, having been overrun with politics and ads. However they are still a network. There is a network effect (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Network_effect) that makes it valuable to the participants and advertisers alike, which is the large number of users. It’s just that the network’s value went from being driven by positive actions (sharing photos with friends) to something negative - which is preventing others’ political views or business competitors from winning by influencing the network. All sides feel like they have to participate because others participate and they’ll be irrelevant otherwise. In that sense it’s more like a war zone.
A thing I've noticed, and I could be wrong about this, is that social networks have not done much to increase avenues for interaction between 2nd degree connections of two people (say a and b) without needing the active participation of the a and b themselves.
For instance, if we have the following undirected connections: {(a,b), (b,c), (a,d)}. There could be a mechanism to make the graph more dense by the way of increasing interactions between (c,d) without needing, for example, a to like c's content for it to then appear on d's feed. Done naively, this could result in a lot of unwanted content on someone's feed, but I wonder if there are ways around it.
Scrollbait?
Skinner boxes is my favorite euphemism
Not my invention, but: "hive mine".
"Reality Internet" similar to "Reality TV". It is all trash and a waste of time.
According to the theory of the author, I've found that Twitter can be used like an actual social network and I do use it like this with a group of friends. It is kind of a cluster and anyone can join only by answering our tweets and hanging out.
Opinion amplifiers.
Derangement loci
Propagandapps
Unimatrix One?
"We are Borg. You will be red pilled. Resistance is futile. Where we go one we go all!"
I'm proposing the Hegemonet, which has emerged as distinct from the internet.
“engagement media”
Human neural networks
Toxic waste dumps?
Clique Clusters
fratnets = cult fisheries
soul traps
Cigarnettes
I'm preferential to "Echo Chamber"
Reminds me of this article that had been submitted a couple times in recent months, "User Engagement" is code for "Addiction" https://medium.com/swlh/user-engagement-is-code-for-addictio...
I hope we can come up with a new phrase that sticks for these. Some good ones have been posted here in the comments. Ideally, an altruistic entity will trademark them.