People are more afraid of more things than ever. Many of the fears are quite concrete and actionable, such as climate change displacement. My theory is that i

People are more afraid of more things than ever. Many of the fears are quite concrete and actionable, such as climate change displacement. My theory is that in an age of 'infinite communication' and 'infinite information', few people can keep a conscious and subconscious rational, risk appropriate outlook when bombarded with an endless array of not only bad news but also associated vivid imagery. Even though we as a species are safer than we ever have been, even though women are doing better than ever, even when the worst kinds of poverty are at historic lows, we're more afraid than ever. (Note: I'm not saying things are all peachy, and we have a long ways to go, but the historical trends are clear) Our evolutionary psychology is based on over-reaction to bad things, because that has been, for nearly all of our existence, a survival advantage. Now, though we try to look at things rationally, that evolutionary baggage is still there, making us afraid, on conscious and subconscious levels. That's one part of it. The other part is the more directed role technology plays. Social media wants as much of our attention as possible. That's a business model. I think they have discovered, via actual direction and/or via various machine learning sources, that our attention is maximized when we are formed into like-minded groups or tribes, and when those tribes are 'fighting' inside the social media lobster cage. I don't mean to say that there aren't 'villains and heroes', because there certainly are. But I do believe that most of this churn is straightforward, natural and even an inevitable result of the explosive increase in connectivity and communication capabilities. In short, technology is the main reason we're getting kind of crazy. And I have no good ideas about how to realistically bend the curve back toward less crazy.