A Psychologist Explains Four Reasons the Internet Feels So Broken [1]

[1] https://www.theringer.com/2024/4/9/24124973/psychologist-jay...

Short:

    Number one is that negativity drives engagement. Number two, extremism drives engagement online. Number three, out-group animosity drives engagement online. And number four, moral, emotional language drives engagement online.

Negativity "clicks", for mostly "old brain" reasons. You say things anonymously that you would never say real person to real person. Social media are a (mostly) no-consequence wide-open "mud" sling.

Anil Dash argues [2] that things can be better in not so wide-open communities.

    And then there’s someone like Darius Kazemi, a computer programmer and community organizer who has been patiently toiling away building tools that let others build healthy, constructive, human-scale online communities — the sort that are full of acts of kindness and genuine connection, instead of incessant fights about hate speech. There’s been a huge uptick in interest in Darius’ work as networks like Twitter have fallen apart, and a new generation discovers the joys of an internet that’s as intimate and connected as a friendly neighborhood. And this hearkens back to that surprising, and delightful, discovery that often underpinned the internet of a generation ago — sometimes the entire platform you were using to talk to others was just being run by one, passionate person. We’re seeing the biggest return to that human-run, personal-scale web that we’ve witnessed since the turn of the millennium, with enough momentum that it’s likely that 2024 is the first year since then that many people have the experience of making a new connection or seeing something go viral on a platform that’s being run by a regular person instead of a commercial entity. It’s going to make a lot of new things possible.

[2] https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-commentary/inte...

>So, I'm interested in your opinions: Why do negative topics dominate on open social media sites, even here, unless curated against?

This is more a nature of where we are in the life cycle.

the time period we are in is reminiscent of the great depression, american civil war, age of revolution, or glorious revolution.

To end out this period we will need a major world war, which has already started. This negativity is largely speaking a mechanism of agitprop.

Impossible to predict when this will end and we move into the next era.

this will be like https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Post%E2%80%93World_War_II_econ...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reconstruction_era

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Era_of_Good_Feelings

Note how these are about a human lifetime apart. It just seems to be where we are in the life cycle.

The OP is asking why negativity dominates in more open communities. Um, because you're admitting more diversity? When you don't limit yourself to socializing in a self-selected chatroom or friends group, you hear about the things that matter from a range of people. It's not exactly a secret that there's turmoil.

Does this really have to be so academic? I'm sure there is something scientific to be said about it. But on the other hand, maybe you shouldn't insulate yourself in a world of rainbows and sunshine?