Another harmful decision that has been made by every social media platform is to grow its business through algorithms that recommend friends of friends. Executives at those companies have realized that that’s the most efficient way through what’s called A/B testing, which tests the impact on users of any two things on the internet—real-time experimentation on real human beings, treating us like Pavlov’s dogs. We click and grow our individual networks, and by extension the platform’s, more when we’re served friends of friends.
