>It was a service that showed you the posts of your connected friends.

It really is a shame that such a useful tool for staying connected with the real people in your life warped into the monster it is now. If Google's social media had caught on (and not inevitably went the same way in the name of maximizing attention) it probably would have been close to optimal. I get that they aren't running a charity, but its sad to think about how many benefits social media brought compared to the addiction machine it is now.