How do you feel about HN?

Well, I'm here, aren't I? :-)

HN has almost nothing in common with Instagram and Facebook.

Better culturally than most, but too much of a timesink to be a net-positive for society.

Can't tell if sunk cost fallacy or honest. Do you use IG/other social media?

No. I follow a lot of blogs and feel the same way about most of them as I do about HN. I do not feel that way about truly high-quality blogs. By the way, RSS is the best thing ever.

I also use IRC whenever I have some question or need help with something and it's great. I never feel my time spent on IRC is a waste, but my usage of it is quite focused and I don't hang out in rooms compulsively like I do on HN.

So Instagram is inherently worthless?

I don't know, is it? I've never used it because it's a Facebook data mining tool.