I think “addictive” is necessary in the sense that if it is not behaviorally reinforcing it will not grow, not be sustainable. If I was starting a social network I’d look at Chinese mobile games like Azur Lane in how they set up a network of ‘events’ and accomplishments that always give you a reason to play.

“Negative” is something else that can be addressed directly. To make a fact-checking machine you have to make a god, but to detect outrage and negativity you just need ModernBERT, BiLSTM and maybe 20,000 training examples. It is true that outrage engages people but take that away and you will find there are wholesome things like cat photos that go viral. How you suppress negativity is up to you, and people will always say that their negativity is their free speech, but detecting negativity in 2005 is mostly a matter of making the training set.

Thank you for the feedback. I don't want it to grow just by making it addictive. I'd rather it be a great product. I have faith that if it is a great product and helps people, then people will want to use it. I'd rather people use it because it helps them make friends or keep in touch with friends, or something positive like this.

I disagree with this definition of "addictive"...not all behaviors that are self-reinforcing are simply 'addictive'. Is drinking water addictive by your definition?