News site: "Click-bait headline about something that happened that doesn't really change things."
Reddit: "A picture or anecdote about something perfectly mundane that happens to everyone, presented in a slightly interesting way that ultimately doesn't matter"
Hackernews: "A random tech article that expresses someone's opinion, or a random release of software or announcement. Doesn't really matter."
The information most likely to spread is mundane information that appeals to the most people. Welcome to the viral internet.
At least Hackernews frequently surfaces interesting content with technical depth and merit. I've learned a ton here and gotten connected to interesting technologies.
In my case it is because of information being overwhelming. I just check a couple of sites at maximum now, the digital wellbeing thing that Google presented at io this year really resonated with me