For a decade, engagement was king.
Time spent. Daily active users. Sessions per day. The longer users stayed, the better the product.
But that measurement is being questioned.
Not by regulators or critics. By the companies themselves.
Because optimizing for engagement optimizes for addiction. And addiction creates backlash.
Users are becoming aware. They're checking screen time reports. They're feeling manipulated. They're choosing tools that don't fight for their attention.
Some companies are noticing.
The new metric isn't time spent. It's value delivered per minute.
How quickly can we help you accomplish your goal? How little of your day do we need to take? How fast can we get you back to your life?
This is a fundamental shift.
From "how do we keep you here" to "how do we help you leave."
The products that figure this out will win the next era. The ones still optimizing for engagement will wonder what happened.
That's the shift worth noticing.