I mean... add text and you can describe most of the internet and digital information in general. I don't think it's a useful way to make a comparison at all.

The commonality between FB, IG, Tiktok, Snapchat, Twitter (and YouTube to some extent) is that they're primarily personalized algorithmically generated infinite feeds of stories. The particular algorithms and their objective functions differ from app to app but the underlying model is just the same. These sites generally do have other ways of consuming information, but the dominant mechanism is the algorithmically generated personalized feed.

There are alternatives, such as sites like HN (single feed for everyone), Reddit (per-subreddit ranking which is global rather than algorithmically targeted), many news sites (organized by department vs infinite scroll, newsletters (here's today's set of stories for everyone), etc.

> primarily personalized algorithmically generated infinite feeds of stories

Man I'd love this for actual stories. Turn the Facebook advertising AI on finding exactly the right passage of the right book at the right moment.

I see what you mean but this string of social network website all have this "come together to do nothing but comment" basis. And that's probably why they spin into data hoarding nothingness, because there was no evolved purpose in the first place.

I'd have a hart time comparing HN, deviantart and a few other places with facebook and instagram..