I know that they aren't magical. But the intent is to present engaging content to you so you stick around longer so you can be datamined and targeted with sponsored content. The issue I take with it is that there is a consequence almost of philosophical dimension of free will. There is societal and social cost of that particular business model that relies on driving engagement to present ads because it lacks the dimensions that are harmful.
There are similar algorithms driving advertisement and one of the ads that has been targeted at me lately is a nicotine source two years after I kicked my nicotine habit. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snus The intention is clear, to make me pick it up again. Given this is simply a personal anecdote but it is eerily accurate sometimes.
I mean in the interview that idea doubted, the maximizing of ad revenue.
At least with facebook, but I assume with others, they are using engagement as a proxy for delivery value to you. That is the goal they are trying to maximize for.
So they want to maximize how much pleasure you get from the service, so they maximize engagement, but they don't necessarily maximize revenue, because that would hurt engagement.
To quote myself "Its sole purpose is to prolong engagement...", so we are on the same page here. But there is downside to this, it often hijacks your dopamine system and can be addicting. It doesn't only do that, occasionally you get content that you disagree with and interact with because of it. That also gives you pleasure to tell someone that they are stupid. This is why there is a such disproportionally high reach of e.g. flat earther content. People engage with the content to tell them that they are stupid all the time, but sometimes it sucks someone in to their rabbit hole. It is a fairly benign example... so what about anti-vaxxers or QAnon? These people are enjoying themselves to the point that they delusions take hold. And I blame the maximization of engagement.
There are similar algorithms driving advertisement and one of the ads that has been targeted at me lately is a nicotine source two years after I kicked my nicotine habit. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snus The intention is clear, to make me pick it up again. Given this is simply a personal anecdote but it is eerily accurate sometimes.