Comment by cloverich

Well, the apps aren't designed to cultivate that relationship is the thing. They are designed to drive content engagement -- doom scrolling is the ultimate goal of every major social media platform of today, because that is where the ad revenue is.

There's no technical reason apps can't be designed to connect you more meaningfully to individuals that you resonate with. The problem for them is once that starts to happen, you don't need the platform as much and your engagement with it drops. It requires a company that focuses on that, and not engagement / pure revenue, as a focus. I'd wager the main reason those companies haven't taken off is people like money. If you are good enough to build such a platform, you're also good enough to make 250k+ _today_. If you are currently making 80k, it is a very hard thing to turn down.