So it's ok if hackernews "manipulated (me) into (needing) to spend more time on them artificially" because it's tech? Can you see the mental gymnastics is you're having to pull up make this work?

Nope, the key difference is the blast radius, with hn you might buy into very specific policies related to tech while on TikTok you can be exposed to seemingly endless directions even though you just wanted to watch tech.

> can be exposed to seemingly endless directions even though you just wanted to watch tech.

Oh you mean like Google search or maybe Wikipedia? Are we still talking about social media here because "exposed to seemingly endless directions even though you just wanted to watch tech." could happen on any website...