How Social Media Makes Us Angry All the Time | Molly Crockett | Big Think

TL;DR

Online platforms promote engaging moral content for revenue, leading to potential outrage fatigue.

Transcript

We live in a world now where there is an economic model that strongly incentivizes online platforms like Facebook, Google, Twitter to capture as much of our attention as possible. The way to do that is to promote content that is the most engaging. And what is the most engaging? Moral content. There was a recent study that came out of NYU recently t... Read More

Key Insights

• 💍 Online platforms incentivize the promotion of engaging moral content for revenue.
• 🔉 Immoral events learned online trigger more outrage than traditional media, potentially due to algorithm-driven content selection.
• 🥺 Constant exposure to outrage-triggering material may lead to "outrage fatigue" and desensitization.
• 💄 Social media taps into ancient reward processing neural circuitries, making it addictive.
• 🤨 Algorithms controlling our moral emotions online raise concerns about expressing outrage mindlessly.
• 👨‍🔬 More research is needed to understand the long-term consequences of constant exposure to outrage-triggering material.
• 💨 Social media is unlikely to go away due to its reinforcement of reward processing neural circuitries.

Questions & Answers

Q: How do online platforms like Facebook and Twitter incentivize the promotion of engaging content?

Online platforms incentivize the promotion of engaging content by algorithms that prioritize moral and emotional content, like moral outrage, which leads to increased user engagement and revenue through ad sales.

Q: What are the potential long-term consequences of constant exposure to outrage-triggering material?

Constant exposure to outrage-triggering material may lead to "outrage fatigue," impacting individuals' ability to feel outrage for significant issues and potentially desensitizing them to moral events.

Q: How does social media tap into ancient neural circuitries to make it rewarding and addictive?

Social media taps into ancient reward processing neural circuitries by allowing users to connect with others, express moral values, and receive feedback in the form of likes and shares, creating addictive behavior patterns.

Q: Should we be concerned about algorithms controlling our strongest moral emotions online?

It is worth considering the implications of algorithms controlling our moral emotions on social media, as it may lead to mindlessly expressing outrage without truly experiencing or desiring to express those emotions.

Summary & Key Takeaways

• Online platforms prioritize moral and emotional content to capture attention and generate revenue.

• Studies show that immoral events learned online trigger more outrage than those learned in person or through traditional media.

• Constant exposure to outrage-triggering material may lead to "outrage fatigue" and desensitization.