As a guy who spends an inordinate amount of time with 18-22-year-olds, I can say with confidence that what's happening in the virtual space is as relevant to their loves, if not more so than what happens in the land of the old flesh. They're not gaming the algorithm, they're living out their lives, their real lives in those spaces.
As you say, the corporate overlords use that to their advantage. Most rich people I know don't use social media. Hell, most people I know make over $100K a year don't use it. But everybody else uses it all the time. I mean constantly. I don't have the data on hand to prove it, but I'll bet the less education and higher poverty level someone has, the more time they spent on social media. (There was agreat article recently about how boomers are the most social media addicted age group.)
Back to Elon, he wants to control the discourse. He wants to matter in the realm of "big ideas" and "power." He thinks he knows better. It's why beta dude-bros love him and normal people can't stand him. He doesn't want power (in the same way I don't think Trump actually wanted power). He just wants to matter. He wants to be the oracle people come to for wisdom. At the time he set out to buy Twitter, it was the social media platform du jour. Now it's Betamax.
Fuck Elon Musk. In the ass.
