What it is
Engagement optimization means building and ranking a product to maximize time spent, interactions or return visits, usually because ad revenue grows with attention. Its harms, outrage, misinformation, compulsion, come from the incentive, not from anyone intending them.
One reported example: in 2018 Facebook’s feed counted an “angry” reaction as worth five likes.
How it shows up for me
As a developer and a manager, I could build this without noticing. That’s what scares me about it. Personally, I keep turning notifications off, all of them, and noticing how they creep back in “out of convenience.”