I don't quite know how so many people in the tech industry seem so entirely disconnected from the rest of humanity, but this seems to be firmly in the "Just because we can, we should!" category that doesn't really sit well with "not people involved in creating it."

Stuff like this is why I'm more and more certain we'll see a divergence in years to come (extending current trends, really) between those who are more or less puppets of the tech industry (consume what's in their feeds, buy what's advertised, generally behave as Very Profitable Eyeballs), and those who want less and less to do with the current state of consumer tech.

I'm reminded of some quip about how the tighter the Empire squeezes, the more systems (people) squeeze through the cracks... and it sure feels like the tech industry has been trying to squeeze all the profits out lately, even as they're actively driving people away with rubbish like this.

Do none of these engineers watch black mirror? I feel like it should be recommended watching for all engineers to see how simple nice ideas can rapidly turn dystopian. I wish it was still in active production

I have no idea.

The problem is that I think a lot would watch it, go "Yeah, that was bad, but I can think of a simple tweak that will make it amazing!" and then go deploy with "one quick tweak" and discover that, no, it's not that the idea was implemented wrong, it's that the idea is wrong.

There's a weird refusal to consider human nature in the tech industry anymore - unless you're exploiting it to sell more ads.

Bingo.

That show normalizes/programs some messed up shit, whether that was the creator's intention or not.

Most say it wasn't.