The Death of the Newsfeed

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TLDR

  • Benedict Evans argues the algorithmic newsfeed model is structurally broken as a format for distributing content and attention.

Key Takeaways

  • The newsfeed as a content distribution mechanism conflates unrelated types of content into a single undifferentiated stream.
  • Algorithmic ranking that optimizes for engagement has produced well-documented failures around misinformation and outrage amplification.
  • The core tension is between social graphs built for people you know and content graphs built for topics you follow.
  • Platforms inherited a format from early social networking that was never designed for the scale or content variety it now carries.

Why It Matters

  • Builders designing content products face a structural choice: social graph, interest graph, or editorial curation, and conflating them produces worse outcomes for each.
  • The newsfeed’s dominance was contingent on mobile distribution dynamics that no longer uniquely favor it as a default format.

Benedict Evans · ** · Read the original