> The problem is if the sites aren't delivering any additional benefit to the user in return for that bandwidth.
While this isn't directly tied to bandwidth metrics per se, there's also something to be said about usefulness from a utilitarian perspective: Instagram infinite scrolling experiences full of HD beach selfies aren't exactly advancing civilization in any meaningful way, both in the sense that the impetus to appear "successful" is essentially glorifying sloth, and in the sense that consuming that type of content takes time away from more productive pursuits. Even political news, which in theory ought to serve to increase understanding of policy, these days often looks more like real life soap operas.
It's tricky to talk about this in terms of metrics, since obviously downtime and "useless" entertainment have their place as a decompression activities, but I often get a feeling that nowadays there's too much emphasis on vapid fun at the expense of "productive" fun (e.g. activities like hacking on a side project, or even just reading a properly intellectually stimulating article over yet another shallow hot take).
Sometimes I can't help but cynically think that perverse "engagement" incentives are at least somewhat connected to ballooning bandwidth consumption.
> Sometimes I can't help but cynically think that perverse "engagement" incentives are at least somewhat connected to ballooning bandwidth consumption.
Companies building these user experiences are often incentivized to have fast experiences that could avoid bandwidth consumption. For example, some sites started serving GIFs as videos because the images were used as discussion replies. The video files were smaller for users. I won't claim this is universal.
IMO the woes of modern sites and social media are much more connected to everyone now being connected on a mobile device. They are reachable and you can manipulate our vices. A cross-cutting concern is that this has created significant demand for developers and product managers. People are throwing together products more quickly than they will admit and then moving on. The next set of people are only allowed to pile on. Lots of experienced people know the issues and how to fix them, but across the whole industry they have little sway.
Overall, it's a much more complicated human-centric issue than the one you've described.
While this isn't directly tied to bandwidth metrics per se, there's also something to be said about usefulness from a utilitarian perspective: Instagram infinite scrolling experiences full of HD beach selfies aren't exactly advancing civilization in any meaningful way, both in the sense that the impetus to appear "successful" is essentially glorifying sloth, and in the sense that consuming that type of content takes time away from more productive pursuits. Even political news, which in theory ought to serve to increase understanding of policy, these days often looks more like real life soap operas.
It's tricky to talk about this in terms of metrics, since obviously downtime and "useless" entertainment have their place as a decompression activities, but I often get a feeling that nowadays there's too much emphasis on vapid fun at the expense of "productive" fun (e.g. activities like hacking on a side project, or even just reading a properly intellectually stimulating article over yet another shallow hot take).
Sometimes I can't help but cynically think that perverse "engagement" incentives are at least somewhat connected to ballooning bandwidth consumption.