Attention Platforms Cannot Invent New Interfaces

Modern ad-driven technology companies like Meta, Google, YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram cannot invent genuinely novel user interfaces or interaction models. Their incentives are too misaligned with the needs of people who use computers as tools for creation, thinking, productivity, and even entertainment. A company funded by attention capture will naturally treat every new UI paradigm as another surface for retention: more notifications, more feeds, more interruptions, more reasons to stay inside the loop. Thank you for keeping RSS alive. Subscribe to Flâneur.