Vaughan Davis

So you don't get a goodie every time.

You get a goodie now and then.

And in between, there's scrolling, isn't there?

There's scrolling past the stuff you don't like.

And it's not like every fifth thing you like.

It's every fifth or sixth or ninth or fifteenth or twelfth.

Variable ratio reinforcement is really, really addictive.

Absolutely, yeah.

As I said at the start, that headline you read from 2026, you know, I found a similar headline in 2018, another one in 2013.

These predictions have been made for as long as the platform has remained popular and nothing yet has emerged to threaten it.

Don't know.

I don't think the drifting away of people will kill it because the machine, either by modifying Facebook itself or by acquiring other platforms, the next Instagram, the next WhatsApp, whatever, will always find ways to keep users in.

I think the only thing that could kill it would be death from above.

And...

Death from above would be, you know, regulation or an anti-monopoly move from the US government.

If indeed Facebook is vulnerable to actions by the US government, because when you operate in, you know, 190 countries, you can just shift operations.

Facebook Ireland, right?

Ah, possibly, but he's a fairly young buck.

You know, a lot could happen in the next 50 years.

Yeah, well, yeah.