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RICK MacLEAN: Reading this online? Warning. It’s addictive, by design

If you’re reading this while holding the newspaper in your hand, count yourself lucky. If you’re reading this on your cellphone. Well. Good luck.

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Why? Because that electronic marvel you’re flicking through is more than just a doorway to the world. It’s a device designed to hook you, get you scrolling, and keep you there for as long as possible.

It’s called “engagement.”

Why is it such a big deal? Money. In amounts it’s impossible to understand in any meaningful way.

The longer you’re online – “engaged” with that world – the more companies like Google and Facebook can gather information about you. It’s information they’re confident they can use to create an accurate profile of who you are, what you’re interested, and how to sell you stuff.

How valuable is that?

Advertisers will pay a fortune to get their hands on it. It’s made the mega-rich social media companies what they are.

Google worth billions

Consider Google’s favourite child, YouTube. It’s worth a fortune, according to Todd Spangler, who wrote about it in his 2025 Variety story YouTube Now Worth as Much as $550 Billion, Analysts Say: ‘New King of All Media.’

“For the full year 2024, YouTube was already the second-largest media company by revenue at........

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