A discount, in my opinion. Twitter is an amazing service that I pay nothing for. The conversations I monitor with the platform are valuable to me personally and monetarily. The ads are minimal and unobtrusive. I do use it compulsively sometimes, but that is the only downside.
You've become part of a cybernetic loop that you are not in charge of. There is no such thing as a "free" service. All social media platforms subvert human drives in favor of creating consumption habits that are destroying the planet. Even by your own admission you are addicted to Twitter, which should be telling you something.
I'd like to think I am a responsible user of cybernetic loops, having some understanding of how and why they occur. I am aware that I am being tracked and sold but as I said I find the conversations on Twitter to be so interesting and useful I consider this a price well paid. HN doesn't seems to be helping the planet. I don't think you could consider me to be addicted to Twitter because I use it less than an hour a day, although I reflexively check it sometimes.
I agree that HN is not helping the planet. It mostly acts as an aggregator of snark and envy that people like Paul Graham then use on social media to justify their investments (the most common one being about how people hated Dropbox and how successful it is now).
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[ 6.0 ms ] story [ 18.4 ms ] threadRegardless, here is an article about social media that might be useful to you: https://simondedeo.com/?p=705. You might also find Jaron Lanier's book useful: https://book4you.org/book/3514829/a15c96.